So I selling my current house and buying a new larger one. The new house has a theater room in the basement, which I am very excited about. Anyone know where I can find good deals on home theater equipment?
the fact you're able to sell your house right now is amazing in itself!...I ended up buying all my home theater stuff from circuit city... What kind of price range you looking at? Projector? LCD/Plasma? Are you currently HD? Do you plan on it if not already (I'd like to hope so =) )
You can always find great deals on used equipment -- look at the audiophile sties, craigslist, etc. The higher quality components have a much longer shelf life, some even say they improve with age.
avsforum people sell things there all the time. what kind of equipment are you looking for? what kind of room is it, actually built for a theater (with sound deadening and insulated walls) or is it just a rec room
if i still worked at Best Buy I could work you a pretty awesome deal. Still one of my good friends ( and KeeganXT's best friends) is now the manager of Home Theater at the Best Buy in Kennesaw. I highly recommend that you at least go up there and ask for him. His name is Andrew. Tell him Jake sent you and give yourself at least a couple hours to sit down with him and let him show you everything available. Can't garuntee that he'll discount things left and right for you, but i can assure you, you will at the very least come away knowing exactly what you want. Sure AVSFORUMS is good, but anyone who buys an HDTV without seeing it, or surround sound without hearing it in person first is a complete moron.
while your last advice is good, if you think best buy sells (what I consider) home theater level speakers then you need to have your head examined.
I second the www.avsforum.com for all your A/V advice, needs and support. Steer clear from the big box retailers, they suck and their staff are 99.9999% uninformed. I was at hhgreeg last night and I swear the sales guy looked like a bum off the street and his sals rehtoric was nothing but misinformation. I felt bad for the people looking for a TV. ( I was there to demo an LCD that I plan to buy online) You will most likely find your best deals at www.amazon.com and their support is top notch. I bought my 60 Sony from them last Nov and had it in three days (free shipping). I saved $400 vs buying it from CC or BB. Let me know if you need any help setting it up or advice, HT is my hobby.
there is a company that is in Va. called theaterxtreme. all that they deal with is home theaters. everything from hideaway screens to fiber optics in the ceiling to make it look like stars. i dont know if this will help you or not but i just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.
Great advice Trey. I am guessing that you will use a projector setup, but in case you are not, check out http://www.dtvcity.com/. My dad has bought a few panasonic plasmas from these folks for a great price and they let him pick up the tv right from the warehouse (they are located in Atlanta). So internet price and no shipping cost They also have closeouts and 'b-stock' items
ha, we actually got 99.9999999% of all our information off of AVSFORUMS.com when i worked at Best Buy
I will be building a dedicated theater room in the basement of my new home. I plan on doing it right, with sound deadening, theater seating, etc... I am pretty new to all this, so I think it will be a fun learning experience. But I will be asking a few questions to save me some head aches. As far as budget its up in the air right now. I plan on buying nice stuff, maybe just a few pieces at a time but equipment that won't need to be upgraded right away. Hell look at my race car, who in their right mind would spend that much on a piece. Not sure if I should go projector or not. What do you guys think? Same thing goes for audio components. The room will be large, lighting will be totally controlled as there won't be any windows.
projector definitely. go to avsforum and go to the dedicated home theater building section. read there for about 6 months. I'm in the process of planning mine
Projector all the way!! A buddy of mine did a full theater room in his basement. 4 rows of stadium seating and everything. 1080P projector on like 138" screen. He isn't done with the audio yet, but it already rocks...
Lol, everyone on avsforum makes fun of the sales staff at BB and CC. While there are a very limited few that know anything, they are few and far between.
if you go projector, invest in a screen or possibly even the special screen paint available. don't just paint the wall with white paint. trust me, you'll lose most of the definition out of a High Def projector.
Projector is a Must!! You want to hang out here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=3 If you have spare time and want to see what a talented DIY can do, check out this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=620108 If I were to build an HT today, it would have a 2.35:1 screen. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=117 This guy did a 2.35:1 screen. ...
Did you know Ben Hurr was filmed in 3:1? I am debating receiver purchases right now myself. I am sure we'll see several threads pop up here in the near future now that it seems some of us are interested in the idea.
using home architect pro to lay my design out. 2.35:1 projector, probably 3 chip LCD and speakers that I am building. staggered studs, and columns to eliminate standing bass waves. walls with RISC clips and double drywall (possibly green glue but that shit is expensive). stage is planned, with centers and subs behind the screen and can lighting with zones that will be RF controlled. most everything will be rack mounted
I'd definitely look into building your own sub for your theater. You'd be surprised how much better of one you can build for the money than buy and it's actually quite easy. Check out the sub kits on www.partsexpress.com I'll get a pic up of my 500 watt sub that slides under my couch when I get a chance. If you really wanted to get hardcore you could look at their speaker building project on there too. If not I'd check out craigslist for speakers, if they're not abused anything from a reputable brand built in that last ten years is usually solid and you can get them for around 1/4 the price. I put my entire 5.1 system together for about 800$ and it rocks the hell out of my 175sqft room. Listening to Queen's a night at the opera in 5.1 in mindblowing
are you talking about greenboard? the stuff that is supposed to be mildew resistant? its a huge waste of money if so, especially in a theater. you can actually order thicker sheets of drywall direct from Georgia Pacific if you want. other than that, sounds like a great setup to me. little known fact, greenboard actually doesn't meet any codes/requirements to be a mildew/rot resistant drywall. want proof? look at any of the homes that used it in south mississippi or louisiana after katrina, they had black mold and rot growing all over them.
no, I'm talking about green glue. You put in between drywall sheets and it acts as a sound damper. Really effective Test post from iPhone
Im building all speakers for this. Probably going with an Onkyo amp at this point for all around HT stuff and a chipamp setup for audio.
it really depends on if you feel like having a turnkey solution where you unpack a box and you're done, or if you want to integrate or if you was to build. I know of quite a few small high end home theatre stores on the northwest side. At least I know where they are but their names escape me... http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Wo...4.114647,-84.406586&spn=0.250701,0.42572&z=11
I agree with the others in that if you have the space and the ability to control the lighting then a projector is the way to go. It's what I put in my basement when I did it. www.projectorcentral.com was a helpful website in finding a projector (and screen) to fit the dimensions I had in mind. I got the screen from www.avscience.com. Cables were purchased mostly from www.bluejeanscable.com I got the projector, some of the cables, and my receiver from Best Buy (on the family discount). Here's my Gulf GT40 inspired theater:
I love my 875 and I think you would too. They were price matching internet prices at circuit city but they may be out with the new 876 in stores now (just 2 more HDMI ports, same main board though). Good luck on the set up doug