What I really love about the very sweetest of home theater setups is how they take the room they’re given and work with it.  And you can see from the pic at right that this was not a room that screamed “sweet home theater”.  No, this screams “drawing room”.  “Front salon”, maybe.  It’s about as far removed from “sweet home theater” as it is from, say, “rockin’ bass”.

Ah, but that’s where perception works against us!  You see, that room IS “rockin’ bass”.  See that window seat off to the side there?  They put a SUBWOOFER in there.

A TRIAD sub, no less.  Plus, they also got a fifty five inch Fujitsu plasma television in there, along with an Integra DVD player and receiver, and plenty more.

So considering that they not only managed to make the most of available space, but also put a subwoofer in the most unlikely place ever AND make a home theater setup out of it besides, you’ve got to call it sweet.

Here is a portable entertainment creation from Yamaha which boasts of their recently unveiled yAired Technology. Simple in looks, the Yamaha MCR-140 may not necessarily attract the high-demanding consumer but once features are laid out, that may all differ. The MCR-140 talks to iPods and Subwoofers without cable connections needed and comes packed with a CD player and USB ports. A key feature is the iPod dock available at the top along with the usual stuff like a FM radio tuner and standard mini jack inputs. The Yamaha MCR-140 Micro Stereo retails for about $120 in the market just in case you are interested.

(Source) Engadget

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.

It’s always great to do two extremes in the same day.  We talked about a theater earlier today that featured an incredible aspect ratio on a relative shoestring, and now today, we’re going to follow that up with a monster home theater that takes up an entire fourteen hundred square foot basement.

Oh yes.  Fourteen hundred square feet.  Now, it’s not JUST a theater.  I admit to a bit of duplicity on that score, as the space is shared with a wet bar, a game room, a workshop and a bathroom.  But still–a home theater with all those amenities may well surpass sweet and go all the way into epic.

The theater itself, meanwhile, has a concession area and plenty of choice components put into it, including a Kenwood receiver, a Panasonic projector, a Motorola HD DVR and plenty more.

It bears repeating–this stopped being a sweet home theater setup when it tacked on all the extras.  The term epic truly does apply, because for a home theater with all the trimmings and then some, sweet is almost a graphic understatement.

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.

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.

Jeremy Hummer’s love of movies began when he was a kid, much like most of ours did.  He actually began collecting films–and I mean ACTUAL FILMS, like sixteen millimeter film–but quickly branched out to video when he discovered that collecting actual film was a difficult and downright painful process.

But as he went on, and his love of movies carried on, soon he found himself the owner of a house with a five hundred square foot garage…or the perfect home theater to be.  And this set him down a path where, eventually, he would use that garage home theater as the centerpiece, and the showpiece, of his own home theater installation firm.

So what does he have in this incredible theater?  Oh man, you’ll hardly believe it.  He’s got Monitor Audio speakers, Velodyne subwoofers, a JVC projector, a VuTec one hundred ten inch screen, Oppo DVD player, Marantz Blu-ray player and plenty more to boot.

That’s one sweet home theater setup you’ve got there, Jeremy, and if that’s the kind of thing that your company, Electronic Home Designers, does, then even I’m interested.  And you know from experience I’m one cheap individual.

Boston Acoustics, Inc. has unveiled three new Classic Series wireless-ready subwoofers- CPS 8Wi, CPS 10Wi and CPS 12Wi, each offering rich, room-filling bass and total placement flexibility. All the three woofers come with built-in wireless receivers.

All the three subwoofers work in conjunction with Boston Acoustics’ new WT 50 Wireless Transmitter. The subwoofers come with both speaker and line-level inputs for easy and flexible setup. The front-firing and front-ported design makes them well suited for custom cabinet installation. Other features of the subwoofers include BassTrac® circuitry for tight, distortion-free bass at all output levels and Deep Channel® Design to provide more bass from less amplifier power.

