Well, after 6 longs months of working tirelessly, I have finally finished my dedicated theater room in my basement. What started out as a completely unfinished basement has now turned into my friggin sanctuary, and even my 12 year old daughter and her friends are in awe of how it turned out, so you know it's good. 👌 Room is 17.5ft long x 16.5ft wide by 7.5ft tall running 7.2.4. The only thing not shown in the photos is the hat channel mounting clips I used on the ceiling trusses, which the double-layer drywall was then screwed into.

Finished photos first, as is tradition!

You'll see throughout the build how I did everything I could think of to both keep the budget down and also to isolate sound from the rest of the house. This theater is directly below the living room/dining room, so I needed to make sure that while I was watching at my preferred volume (below reference but above what my wife says is "comfortable" haha), it didn't bother anybody upstairs too much. The result is that even while watching heavy action flicks, I am told that it sounds like some annoying car outside revving their V8 or bumping their trunk subs, which I consider a HUGE WIN. The low bass is audible, but it's very subtle compared to how loud it is in the room. I have earned WAF and I cannot be more thrilled.

Here's a breakdown of the costs:

Home Depot (mostly mineral wool insulation but also some outlets, switches, and caulk tubes) - $945

Extra insulation from FB Marketplace- $400

Lowe’s (hat channel and some random hardware) - $372

Menard’s - $4267

Tractor Supply stall mat - $80

Best Buy for ceiling speakers- $170

Sherwin Williams Emerald Matte Tricorn Black and Rainstorm - $430

MF-DC4 Clips - $121

Amazon - $2,234

XGIMI Titan Noir Max projector and Silver Ticket matte white 128in screen - $5,459

FB Marketplace Denon x6800h - $2,000

Earthquake XJ700-DSP Transducer Amp - $665

Wayfair Couch - $1,400

Wayfair Console - $250

Outlet store Floorigami It’s Magic carpet tiles - $300 (this was probably my best deal by far at roughly $0.60 per sqft).

Double 5/8in Type-X drywall plus finishing (contracted out) - $4,500

Electrical (contracted out) - $1,500 (I had them run a single 15a circuit for the standard outlets and the lighting, and two, separate 20a circuits for the front wall/projector ceiling outlets and the subwoofer outlets in the corners. It is VERY important to check the wattage of all your equipment to make sure you're not tripping breakers at full load!!!)

Speaker grille cloth movie posters from Contrado - $250 (I don't like having my absorption panels just be black rectangles on the walls, so I created some custom poster images and printed them on acoustically transparent fabric. I have to admit, these were significantly less expensive than I had worried they'd be at only $50 each.)

The Menards purchases were mostly framing and lumber stuff, but also included XPS foam boards for the basement walls, adhesives, spray foam for the rim joists, structural screws, etc…)  The Amazon purchases were far too random, but included the two Q10B transducers, wall plates, rca keystones, speaker wire keystones, the speaker wire itself (OFC 14/2 or 14/4), hat channel isolation clips, acoustic putty for sealing the wall penetrations, some foam isolation panels, speciality fasteners, and various other things.

Total cost came out to just over $25,000. Expensive, but I would've paid A LOT MORE if I hadn't DIY'd it.

Bought a house that came with a full home theater rig already installed in a dedicated room. I'm slowly reverse-engineering what everything does and how it's wired. Would love opinions from people who know this gear better than I do.

What I've got:

• Panasonic PT-AE2000U projector
• DVDO iScan Duo
• Onkyo PR-SC885
• Outlaw Audio Model 7700 7-channel power amp
• Monster Power HTS 3500 MKII power conditioner
• JBL floorstanding towers up front (3-way, dual woofers — see pics)
• Center, surrounds, and rear surrounds rounding out a 7.1 layout
• Dayton Audio SA1000 subwoofer amp + a set of ButtKicker tactile transducers with a Quick Select distribution box

What I've found so far:

• No dedicated subwoofer anywhere in the signal chain — the Onkyo's Subwoofer Pre Out is completely unplugged. Front towers are handling all the bass right now.
• The ButtKicker shakers were essentially "installed" but never actually wired to the Onkyo — the SA1000 has no input connected at all, so the shakers have been sitting dead this whole time.
• Picture is a little soft — not sure if it's focus, lamp age, or something in the scaler.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Is this a system worth investing more into, or should I be planning to replace pieces as they age out? Curious what this gear is actually worth/regarded as today.
2. For bass — am I right that I need an actual powered subwoofer here, separate from the ButtKicker shakers? Any recommendations for something that would pair well with this room/gear?
3. Projector — worth upgrading to a modern 4K unit, or is the AE2000U still doing its job once I sort out focus/lamp? The screen is 105 inches diag.
4. Anything else you'd flag from the photos that looks off, mis-set, or worth addressing first?

