Okay, folks, time for a little of that old fashioned brutal honesty.  Not everyone will have a perfect rectangular or square room to put their home theater hardware in.  In fact, more than likely, most will have to deal with some unusual shaping, which means figuring out ways to deal with horrendous acoustics.

And in the case of today’s sweet home theater, they had a whole lot of weird nooks and crannies to work around.  I’d say the room was at least partially hexagonal with some…odd lumps.  So to work around that, they added various wood features to the room to give it a sort of defining feature, like a proscenium.  Then they added the hardware.

And oh, what hardware it was–they put in a Marantz projector, an SMX screen, Triad speakers and a Denon DVD player.  Plus, because the homeowner in question had a large family, they’ve got seating for eight.

The huge handicap that was the oddly shaped room becoming an incredible home theater setup definitely qualifies this for sweet home theater status.

Bring home the new Genelec AIW25 Active In-Wall Loudspeakers and turn your simple residential media room into a soundstage. Enjoy great sound, more space and a great-looking media room with these in-wall loudspeakers. You can make them easily disappear into the walls as they are paintable!

The AIW25 consists of a two-way loudspeaker enclosure and a matched RAM2 remote amplifier module. It features extremely low distortion, neutrality and sound pressure capability. The loudspeakers can be easily retrofitted into existing constructions and fixed into a standard 2 x 4" wall structure. Besides, you can easily rack mount the RAM2 amplifier module with its dedicated Rack Mount Kit or you can place it on a shelf or into a cabinet.

To complete a surround sound system you can team up a pair of AIC25 Active In-Ceiling Loudspeakers as the surround channels and a 5041A Active In-Wall Subwoofer with the AIW25 Active In-Wall Loudspeakers!

Ah, the multipurpose basement.  Sometimes called the playroom in times past, it represents a great, truly sort of American utility in which families troop down into the basement to do most of their playing.  The kids have their friends over, the folks might have a party, family game night usually goes on down there.  But sometimes, the multipurpose basement takes on a whole new life as a home theater setup.

Considering that this particular multipurpose basement had about twenty five hundred square feet of space to work with, there was more than enough for lots of accoutrements like a bar, an exercise area, and of course a home theater.  It seats a dozen people, for crying out loud.  It’s also right in the middle of everything, so it’s almost a focal point of the room.

Plus, there’s plenty of fantastic media goodies in here too, like a Sony projector, a Stewart filmscreen, Sonus speakers, a Sony Blu-ray player, and plenty more.

You add up the sheer utility found in this room, considering that it’s only a very small part of the whole, and you come to one inescapable conclusion–it’s one sweet home theater setup.

You see that picture?  That picture to the right?  Yeah.

You probably recognize it right off as one of our sweet home theater setups.  Of course you do–you’ve been here.  You know how we roll.  Anyway, what would you say if I told you that that sweet home theater setup is in a room that measures fourteen by sixteen feet?

That couch you see measures exactly fourteen feet in length, and it occupies an entire wall along the back edge of the room.  It was custom made for that room.  It’s also a place where the bass from the speakers tends to collect, so special measures like six bass traps were included to help diffuse the sound.

And it’s not just the furniture that makes this ultra-small home theater as awesome as it is.  There’s also loads of choice components in here too, like an eight foot wide filmscreen from Stewart, Triad speakers, a Panasonic Blu-ray player, and plenty more.

When you consider what an achievement that home theater represents, it’s hard to call it anything but sweet.

Remember how I was talking about slow and steady winning the home theater race?  How great it was that some people took their time and learned everything they could about home theater before they installed theirs?  Well…for Audiovisual Concepts And Solutions’ Andy Caraballo, that means less than nothing.

This guy actually had a two month deadline, start to finish, and he was working under a handicap that would balk most of us–the client in question was an interior designer.

Yeah.  Basically, this is the equivalent of trying to remove a doctor’s appendix, or trying a lawyer’s tax case.   But as you can see from the picture at right, Caraballo definitely came through.  And what did he put in there?  Well, there’s a lot of sweet gear in there–he’s got Acoustic Innovations home theater seating, a SIM2 projector, a Da-Lite projector screen and speakers from James Loudspeakers.

