HT budget 6-8L for equipment & installation

[crskumar]

I am newbie to the AV world. So far been watching a big Plasma TV with a OTB HT system. Now we are building a dedicated HT room which is 12'x24.9'x9'. Planning on starting with a 5.1 system and upgrade to 7.1 or 5.1.4 with atmos later.

1. Projector
I have pretty much decided on the projector - Panasonic PT-AE8000 which is on sale for $1599 + $200 shipping to India. Not sure how much duty I will pay but it should still be cheaper than the 2.5 laks I was quoted. My estimate is 1.5L total.

2. Screen
I am thinking of going for a perforated screen. Size I am thinking 106" or 119" and planning on placing the speakers behind if I get THX speakers. Budget is about 75K for screen. Do you suggest I go with a curved screen for the Pana projector? Also brands I should consider.

3. AVR
I was quoted 1L for the Pioneer LX58 atmos receiver by both installers but I am having second thoughts after reading some reviews. An alternate would the Denon AVR-5200 or AVR-4100. Any suggestions would be welcome.

4. Speakers
This is hardest area for me to decide. I auditioned MK audio M7 and 750 series, Klipsch RF-82 ii, Jamo D500 and Revel speakers. I liked the MK audio 750 but the price quoted makes me think twice. The Klipsch is also similar price to MK. Jamo D500 was a bit less. Leaning towards the M7 as the price is right or the D500 but finding it hard to decide.

5. Blu-ray
I am thinking I will just get the BDP-170 for now. I am thinking I will be watching Indian movies mostly or from my network storage so I was thinking OPPO would be an overkill.

6. Cables
The quotation for cables (HDMI, speaker, power, woofer) is about 40K which I think is excessive and I am planning on sourcing it myself. From my research I can import the HDMI and speaker cables from the US for 10-15K.

7. Acoustics
I was quoted 1L to do the acoustics. It seems excessive. My interior designers says he can do it himself based on what he has done at many other HT rooms. Have to do more research here.

I would really appreciate your suggestions on AVR+speaker & Acoustics combination. Unfortunately not many places for me to try out the speakers in Coimbatore and I believe I may have to take a trip to Chennai or Bangalore because I believe the prices are also very inflated. Chennaites and Bangaloreans, please suggest good AV places for me to visit.

All suggestions are very much appreciated.

 

[aashish351]

Your room size is almost the same as mine (14'x25'x10') and I can assure you room treatment will be required for a good experience. If you are spending so much on your home theatre, it would be unwise to ignore it. I have not ventured into proper room treatment myself much because this is not my permanent house. Although, I can tell you that, with two fluffy rugs, curtains, couches, and some furniture, things are not that bad acoustically, but, I can sense a need for room treatment. Wall-to-wall floor carpeting should definitely be considered.

Screen size: in my room the main seating is mid-way on the long side because it is also my stereo listening room and I want to maintain the L/R speaker to sweet spot ratio. From that distance my 120" screen is a bit overkill. 100" is perfect. But if your primary seating is going to be in the 1/3rd zone opposite to the screen, the 120" will give a better experience. Can't comment on curved or flat, but my basic understanding tells me, curved is supposed to enhance the 3D experience. If that's important, consider curved screen, otherwise, I guess flat is just fine.

About all other components, I will request other members to chime in as I have been a bit out of the HT scene for a while. However, I must say that my ageing Panasonic PT-AE1000e full HD 3-LCD projector still rocks, except an annoying lamp brightness flickering issue that comes up every now and then and haven't been able to figure out how to correct it yet. Also, because in HTs cable distances can be high, so please don't skimp in that area. At the same time, I don't think there is any need for going overboard as well. Your budget of 40K is actually not that high. With a good 3D / 4K enabled HDMI, and good power and speaker cables and other interconnects, you probably will end up spending in that vicinity if you go in for one or two levels above the basic ones. But I must say once again, I have been out of the HT scene. So, others might be able to correct this understanding.