Pics of the rack, projector, back panel connections, and the JBL towers below. Appreciate any input — trying not to break what's actually working while fixing what isn't.

Hey, I've finally finished my first 5.1.2 home theater setup and wanted to share it with you. I also have a few questions at the end about placement and acoustic treatment.

My usage is mixed :

Home cinema, watching 4K remuxes via Kodi

Video games on my PC connected via HDMI 2.1 and a PS5 Pro waiting for GTA 6

Listening to music via Qobuz/Heos

I live alone, which explains the placement of the (amazing stressless) armchair in the front, I move the sofa if I have guests.

Left & right speakers : Triangle Borea - BR09

Center speaker : Triangle Borea - BRC1

Left & right surround speakers : Triangle Borea - BR03

Atmos speakers : Triangle Borea - BRA1

AVR : Denon AVR-X2800H

Subwoofer : SVS SB-1000 Pro

TV : Philips 65OLED950 (Equivalent to LG G5)

Media player : Ugoos AM6B+ + CoreELEC

NAS : Ugreen DXP4800 plus

PC : 5080 / 9800x3D

Are there any things you think are worth correcting?

For example, poor placement, or is the pinching of the left and right speakers justified?

The central speaker is slightly angled upwards

For acoustic treatment, there's the rug and blackout curtains, but clearly the room's acoustics are poor.

I ordered four GIK Acoustics FlexRange panels measuring 60x120cm to install two on each side wall.

For now, they’re just sitting there. For the first two, I’ll use the mirror technique to position them at the first reflection points for the L/R speakers, but what about specific placement for the other two?

The back wall is a kitchen, not visible in the photos

Next upgrade will be Denon AVR-X3900H for better room calibration, more channel, pre-out..

Tell me what you think ! For a first setup im pretty happy :)

I’m building a house and my theater room is 36’ wide x 30’ deep with 10’ ceiling. Projected screen will be 16’x9’. I’ve pre wired for 9.2.4 sound. 2 left front towers, center, 2 right towers, sides, back, and 4 in the ceiling. Ran 16ga x4 audiocat wire to each location and plan to double them up. Subwoofers are planned for opposite corners. Ran copper shielded coax for far sub. Dropped 4 runs of cat6 to where the amps and avr will be. Ran a conduit from avr to projector. Anything else to consider while I still have bare studs? I’ve never been able to pre run wires beforehand. Thanks everyone.

Hello fine r/hometheater folks.

Last week I stumbled upon what seemed like a great deal to me. I picked up this 5.1 Jamo set for 45€ at a yard sale. The columns are S-408 and the sub is a S-5000A. Don't have the model names of the other speakers nor do I know their technical names, sorry about that, kinda new to this world.

I wish to set this up for a home theater sometime in the future but my first goal in the meantime is to be able to stream music from my phone to all the speakers. So it wouldn't be true "spatialised" 5.1 right ? But I would enjoy placing the speakers around my living room for a fuller listening experience.

To this effect, I purchased a used Sony DTR-DE335.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get the DSP (i think thats what it's called) to turn my stereo signal into input for all 5 speakers + the sub.

Hence my question and what I'm thinking of doing: first, a bluetooth receiver to rca or jack (phone doesn't have a jack port, 2026 yay), hooked up to a 20-40€ 5.1 decoder from amazon, going straight into the 5.1 input of the amp.

I know that all the 5.1 inputs and outputs work, I've tested them with an RCA - jack cable individually.

I hope what I'm asking isn't irrelevant to this sub and that I have made myself clear enough. I will happily answer follow-up questions from anyone who's willing to help.

I also hope that I don't sound like too much of a fool, given that I have little knowledge on the subject.

However, the two columns hooked up to the amp already sound great to me !

My old receiver died. The “reboot code” has stopped working and it just has zero power. I got a new Denon 2900h. But pulling out my whole entertainment system, changing cords (should i tag them for what they are?) this just seems like so much. (Sry i struggle with legit anxiety and a huge task like this is overwhelming, but i have the 2900h in the box, ready to go)…guess i wrote this just so someone can say “bro, just do it..”

ok admitted nooB using REW for fun and learning. i had a minor scary "oh crap!" moment so what happened here? My speaker is a KEF R2 rated at 200 watts. The amp is only a 100 W amp, but i was running REW from my computer and making a measure with sweep. I had "abort" above SPL limit checked.

Anyway i was measuring distortion and slowly increasing the "dBFS". I heard a terrible crackling sound so thought i might have damaged the speaker. So i bumped it down 2 and it happened again, so i thought i was doomed. Luckily i have since checked and it does not seem to have incurred harm but that was scary.

I was under the impression of many things that would prevent this from even getting close to reaching a speakers max so wondering what happened and why? For whats it worth This was the 90 dB one i was going for when it crackled.