For putting together a home theater setup that made an interior designer happy, well, that can only be called sweet.

I know that headline’s something of a puzzler to you, because I really hadn’t heard of something like this either.  A floating screen isn’t exactly the kind of thing you run into every day, you know

See, the centerpiece of this sweet home theater setup is that “floating screen” I mentioned.  A floating screen is actually what it sounds like, a screenwall based around an optical illusion in which a one hundred ten inch Stewart screen appears to be floating in the middle of that wall.  It isn’t actually floating, of course, it only just looks like it.

It’s not just the screen that brings people in for this one, though–there’s also a Runco projector, Paradigm speakers, and an Xbox 360 doing double duty on DVDs and games.

Between the unusual centerpiece and the array of quality hardware to back it up, there’s no doubt that this is a sweet home theater setup no matter how you look at it.

This may be one of the sweetest home theater setups I’ve talked about in some time, and I’ve talked about some pretty sweet ones.  I’ve talked about theaters that feature huge sound systems, cost seven figures, and do things you’d never imagine.

But today, I’ve got a home theater setup that isn’t sweet because of its costs or anything like that.  No, this one’s sweet because of where it puts the television.

Oh, sure, there’s some sweet gear in here like Niles speakers and a Niles subwoofer, plus a Denon receiver and a Sony Blu-ray player.  But the centerpiece of the setup is the Aquavision aquarium.  Yes, that’s an actual saltwater aquarium you’re looking at.  The rear panel of that aquarium is a thirty four inch Toshiba LCD television.

See what I mean?  That’s sweet.  I’ve never heard of any such thing before, and just looking at it downright amazes me.  And when a home theater setup amazes me, I know that it’s got to be a sweet one.

Oh yes, we all know the fervor of the day you decide to get started building a home theater setup.  Especially if you want to build a really sweet one.  You crave nothing so much as to get started, because deep in the back of your mind, all you can think is: “Sooner started, sooner done”.

But for Steve Caesare, that temptation was one he fought down, because his home theater projected lasted an awe-inspiring three years.  And that’s why we call it the three year home theater.

What went into this, besides a lot of time and, naturally, cash?  Good question–let’s get you an answer.  This home theater setup includes a  Da-Lite one hundred thirty three inch screen, a Pioneer receiver, JBL speakers, Samsung Blu-ray player, and a Sony projector.

Between three years of careful handcrafting, research, and consideration of the perfect product for every available slot, well, it’s clear enough that this is one sweet home theater setup.

Now, you might think that just having a home in the magnificent sunny paradise known as Honolulu would be enough good fortune for any one lifetime.  But for one homeowner, it’s not good enough to be in some of the nicest weather on earth–you’ve got to have a sweet home theater setup, too.

And sweet it is.  Outfitted by iDesigns by Michael,  this theater packs an almost uncomfortable amount of beauty and power into one clean and highly efficient package.

The theater itself contains a huge array of Velodyne and Speakercraft speakers, and a host of Netstream audio and video products.  Literally the entire house is wired for sound on one level or another, and it shows throughout.

It’s amazing to get a home theater setup that’s actually very sweet by itself, but almost pales in comparison with the rest of the house.  And at that stage of the game, it must be a sweet setup.

A lot of people aren’t fond of widescreen.  I heard the moaning often enough during my video store clerk days about letterboxing and suchlike, and I doubt it’s improved much sense.  But for guys like Wayne Hanson, widescreen isn’t a format–it’s a challenge.

While most home theater owners dream about 16:9, Hanson went for the brass ring that is 2:35.

And get it he did–you can see it at right.  But this isn’t just about the monstrous girth of Hanson’s screen, no sir!  This is about plenty of other choice gear included in the setup, like a BenQ front projector in DLP (probably better given the screen he’s on), M&K speakers, a Da-Lite hundred and thirty three inch screen, a PS3 straight out of Sony and plenty more.

Just managing to get a 2:35 screen makes for a pretty sweet setup, but when you’ve got all that other stuff in there too, you end up with something that’s almost past sweet.

People who plan to install home theater gear usually spend a lot of time considering just what kind of sound system they should install.  Should they get it in one of those all in one boxes?  Should they build a component system piece by piece by piece?