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You can end your search for the ultimate subwoofer in bass performance with the new Pinnacle’s Black Rhino Series subwoofers, Rhino Ten, Rhino Twelve and Rhino Fifteen. Designed to fill up even the largest rooms with deep bass down to 21 Hz with ear splitting volume up to 127 db SPL, these subwoofers are the crowning achievement from Pinnacle.

For maximum bass clarity, the Pinnacle Black Rhino series subwoofers use 12 gauge internal wiring. The subwoofers further use massive 20 pound drive units with 3" voice coils and ultra high powered amplifiers of 1200-1600 watts for the maximum in SPL.

Ideal for music, home theater and professional applications, the Pinnacle’s subwoofers- Rhino Ten, Rhino Twelve and Rhino Fifteen are available for purchase at $1,395, $1,795 and $2,395, respectively.

Here is the newest member of the KEF’s Wireless Family. The HTB2SE-W Wireless Subwoofer is in-fact old wine in new bottles! The HTB2SE Subwoofer had been a part of KEF Home Theater line of 5.1 audio systems. The Subwoofer now has a changed physical layout and also bears a Universal Wireless Kit. Thus came into being the HTB2SE-W, the Wireless Avatar.

The design reminds me of the alien saucer. Rest assured this won’t attack but play CD-quality audio for your entertainment! The HTB2SE-W integrates a 250mm driver and 250W class-D amplifier with an auxiliary bass radiator. Get one for your home theater for just $1200.

When you’ve got an unusually shaped basement, you can either live with it and just use it as a storage space, or you can do like Chris and Beth Martino did and turn it into a home theater.

Naturally, they’ve got some nice stuff in this.  They took six months and thirty five grand to build a whopper home theatre with a BASH Subwoofer amplifier, a Comcast HD DVR, a Monitor Audio speaker array, Denon receiver, Panasonic PT-AE3000 projector, a hundred and twenty nine inch screen from SmX Cinema Solutions, a Wii and Playstation 3, and more.

But this isn’t where the awesome ends, no, merely where it begins.  This home theatre also comes with an adjacent bathroom and kitchenette, so you can make your snacks and such right off the theatre.  Plus there are a few extras in there like a popcorn machine, a beer kegerator and a wine cellar of forty two bottles.

This pretty much ensures you only need one room for your entertaining, allowing you to close off the rest of the house from your company.  This is a terribly awesome development that’ll really qualify this for sweet home theatre setup status.

Wow.  This one is an absolutely beautiful entrant into the sweet home theatre setup pantheon, not because it’s got a running theme or anything like that, but rather because of its impressive array of components, all wedged into a sedate, stately, graceful setting.  You can see it in the pic at right, but that’s just scratching the surface.  Here’s the rundown.

It’s got a ten foot wide screen with black velvet to improve ANSI shading, Classe DVD / CD player and amp, JL Audio subwoofer, Sim2 C3X1080 Lumis projector, and multiple Berkline seats.

I find myself just plain amazed by this setup, with its spectacular components in beautiful setting.  Though I have to wonder why they didn’t decide to go with the chocolate brown color scheme for the contrast help.  Maybe they think the black velvet around the screen takes care of the contrast issues, or maybe they’re not that concerned over contrast issues, especially when the place looks the way it does.

But regardless of that incredibly minor issue, I’m convinced of one thing–this is a SWEET home theatre setup.

A lot of people will tell you a lot of things when it comes to your home theatre setup.  Go simple, go big, spend a load of money, spend as little as possible, make it look like the Batcave!  But there are some things that, in general, should be avoided.

1. Don’t use one subwoofer to cover the whole room.  Subwoofer bass loses effect the farther out it goes, and the farther away you are from that bass, the less effect it’ll have.

2. Avoid a square room if possible.  Square rooms yield so-called “standing waves” in deep bass situations, and will result in some sections of the room getting too much bass and others not getting near enough.