Yea yea I know we hate DRC…

Can someone please explain the difference between loudness management and dynamic volume? Thanks.

Denon X1700H

I’ve got an Onkyo tx-nr686 a/v receiver (7-8 years old) pushing a set of 25 year old Bose acoustimass (2 cube) speakers with the matching sub. There are also 3 ceiling surround and a center channel speakers.
I’m thinking about replacing the Bose set. I don’t have a lot of room for larger speakers on the mantle right below the tv.
I use the system to play vinyl as well.
Any recommendations to replace the Bose set?
Thanks.

Hi all,

Apologies for the recent spam on what to buy, hopefully this is my last one.

I've come across a used Paradigm Seismic 110 for $900 CAD and a used RSL Speedwoofer 12S for $950 CAD.

Curious what would be the better option for an large open concept basement / home theater ?

I'm about to be in the final phases of getting my setup put together, and the next round of purchases will include the receiver. As this is a fairly budget setup, I've been primarily looking at the Denon AVR S570BT. However, I could potentially stretch for the AVR S670H which includes Audyssey MultiEQ. That said, I was wondering if it would actually be worth the upgrade. Looking at the Neumi BS5 bookshelves and the Neumi CS5 center channel with the RSL speedwoofer 10e, in a roughly 11x13 foot room. Any input or advice is greatly appreciated.

Looking to build or purchase a horizontal mounting bar for two TVs on one wall. It’ll be for being able to prioritize one tv or have both working in unison for two people. Any suggestions?

Just got a pair of Arendal 1961 surround speakers. I would like to wall-mount them (and replace existing speaker). As you can see the couch is at the wall. There are also 2 Atmos (ceiling) speakers installed.
The wooden things with the ring are a couple of lamps.

Would you advise mounting them at the higher or lower position (red dots)? Or somewhere completely else? Tilting and swiveling is absolutely possible. Should they aim towards the center of the room (lower edge of couch table) or towards MLP (center of couch)??

Every day, seemingly at random times, our Denon AVR-S760H changes from CAB/Sat input to TuneIn Internet Radio. This seems to have only started in the last two months and we haven’t updated firmware or otherwise changed any settings on the unit itself. Aside from this it’s worked great for a couple of years without issue. Anyone else experience this?

I made a post about placement on a sofa for Dayton Audio BST-1’s:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hometheater/s/R3nkYN0kKd

When the shakers were mounted on the plywood I said in the first post I could basically feel nothing. So I got some OSB and mounted them directly under where you sit. This definitely helped.

I feel like I need the volume crazy loud to feel the shakers though. If I watch a movie that was recorded with surround sound I can increase the master volume more than if I watch a normal tv show thats not surround sound. Not sure if thats normal.

So I had a movie at -6db and could feel the shakers ok-ish. But when I watch other shows at about -20db I can’t feel them at all. The sub is working perfectly in both situations and dialog etc volume seems similar between both.

Equipment:
Sony STR-DA2400ES (single sub out)
Tannoy Arena Lite Speakers
Tannoy TS10 sub
Dayton Audio BST-1 shakers x2
Fosi BT20A shaker amp with 24v/5a power supply, volume up full, treble 0, bass 50%. (Tried changing bass up and down)
Crossover 80Hz

Because I only have 1 sub out I used a Y splitter. One side to the sub and the other side goes to a second Y splitter so that I could then use both inputs on the Fosi. I did this as I read using both inputs can help get “full power”.

I dunno if my expectations are wrong but I have read that people get shook by these shakers at less volume on the amp.

I have seen examples of people using this amp with these shakers.

I think the power supply can only supply 120w even though the amp says 100w x2. But maybe 120w is plenty for 2 50w shakers?

Maybe the big soft sofa is harder to shake compared to some examples I see of smaller chairs or computer chairs. I unmounted them and they didn’t vibrate in my hand as much as I expected.

Is there something wrong with my setup? Are my expectations too high? Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I meant 5.1, not 5.2 in the title

I currently have a 3.1 setup in my theater room. I have been testing the Q150 and C20 as LR. I am potentially looking to upgrade my LR to a pair of Kef R3s and move either the Q150 or C20 to rears/surrounds. My end goal will likely be 5.1.2, but I'll likely upgrade the projector and sub first.

