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Need help deciding on...EVERYTHING for a dedicated HT (1 Viewer)

Your Name Here

Auditioning
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
2
Real Name
Kelly
I am SO thrilled to have found this forum!!

I need literally "to be told" what to buy for our HT room.

We built in 2006 and had our 20'x20' media room wired with 7.1 and had an outlet put in on the ceiling for a future projector.

The room will be mostly for our 2 sons...now 7 and 10.
We want to have family movie nights, and friends over for sporting events, and also the boys will play their PS2 and wii in there. Would love to get Blu Ray also.

I have NO CLUE where to start!

I have had several quotes from HT installers...
my problem with that is they all give similar prices but I know I need to come up with specific equipment or I will get robbed....
I would like to buy the equipment seperately myself and then pay someone hourly to do the install.

So, out room is 20x20 over our garage...
seating will be a sectional sofa for now...media seating later....
seating will be at about 15-16' from screen.
I would like a large 110" screen unless yall think it is too big.

We don't want top of the line...but MY hope is to get a great picture....the sound is not as important to ME as the picture. We would like to get the most bang for our buck...as most people do.

We have a ceiling fan/light on dimmer in there and the projector will have to hang behind that so it will have to angle.

We eventually want to run music through our home...we are wired downstairs for speakers in the master bath, kitchen and also back porch...
and we are wired for speakers on either side of out 50" plasma in the family room, although the plasma is not mounted yet nor do we have the speakers.

ANY help is appreciated!!:D
 

Ennsio

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
265
Real Name
Chris
Well welcome to the forum then, Kelly.
htf_images_smilies_smile.gif


You'll need to give us some more details as we start to give you advice (i.e. what kind of budget are you looking at), but here's some initial points to think about:

-if you're looking for a projector, the first place to go is Projector Central. Go there and read up on all the different technology that is available with projectors, see which are the top rated projectors at different price points, and many factors to consider in your purchase. Use the projection calculator pro to figure out which projectors would fit your space.

- for a screen, your cheapest bet is to build one yourself. My brother and I built a 100" screen using 1x4, blackout cloth from a fabric store, and a black felt trim. It looks awesome and cost less than $100. Here's a guide for one way to do that: DIY home theatre screen. If you would rather buy one, then Carada Screens is one of the top rated value for money screen companies. Much cheaper than Stewart, Da-Lite, Elite, or other online screen companies. Depends what your budget and expectations are.

- your room is a perfect square, which causes some issues with sound as some sound waves bouncing around the room will cancel each other out so some spots in the room will miss out on some of the sound. This can be dealt with by putting stuff on the walls that absorb the sound reflection (like curtains or sound absorbers).

- for sound, do you want in-wall speakers, on-wall, or bookshelf/floorstanding? There are all kinds of options available in each of these categories, and again depending on what your budget is. Speaker selection is a very subjective thing - what sounds great to someone else will not necessarily be the same for you - so it's good to go around to audio stores near you with CDs and movies that you like and audition a range of stuff to see what interests you. Again, we can give you advice on which brands offer good value for the money and which ones are overhyped (i.e. Bose), but it will ultimately be up to you to figure out which speakers are the best fit for you.

- for all your cable and connector needs, www.monoprice.com is your best bet.

That should be a good start for you. Once you've read up on the projectors a bit and thought about speakers, give us some more details and we can guide you further.
 

Your Name Here

Auditioning
Joined
Mar 22, 2009
Messages
2
Real Name
Kelly
Thanks for the advice.

We will be getting sound absorbing for the walls....

and I love the DIY idea for the screen.

The speakers need to be in-wall too.

Our budget is about $3000 for all the equipment and the install (we are 7.1 pre-wired)

I was thinking it would look like this.... (I could be WAY off..?)
Speakers......$600-$700
Subwoofer....$250
Receiver.......$500
Projector......$800
Screen........$200
Install.....maybe $75/hour. Possibly taking about 5 hours.
I will need wires and cables too I assume....

So that is about $3000.

Should I spend more on a receiver and projector and less on speakers?

I am really not an audiophile...... this room will mainly be used for family movie night and the boys movies and video games.

I would like to get a kareoke machine too...yeah, corny, I know...but we like getting silly. :laugh:
 

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