# Need some advice for Home Theater



## thomasluke (Jun 10, 2011)

So....... I'm trying to put a small home theater together and have NO FREAKIN CLUE as to where to start.
I mean like what do need? I don't want to just buy an off the shelf big box type.
I would like to it all my self from the ground up.
Do they sell an all in solution? Active crossovers, the whole nine? Ideally i want something like the p80 just in my theater room.Know what i mean?
I'm going to be doing research myself and will update with most likely random ass ****.


Thanks in advance, luke


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

*Re: Need Some guys*

Yes they make processors for that but probably geared toward the more pro audio side....look at Rane, DBX, and Behringer to list a few


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## Justin Zazzi (May 28, 2012)

*Re: Need Some guys*

What is your budget?

You can plan to spend about 1/2 on speakers, 1/2 on amplifier and reciever, and a little bit extra for interconnects. Sound treatments and bass traps make a huge difference if you can afford them and understand how to use them. Don't spend more than $10 on any single digital or optical interconnect cable or fall for any marketing gimmicks or random crap that doesn't make sense ... there is more overpriced audiophoolery in consumer home audio than car audio (mostly related to exotic power, speaker, and interconnect cables).

Are you absolutely certain you need manual control of everything like a P80, or can you live with some automatic settings and some manual control? The consumer home theater gear is generally much easier to setup because the environment is usually more symmetrical than a car and has much better acoustics. Don't feel like you are loosing out on something if you can't control every aspect of the audio chain, most receivers are excellent at this and the technology has had a long time to mature. Look for one with technology from Audyssy called MultEQ. It is a fairly popular automatic-setup-system and works well.


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## breeze612 (Nov 27, 2012)

room treatments, room treatments, room treatments. Spend your time VERY wisely on room construction & treatments. NOTHING can kill the sound quality of a beatiful receiver/speaker, receiver/amp/speaker, or whatever combo quicker than a poorly thought out room. We've had clients spend obscenely on top echelon components that sounded like a cheap Bose system because of the equpment placement, room, or both.

BTW- I agree with Jazzi; I've almost never heard cabling ever make a difference. My caveat is to spend wisely on HDMI, though; I'm not a proponent of overpriced cables from just a "name brand", but I have seen countless EDID issues, sparkling and other issues caused by monoprixx.com or cheap Amazon cables that couldn't hand the throughput at full resolutions. Just get good, solid reputation cables.

Be very mindful of your room's shape; squares are very troublsome & prone to standing waves. Watch your subwoofer placement; room nulls are a huge problem if you're only using one or two subs, and they're improperly placed.

My company has been doing home theaters for years, and some of the best money spent, has been when clients have been willing to pay to have the room properly designed and engineered so that the construction, placement and treatment were considered as much or more than the actual components.

Beyond that, if you're an old school car audio guy like I am- look to an old car audio processing powerhouse- our good friends at Audio Control! Their home theater stuff is wonderful. Their Diva unit is an amazing piece of gear. And it's all still made in the good 'ol USA...


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## bigfastmike (Jul 16, 2012)

Good advice. Check out some home theater forums for great info on making acoustical panels and how to place them. 
Not too post dump but cables in home audio do make a difference. More noticeable in stereo systems so I don't use much exotic in theater systems with one exception. Before HDMI the most important cable was the digital interconnect. A lot of information travels through a single run and a high quality cable did make a huge difference. 
One thing to keep in mind is room size. If you are in a smaller room there is little need for big speakers. Invest more in a quality subwoofer. Also check out bi-polar or omnidirectional speakers. I love the mirage speakers. I think Vanns.com still has great deals on them. Awesome when you have several different listening positions on your room. 
Processing in most HT receivers are more than adequate for room corrections. 
I could go on and on but I'm sure you'll get alot more advise here


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

You'll need to have sound panels on most of of your walls. I've installed them for theaters (warren theater in moore Oklahoma), music halls, church, and a few auditoriums (Gaylord, nornam OU).


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## thomasluke (Jun 10, 2011)

Whoa, Hold on guy's I'm not talking about going this far. LOL I just picked up a blueray/ Hometheater and While i like the receiver I will be changing some of the drivers.
Gonna try some of the drivers I have used in the car first.
But with the set as a whole driver placement does make a much bigger difference than i had thought it would.
The most frustrating part of it all is the fact that this 750$ setup that i have now actually sounds on par with my avenger which i have much more $ and time invested in.


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