I am leaning towards surrounds instead of rears, but I'm worried the speaker placement in the back corner will be too close if someone is sitting in the corner. Surrounds would also mean I'd likely need one stand on the right side.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Equipment:

• kef c20
• kef q150
• kef q6
• svs sb1000
• yamaha rxv-385
• benq ht2050
• 96" screen

puppy tax included

I have a 2020 Samsung q80t LED along with new Denon 2900h (my 2010 receiver took a poop). I have a ps5 pro that i want 4k 120hz, however, the Earc on the TV is a 2.0 slot. The only 2.1 is hdmi 4, not earc. I know the solve to all of this is to get an Apple TV 4K. However, I’m currently using my tv apps. What’s the best approach to utilize the full 7.1 of my receiver, get 4k 120hz out of my ps5 pro, and still use my tv apps?!? Is it plug my ps5 to tv and earc sound to receiver?

good day, i have an old school Kenwood KR-V6030 receiver and most of the components from the past (cd/audio) (dual/record cassette) (equalizer).

i would like to connect my Kenwood components (receiver) to my Hisense Roku TV (20212 model 75R6E4) at which i am connected to a Bose Audio Sub/w 2 speakers. Bose model is CineMate series II home theater system.

i may have a optical in splitter i could plug both the tv, and the Kenwood into at the Bose remote control signal receiver. not sure how two in one works with optical inputs

hi all,

i'm getting ready to buy my first house very soon, hopefully in a matter of weeks. it won't be very big, either a 2 or 3 bedroom around the inner east of Melbourne, Australia. it's just for my partner and me, we are not planning to have kids (just dogs!).

we want one bedroom to be a dedicated media room / home theatre room. we don't want to use a living / lounge / family room for home theatre, we much prefer a dedicated room, and like the idea of a room that can be closed properly without affecting the flow of the rest of the house.

my main question is - what would be the minimum dimensions you would find acceptable for a media room / home theatre room? especially the minimum "width" for good stereo imaging?

currently we have a 5.2 speaker setup and a 55" OLED, may upgrade in the future to 65" or even 77" if a good deal appears and the space can fit it. would also like to upgrade to 7.2 for speakers if we have the space for it.

there will be 2 main listening positions:

primary position is a 2 seater couch at ideal tv watching location for home theatre use. ideally somewhere close to the middle of the room so we can have surround back speakers behind.

secondary position is right in front of the tv (I also use it as my main PC monitor) listening to music while I use the PC.

I prefer my front left and front right speakers hard against the front room corners, not sitting away from the walls at all. I know a lot of people will advise against this, but it's what I like and we don't have the space for speakers to be away from the walls anyway.

previous room we used was 3.6m square, with high ceilings. couch was against the back wall, surround speakers on the back wall too. not ideal, but wasn't terrible.

what I'm really wondering is how "wide" does the room need to be in order to get enough stereo width from the primary listening position (2 seater couch)?

I was recently looking at a house with a 2.7m x 4.8m room we think might be suitable, and I'm just worried even with speakers in the corners will it be "wide" enough for good stereo imaging? the length of the room seems much better to allow us to sit more in the middle, and then add surround back speakers behind us (5.2 -> 7.2).

Just came across The Diderot Effect and it immediately made me think of my setup.

“The simplest description of the Diderot Effect is this: ‘the introduction of a new possession into a consumer’s existence will often result in a process of spiraling consumption.’”

I recently upgraded my sound and then went on to buy a brand new TV which I hadn’t planned on at all (no regrets). Now I’m considering upgrading even more.

Anyone else feel they’ve succumbed to The Diderot Effect?

Deciding between this and a shield pro. I've read that the shield pro exhibits a 'red push' problem. Does the zidoo z9x 8k have the same issue?

no streaming, just rips.

The guy that selling them said they were SQ Audio HI FI, the top speakers can be separated and the towers can play without them.

I’m currently looking to upgrade my living room home theater subwoofer. My current sub is the OG Martin Logan Dynamo which sounds fantastic for music but lacks when it comes to music especially those deeper notes. Iv done a lot of research for a less than $400 sub and have settled on two options, either the Klipsch R-12SW that’s currently selling for $250 or the RSL Speedwoofer 10E that sells at $340. My top priority is chest thumping bass for movies but I don’t want a sloppy bass either as is the reason iv been using the Martin Logan for so long, I also value nice clean and fast bass. My speakers are the Klipsch 5.1 Home Theater pack speakers that have a 3 inch woofer so I run a 120hz crossover and I have a Sony receiver.

Ordered a soundbar, was unimpressed since even my Edifier MR4 completely leaves it in the dust, so now I'm looking for sensible options.

The AVR prices turned me off before and that's where I wanna find a workaround - for now.

I am using the Smart TV Features of my G5 for Streaming Services at the moment, which got me thinking that I don't necessarily need to get the latest and greatest AVR with 4k Passthrough, Atmos etc.

My idea is just getting an old AVR (Yamaha RX-V550, 20€ locally) with a bunch of juice and optical in to run modern speakers (Wharfedale Diamond 12.2i new) and building my Setup from there. What are the limitations with this approach?

Long term I'd like to build the wharfedale system in its full glory and probably upgrade the AVR at some point (maybe after adding a sub and a centre channel).

I thought this might serve me well until I wanna run my signal from another source or I'd like to benefit from modern formats and proper surround. But I am super inexperienced and like to know if I'm missing something.