3. Don’t hide the speakers.  Why would you want to muffle your speakers by putting them behind something?  You’ve got to have those grills out and pumping out sound, even if they look a bit unsightly.

So with these three tips in hand, you’re much likely to get ahead with your home theatre design.

Now, you may think that title’s somewhat of a misnomer.  There are lots of home theatre receivers and speaker packages that include iPod docks, but I don’t see too many of them that also work with the iPhone.

It’s called the Aurora Soundorb system from Gear4, and it’s got more features than your standard CAR.  For instance, it comes with a SoundBar speaker and separate subwoofer, thus really upping the quality of the playback.  Even better, it’s got DSP technology included that allows for both Virtual Wide Stereo mode and Virtual Surround Sound.

Yeah, and that’s for your IPOD.

It’ll also provide a visualization effect, as the subwoofer contains an array of LEDs that are user programmable, and even better, you can also hook this sucker up to your TV or DVD player using the SoundOrb Aurora.

Now, I haven’t heard one of these yet, so I can’t tell you how well it actually lives up to its promises, but it definitely means to be versatile.  It’s a jack of all trades system, but is it a master of any of them?  If you’re willing to drop two hundred and fifty pounds sterling on it (about five hundred bucks in the ’states) you can buy direct from Gear4 and find out.

Wow.

I’ve just seen a home theatre that does nothing but astonish me.  You can see from the pic that it’s a picture of absolute cinematic beauty, but what you don’t know is that room’s dimensions.  That whole space is built into a room that measures just twelve by twenty feet.

Yes, you are looking at a screen with a hundred and twenty four inch diagonal.  The screen is, technically, larger than the room itself. Technically–it works when you consider your pythagorean theorem.  Even better, the room also boasts TWO in-wall Triad bronze subwoofers–yes, TWO subwoofers!  Plus, Yamaha processor, Anthem amps, an Infocus IN82 full acoustic treatments and audio/video calibrations.  And as if that weren’t enough, unless I’m sorely mistaken, that looks like stadium seating.  Stadium seating!  In some guy’s HOUSE!  Okay, so stadium seating really doesn’t require any more than some two by fours for framing, but still!

There’s no doubt that Fanbrain’s sweet home theatre setup, with it’s somewhat tight spacing but incredible use of every micron, is a truly sweet setup.

I actually used to think it was painfully difficult, if not outright impossible, to put a home theatre in anything smaller than a basement.  I thought sure the windowless interior room was the next best thing, and even that a dim runner up.  But I don’t think that any more after following RobZ’s story over at the AV Science Forum.

I watched, step by step, as this guy took a fifteen by twenty foot room and turned it into a fully-featured home theatre complete with projector, screen, subwoofer and speakers, plus a fifty inch plasma for television watching.  He painted the room with a Ralph Lauren Suede paint (not quite the chocolate brown recommended but probably a lot closer than you can tell at first glance.) and used velvet blackout curtains to really cut down his light level (you can see in the pics, upper left corner, that he hasn’t completely blocked it out, but he got at least ninety-five percent of it).

I don’t know about you, but he’s definitely given me some ideas for my own setup–and when a home theatre setup can do that, you know it’s truly a SWEET home theatre setup.

Over on the Subdriven forums, one on the users, a fella with the unusual name of Gotapex (I’m assuming it’s a he, of course, I could be wrong) has put up some pics of his absolutely sweet home theatre system, and there’s plenty right about it.

Okay, first off, I know that I’ve been saying a LOT lately that chocolate brown is the ideal color for a home theatre, done to maximize contrast.  And I know that Gotapex’s is white as opposed to that.  Moreover, I know that I’ve been railing against putting viewing devices on fireplace chimneys because of the possible interference of cold and possibly heat.  But this is different in that he’s put a projection screen instead of a flat panel TV up there, so a square of fabric is DEFINITELY going to be a lot less susceptible to cold and heat variances than an entire TV, so we can leave that as is.