 

[kvm]

Hi CRSkumar
I would definitely suggest you consider MK 750. Is truly astounding for movies. I auditioned MK 150 and immediately fell in love but due to budget constraints I went for 750 5.1 series. Its definitely doing justice and more..

On Oppo.. if budget permits, I strongly suggest.. a good investment. With its dual HDMI outs and good Sabre DAC it serves me both for HT and Stereo.

On room treatment, even I haven't done any yet.. I also did not find any immediate need. I am happy with my current setup and will probably look at it later. Am driving MK with Onkyo 727 receiver (which is 7.2 capable but delivering 5.1 outputs currently)

... all the best in your search.

 

[john_k_antony]

From my experience in building a HT room from scratch and having learnt from some expensive mistakes, here are some food for thought, with your budget

1. Consider increasing the budget for acoustics to atleast 1.5 to 2L. Because that is the most important component that decides the sound in your room . Not just the speakers and amps and cables etc. This is purely from my experience.

2. Consider going for a PreProc + Power amp solution rather than an AVR

3. Consider using 2 Subwoofers instead of just one. It makes a big difference.

4. For speakers, you really don't need a Floor Stander for front mains. My HT room is similar size of yours (24x15.5x10) and I use Klipsch RB 81 bookshelves and its powered by a 150w/ch power amp. It sounds fine and loud.

5. Consider increasing your budget for the BDP. BDP 170 is good, but a dedicated room deserves a better player with good video processing. I would recommend an Oppo 103D as I have 2 Oppo players (Oppo 93 and Oppo 105) in my home and absolutely love them. I also have a Pioneer BDP 160 in my bedroom and it is a good player, but the WiFi sucks though.

6. Screen was the least expensive item in my budget. I went for a DIY solution as I found the branded screens were ridiculously expensive. I got a good quality screen material from Carl's and my carpenter build me a frame and it works well. I know the perforated screens are okay, but if you could take some budget out of the screen and use it elsewhere, it will give you a much better result. You can look at my HT build thread on the specifications for building a screen frame using plywood. I spent around 18K for my 142" screen all inclusive.

7. I am using a $60, MonoPrice RedMere 50' HDMI cable and it works perfect for Full HD, 3D without any issues or stutter.

8. Consider wiring an RJ45 cable to enjoy internet streaming and NAS streaming. Wireless works, but wires network is the best.

9. Consider providing ample 15A power sockets for connecting various equipment in the room is possible.

10. Consider covering the entire room's wall and ceiling with a dull dark decor. You could use a dark paint. What I did was, I build panels using cheap 6mm ply covered with cheap Rs 10/mtr cotton cloth and hooked them on the wall. For ceiling, I used AnuTone's black colored acoustic false ceiling. Carpet flooring is best for HT, but with Indian conditions, carpet is a maintenance headache. So I used laminated wooden flooring with a thick rug kept on the floor at the first reflection point of all the front speakers to reduce the reflection from the floor.

The above recommendations are purely based on my experience in building a HT room. There may be much better alternatives available

This is my HT room build thread - http://www.hifivision.com/home-theater/46258-yet-another-dedicated-home-theater-build.html

-John.

 

[venkatcr]

All suggestions are very much appreciated.

Unless you have a lot of time on hand, the best would be to work with a reputed installer, and get him to do a complete installation. All you have to do is decide on the speakers, because sound is something personal and subjective. If you tell the installer what kind of sound you are looking for he will suggest and demo a lot of speakers and you can choose from one.

Remember, for HT there are lots of options. You have in wall speakers, in ceiling speakers, and speakers that can be hidden behind the screen. These need a bit of expertise and knowledge to install.

Give an installer a turn key job, and let him do his job. There are many good HT installers in Coimbatore.

Cheers

 

[john_k_antony]

Unless you have a lot of time on hand, the best would be to work with a reputed installer, and get him to do a complete installation. All you have to do is decide on the speakers, because sound is something personal and subjective. If you tell the installer what kind of sound you are looking for he will suggest and demo a lot of speakers and you can choose from one.

Remember, for HT there are lots of options. You have in wall speakers, in ceiling speakers, and speakers that can be hidden behind the screen. These need a bit of expertise and knowledge to install.