Well, if you’re Scott Vonhof, you don’t go either route.  You BUILD YOUR OWN.

Apparently, Scott owned four Peerless woofers, and these were the basis for his four compact-cabinet speakers.   Later, to get the surround sound experience, he added a center channel speaker and a couple of matching rear speakers.  But this wasn’t all he added, no sir!  Or ma’am, as the case may be.

He also threw in a Denon receiver, an LG DVD player, a Sony projector and a Stewart Filmscreen one hundred inch screen.  Plus, he even managed to find time to make his own subwoofer.

When you consider the sheer amount of hand tooling that went into this home theater setup, you know it has to be called sweet.  There’s no way to do anything but.

Anyone else remember that scene from Get Smart where Max Smart has to walk through a series of corridors and passageways before finally being able to access the phone booth that provides access to CONTROL?  Well, today’s sweet home theater setup is a lot like that, except not quite so convoluted.

Today’s sweet home theater setup owner, you see, installed–get this!–a FINGERPRINT LOCK on his home theater.  You literally cannot get in without the man’s fingerprint or the willingness to tear hell out of locked doors.

And it’s probably a good idea he’s got that lock on there, because there’s a panoply of high-powered hardware in there.  Just for example, he’s got a homemade hundred and ten inch screen, a Panasonic projector, Polk speakers, Denon receiver and an Xbox 360 with HD DVD add on.  In retrospect, the owner jokes, it was a bad move.  He’s actually planning to bring in a PS3 for the Blu-ray capabilities.

But between the lock and the choice gear, it’s definitely a sweet home theater setup.

The phrase “they don’t make ‘em like that any more” applies to a whole lot of items that we’re nostalgic for.  For me, it applies to old-school RPG gaming, a lot of horror movies, and Jolly Ranchers in the bar form.  Yeah, they weren’t always little chunks–sometimes they came in these long thin bars that you could either treat like lollipops or bite off, gumming your teeth up so hard they could scarcely move.

But for one home theater buff, the phrase best applies to his JBL home theater speakers, which were made back in 1972 and were part of his stereo system for years.  He keeps them as part of the system essentially because they work as well as they do.

And it’s not just retro tech driving this system either–he’s also got a Sony receiver, Advent surround and center channel speakers to back up his JBLs, a Panasonic projector, and more.  There’s even a little more retro tech in the form of a Samsung VCR.

A little of the old and plenty of the new helps make one sweet home theater setup.

For the people who have been hard at work transforming their PC or MACS into virtual home theater systems, here is something that should help. Bowers & Wilkins has announced the release of their HiFi sound computer speakers which should compliment and deliver the expected audio delivery for better home theater experience. The MM1 is a serious Hi-Fi speaker that comes with a full-range, active, near field monitor and two separates which include a dome tweeter for better treble sound delivery.

The MM1 computer speakers will be available starting January,2010 for £379 at all Bowers & Wilkins retailers.

(Source) Press

Genesis, a leading developer of high-end luxury loudspeaker and amplifier systems, is honored to be named as CES Best of Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award Honoree for Genesis 7.1f loudspeaker. The G7.1f is a high-end audiophile loudspeaker designed and engineered to be a value priced product in the Genesis line.

The Genesis 7.1f delivers full-range musical performance. It comes with a built-in servo-controlled 8" subwoofer delivering bass down to 22Hz, while the ribbon tweeter ensures perfect high frequencies to 36 kHz. The loudspeakers have been designed to be beautiful and elegant and to fit into your living room perfectly.

The Genesis 7.1f will be demonstrated at the 2010 International CES, in January at Las Vegas and will also be displayed at the Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase.

Okay, just in case that headline threw you a bit, what it actually means is a home theater setup with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 for less than fifteen thousand dollars.  Yeah, I know it read like a Japanese real estate listing, but still, in the end it works.

And it’s also terribly important, because most home theaters do NOT have a 2.35:1 ratio.  It just doesn’t happen in home theaters that cost less than fifteen grand because it’s actually pretty difficult to achieve without specialized equipment.

