Home Theater Seating (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

For the past fourteen years, I have watched TV and movies in the same oversized leather chair:

I love this chair. I have practically lived in this chair.

However, I woke up on the Fourth of July with a terrible stiff neck that lasted three or four days, and I've been dealing with neck, shoulder, and back pain ever since. My symptoms are slowly getting better, except in the black chair.

My beloved chair has turned into a medieval torture device. It's too deep and too squishy; maintaining proper posture in it is impossible. Normally I love sinking down into it, but now that's become quite painful. And as much as I enjoyed slouching down in it before, I think it might have been a big contributor to my current problems.

Does anybody with a history of neck/back/shoulder pain have a recommendation of a good chair for watching TV and movies? I want something I can watch a double feature in without being crippled up by the start of the second movie. As it is now, my media consumption has gone down considerably because I have to take "breathers" between each episode of television. Something that's not super hard but still provides the correct amount of support.

 

[DaveF]

No seating recommendations per se. I suggest finding a chair that works for now — a straight back chair you already own, say. Get the back and neck issues sorted. See if you need new and different seating. Then shop accordingly.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

No seating recommendations per se. I suggest finding a chair that works for now — a straight back chair you already own, say. Get the back and neck issues sorted. See if you need new and different seating. Then shop accordingly.

I've taken your advice and started improvising for the time being.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The back, neck, and shoulder feel like they're 80-90 percent better. I just ordered a Seatcraft Orleans home theater recliner. I take delivery a week from Thursday. I'm hoping that it's good a long-term replacement:

 

[DFurr]

I'll offer one comment concerning the blue LED lights at the base of the chair for those members using a digital projector and and high gain white screen.
It became obvious as soon as the lights went down in the screening room that the blue LEDS were killing the picture on the screen. It caused the picture to be washed out.
The next day I completely covered the lights and even put a cover on the blue back lighted power seat controls as they were so disruptive while watching the movie.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The new chair arrived today:

I'll have more thoughts in a couple weeks once I've really spent some time in it. Initial thought: Very firm, which is a nice contrast with the too cushy old chair. But maybe too firm. I like that when it reclines, it slides forward as the back lowers and the footrest comes up -- so I only need to keep it a few inches away from the wall. In a fairly small apartment, it's nice not having it intrude into the main thoroughfare.

I'll offer one comment concerning the blue LED lights at the base of the chair for those members using a digital projector and and high gain white screen.
It became obvious as soon as the lights went down in the screening room that the blue LEDS were killing the picture on the screen. It caused the picture to be washed out.
The next day I completely covered the lights and even put a cover on the blue back lighted power seat controls as they were so disruptive while watching the movie.

I was worried about this, but fortunately the backlight has an on-off switch. It'll be useful when I want to pause a movie to make a bathroom run, but the rest of the time I'll want to keep it off. As you say -- the LED lighting is VERY bright in a dark room.

 

[DFurr]

The new chair arrived today:
View attachment 62367
View attachment 62366

I'll have more thoughts in a couple weeks once I've really spent some time in it. Initial thought: Very firm, which is a nice contrast with the too cushy old chair. But maybe too firm. I like that when it reclines, it slides forward as the back lowers and the footrest comes up -- so I only need to keep it a few inches away from the wall. In a fairly small apartment, it's nice not having it intrude into the main thoroughfare.


I was worried about this, but fortunately the backlight has an on-off switch. It'll be useful when I want to pause a movie to make a bathroom run, but the rest of the time I'll want to keep it off. As you say -- the LED lighting is VERY bright in a dark room.

You lucked out!!! My backlit cup holders have an off/on switch but NOT the led's under the foot rest. If I cut power to that it also kills the power recline switch so I had to cover over the led's on the floor.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I just ordered some seating from "Fusion Collection Seating". They are very popular with some people on some other forums on the internet and so I'm hoping for the best. I ordered four Lagoons in a curved configuration. Expect delivery next week. They offer a great deal of value for the money.

https://fusioncollectionseating.com/product/lagoon-1011-2

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I hope you have better luck than I did, Philip!

I just sent my chair back today:

I loved the build quality, I loved the features and the thought that went into them, I loved having everything I needed to enjoy a movie right at or in the chair.