What’s better is that he’s got all the right bits of equipment in there, too–a five-speaker surround sound mix, a subwoofer, modular spacing for his receivers and other components (he actually describes swapping out the HDTV receiver) and of course, a collection of nice leather recliners.  There’s a LOT to love in that system, and only a handful of nits to pick about the whole thing.

There’s no doubt that Gotapex has a sweet home theatre setup, and when you check it out here, you’ll be amazed by what you find.

The senior network administrator for a broadband ISP has done some absolutely amazing things with his sweet home theatre setup, and when you get a gander at this, you’ll have to agree just how sweet it is.  He’s got entirely too many pics to show here, so here’s the link back to his vast array.

First off, yes, he DID put this in an interior room with a window, but what he did to fix the window issue is just plain old amazing–he’s blocked it off.  Seriously, he put, at the very least, the screen in front of it, and likely he just went ahead and covered it completely with at the very least a layer of plywood, and quite possibly just drywalled over it. Talk about your final solution to the lighting problem!  And of course, the theatre is painted in chocolate brown for that contrast-maximizing effect.

Of course, he’s also got all the great components in there, like a projector and speakers and all the stuff you might expect, but what REALLY makes this a sweet home theatre setup is the fact that he’s included a LOBBY.  And included in that lobby is a popcorn machine, a “butter flavored topping” dispenser that dispenses actual “butter flavored topping” and an array of theatre candies that he had to special order.

It’s not the components that make John’s home theatre so unarguably sweet, it’s the lengths he went to to recreate the theatre experience at home.  So kudos, John, and many happy movies!

So while cruising around looking for things to write about, I found Thomas Pindelski’s blog, which has undergone a couple different revisions.  And if can get past his rather pompous pronouncements on the nature of film as a medium, he’s got a shot of his admittedly sweet home theatre setup, which definitely doesn’t want for room.

See, he’s built it in a converted GARAGE.  He’s got the standard components–a projector with screen, a surround sound speaker array (or at least a three-speaker, he’s just got the one shot) and what looks like a subwoofer included.

Now, this actually sounds like a better idea than it really is.  Sure, he’s got room enough for absolutely everything he wants to do or include in there, but he’s got at least two significant problems that I can see.  One, it looks like he’s got some light issues.  That is a LOT of light in there, and the best theatres are in interior or otherwise windowless rooms where light levels can be as close to completely controlled as possible.  Two, there’s a lot of empty space, which means there’s a really, REALLY good chance that he’s going to have some acoustic / sound issues.

There’s more than enough room to grow with Thomas Pindelski’s sweet home theatre setup, but that may be its curse as well as its blessing.

Dropping four hundred bucks on a surround sound system generally doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.  Seriously, it doesn’t–if you’re a careful shopper you can assemble most of a full-on home theatre system for that price.  So if you’re going to drop that kind of money on a system you’d better be sure it’s good.

Thankfully the Sony Bravia home theatre system, featuring a five-disc DVD / CD changer with a thousand watts of output, 1080p display capability, five speakers, digital cinema auto calibration systems and the Sony S-AIR receiver that allows sound to be transmitted wirelessly to other rooms, definitely qualifies as good.

The sound quality is fantastic, especially considering that the included speakers in the Bravia kit look a LOT like the speakers you might find on someone’s desktop computer.  But that minor, admittedly rather odd, detail aside, this is really a rather nice array of material, and further admittedly, you ARE getting a whole lot of value with this system.  You get the speakers AND the five-disc changer AND the S-AIR system (how cool is that?  You’re watching a movie and you need to go, say, to the bathroom or to move your laundry from the washer to the dryer.  You can still hear the movie, because it’s rebroadcasting to the other room through the S-AIR unit.) in one four hundred dollar package.  That’s pretty nice.

Yes, the price IS pretty sizable, but considering what all you’ll get, this may be a better value than anyone wants to give it credit for.