But this one did exactly that.  And what did it pull this little wonder off with?  Adjustable side masking panels.  But that’s just a start–they’ve also got a Denon receiver, Home Theater Direct bookshelf speakers,  JBL subwoofer, Oppo DVD player, Optoma projector, and a homemade one hundred and three inch screen.

It achieved the nearly impossible and did it for a shockingly low amount of cash as home theaters go.  So when you consider them all together, there’s no other choice but to count this one as a sweet home theater setup.

Using your PC as part of your home theater is a poorly understood and often sorely underestimated  part of your home theater experience.  In fact, the PC can replace a lot of different facets of your home theater, as Jason Klinke discovered.

A former PC engineer, he used his PC not only to play movies via its attached BD-ROM drive (from LG, no less!) but also to store other movies on the network as well as play a custom pre-show presentation with movie trivia and assorted random bits.

What else does he have involved in here, you ask?  Let’s take a look!

He’s got TWO Sony four hundred disc changers, for a start.  When you couple those on to his home theater PC’s hard drive space, you’ve got room for, roughly, a maximum of nine hundred titles.  Nine hundred titles.  That’s no small library, folks.  Plus, you’ve got to consider he’s watching them with a Sanyo projector on a one hundred twenty eight inch Carada screen, with a Denon receiver and Definitive Technologies speakers backing his play.

All this added in together makes for one pretty sweet setup, especially when you consider what all the home theater PC kicks in.

Sometimes home theater publications like this exact one can create a monster.  We show you all the incredible things you can do with the various spaces in and around your house and how you can take all of these spaces and, with a lot of time, patience, effort and money turn them into grand showpieces in which to sit around all day and watch movies.

And for Jerrod Shook, that’s exactly what happened.  He got into the home theater mags and suchlike and eventually just started churning out the ideas.  What happened became his home theater.

What’s in there, you ask?  It’s an eighteen hundred square foot theater with an Oppo DVD player, Ascend Acoustics speakers and subwoofer, a Panasonic projector, a hundred and twenty inch screen from Carada, and more.

So be careful, folks–you start reading us long enough, eventually you’re going to get to wonder what movies look like on a ten foot wide screen and the next thing you’ll know, you’ll want to try building your own sweet home theater setup at home.  Let’s just hope it’s as sweet as Jerrod’s.

Lately, Wisdom Audio unveiled the addition of three new high-end speaker model variants to its award-winning Sage Series line, the L100m, L150M and C150m. These speakers have been designed as on-wall line source solutions sized specifically for use behind perforated projection screens.

The L150M has been added to Sage Series for applications where in-wall installation is not possible or desired. On the other hand, the L100m and C150m been designed as on-wall solutions sized specifically for discreet installation behind perforated screens. All the three Sage on-wall speakers incorporate new generation proprietary thin film planar magnetic drivers. The speakers range from 20 inches to 76 inches tall.

The L150m, L100m and C150m will be available for purchase from December 2009 at MSRP of $16,000, $11,700 and $17,500, respectively.

We’ve talked about some really sweet home theater setups up and down the dial, from bargain basement theaters to the spectacularly extravagant.  But very few home theaters breach that seven figure mark, and today, we’ve got one that did.

Ivan Messer’s home theater setup contains fully one million dollars worth of audio products alone. In fact, most every single audio component installed in the array comes in multiples.  What he’s got in there is downright shocking, and he built this setup mostly to prove that he could.

What does he have in there, you’re probably asking by now?  It’s downright phenomenal–here’s the rundown:  a one hundred twenty inch Stewart Filmscreen, a Sony projector, two Sony Bravia televisions (one forty inch and one fifty two inch), and two–yes, TWO–Sony HD receivers.

But here’s where it gets wild:  he’s got fully twenty four McIntosh MC-1.2KW amplifiers.  Your jaw might drop there, but hold it in–this home theater setup has a GRAND TOTAL of fully, unless I misread the spec sheet, thirty eight amplifiers. I had to do some MATH in there because there’s maybe eight different kinds of McIntosh amp in there.  There are another eight McIntosh speaker systems on top of that, plus an additional nine regular McIntosh speakers.

It’s a sound system that might be classifiable as a weapon if you pick the right song, and for that reason, it’s definitely one sweet home theater setup.