There were two problems that ultimately drove me to return it:

1. It was uncomfortable, and exacerbated my back/shoulder injury. My injury was bothering me significantly less by the time I ordered the chair, and then the chair arrived and made it worse again. I'd be hurting after sitting it in for any length of time.
   
   I also could never quite find a comfortable position in it. Part of it is because I'm a pretty narrow guy, average height. If I was a heavier, wider, taller guy, I probably would have found the chair very comfortable.
   
   
2. The chair was a powered recliner and "wall hugger". The upside of this is that it doesn't have to stick out from the wall as much, and you only have to press a button to start reclining. The badside is that it reclined in one fluid motion. If you wanted your feet up, the back had to come down. If you wanted the back down, the feet had to come up. With a manual recliner, those two things could be controlled separately.

So now I'm back to the lawn furniture and more comfortable again. Not sure when I'll try to get another permanent replacement. Whatever I get will probably come from a local brick & mortar store. Sending this back to Amazon was a nightmare.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Adam:

This is my first time seeing this thread.

Peg and I just had a great experience at the Bassett showroom at Huck Finn's Warehouse. We actually got some custom-made furniture there. It was very cool. Huck's also has a ton of stuff on the floor you can try out (not unlike the rest of the local furniture companies around--Taft, Old Brick, La-Z-Boy, etc.). It seems like Peg and I have been to them ALL over the years. But the Bassett experience was very good. If you want, PM me and I'll give you the name of our salesperson, etc.

I would suspect--based on your posts here--that most of the generic HT chairs you're going to come across would give you the same problems as your old chair and the chair you're returning. I suspect that you're going to have to try and entirely different approach.

It's hell to get old...

 

[DaveF]

Sorry to hear the Recliner didn’t work out for you. Hope you can find one that suits you better.

 

[Dave H]

My theater couch is only five years old and only used for a few hours a day, but the middle seat has springs pushing outward from inside. Going to take the seat to get re-upholstered (comes out from the bottom of the couch) - from what I can tell I just need a new high density foam material for it. Should be minimal cost. I do like the couch otherwise.

 

[Edwin-S]

I bought a Stressless recliner. Man, I cannot believe how I can fall asleep in that chair. I watched "The Mandalorian", started looking for something else to watch and woke up at 4:30 in the morning. Not sure how good it would be for someone who suffers from back and neck pain though. The other downside is that they are expensive for a non-powered recliner. It also couldn't be called a "theatre seat" because there are no cupholders but, so far, I'm liking it a lot.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm still using the lawn chair, and it's still not great. Need to do PT, but the probably isn't bad enough at the moment, and my schedule is too jam packed at the moment, to make time for it. It's the debate I've been having with myself: Do I buy a new chair now, even though the problem hasn't been addressed yet, or do wait until the problem has been addressed to buy a new chair.

 

[DaveF]

Don’t skip the work. Don’t put yourself at risk for long term damage over short term details. Speaking from experience.

 

[Edwin-S]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm still using the lawn chair, and it's still not great. Need to do PT, but the probably isn't bad enough at the moment, and my schedule is too jam packed at the moment, to make time for it. It's the debate I've been having with myself: Do I buy a new chair now, even though the problem hasn't been addressed yet, or do wait until the problem has been addressed to buy a new chair.

I would try to get the underlying issue solved first. No chair will be able to compensate for the physical problem that you are experiencing. It may even make it worse in that the chair may make the pain more bearable for a short time; however, you risk your body adjusting to the condition and then it will be even more painful or difficult to get back to the correct alignment.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

You guys have convinced me. I'll finally call to make an appointment on Monday.

 

[Imatk]

I would HIGHLY discourage you from ordering any Seatcraft seats just in case you were pondering. I have six of them that are JUST out of warranty (literally 1 month out) and they are pulling apart at the seams, I have one that has a broken pull for the seat rest... just really poor quality.
But they did last the one year warranty so they timed it perfectly.

 

[DFurr]

We purchased 3 Grenada 7000 seats from 4 Seating.com, La Habra, Ca. in 2015 with a five year warranty. After almost 8 years we've had no problems and 2 of the 3 seats are used daily. We paid $2,097 for the three seats. They have cup holder lights, floor lights and back-lit auto controls for the seats. Very happy so far.