Give an installer a turn key job, and let him do his job. There are many good HT installers in Coimbatore.

Cheers

+1 to above since you have a good budget. I think for 10L you can even get a good automation system with some nice lightings. 8L is a good budget too.

Not to discourage, but go DIY only if you have a great passion to build it your own and have LOTS of patience and time .


Even if you go DIY / professional installers, keep lots of options to upgrade in the future. You can start with 5.1, move to 7.2, then to the latest Atmos config with ceiling and high speakers etc etc. Consider the pre-pro + power amp combo for amplification so that you can upgrade them separately in the future. In wall and behind the screen speakers are good. But they are difficult to upgrade in the future as far as I know. I am not sure how much you resist "upgrade bugs" . If you like to upgrade stuff once in a while, I would suggest keeping things easy for upgrades / mods.

-John.

 

[crskumar]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think based on the suggestions I will go with an installer for the HT. I still plan on procuring the projector from the US - just need to figure out the best and cheapest way to get it shipped to India.

Can you guys give me a idea of why a pre-pro+amp combo would be better than a high end AVR. Is it just the ease to upgrade?

I still need to demo more speakers I guess before I can decide. It is hard to find demos in Coimbatore for the ones I would like to demo. So leaning towards MK or the Jamo.

 

[john_k_antony]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think based on the suggestions I will go with an installer for the HT. I still plan on procuring the projector from the US - just need to figure out the best and cheapest way to get it shipped to India.

Can you guys give me a idea of why a pre-pro+amp combo would be better than a high end AVR. Is it just the ease to upgrade?

I still need to demo more speakers I guess before I can decide. It is hard to find demos in Coimbatore for the ones I would like to demo. So leaning towards MK or the Jamo.

Upgrade option is just one of the flexibility you get with a pre-power combo. But the major improvement will be in the over all sound, the dynamics handling for the movies sound tracks and most importantly ability to drive speakers with ease to the reference SPLs demanded by movies.

I have burnt some expensive speakers by trying to drive them with a Denon AVR rated at "105 w / channel" in my similar sized HT room. The speakers got burnt because Denon clipped the output even when I was running it at 70% of volume. Denon was perfect when I used it in my living room. But a dedicated HT room with proper acoustics done will be a BIG challenge for a mid size AVR rated at "100+ watt/channel". Because the power demand is more to create an immersive soundstage in a bigger room with proper acoustics in place. And most of these AVRs that are rated 100-120 w/channel is always the "2 channel driven rating" and they fail to perform in a dedicated HT room.

I upgraded my amplification to a dedicated multichannel power amp and added a pre-proc instead of the AVR. I could easily say that these dedicated power amps drive my speakers with ease to the SPLs that Denon was struggling to achieve or could not achieve. The price I paid for pre-proc + power amps were almost equal to that of a mid-end AVR (1.5L). Well there are not many "bells and whistles" attached to these pre/proc + power amp combos compared to a modern AVR. But they are guaranteed to drive my speakers with ease and will not fry them even at loud volumes .

I am not very sure about the capabilities of the latest AVRs, but for me, even a mid-end AVR is a strict NO-NO for a bigger dedicated HT room.

I have heard rave reviews about MK 150s. They are expensive, but definitely worth a try.

-John.

 

[gjiashica]

go DIY only if you have a great passion to build it your own and have LOTS of patience and time

 

[Gajendar Singhvi]

M

Hi CRSkumar
I would definitely suggest you consider MK 750. Is truly astounding for movies. I auditioned MK 150 and immediately fell in love but due to budget constraints I went for 750 5.1 series. Its definitely doing justice and more..

On Oppo.. if budget permits, I strongly suggest.. a good investment. With its dual HDMI outs and good Sabre DAC it serves me both for HT and Stereo.

On room treatment, even I haven't done any yet.. I also did not find any immediate need. I am happy with my current setup and will probably look at it later. Am driving MK with Onkyo 727 receiver (which is 7.2 capable but delivering 5.1 outputs currently)

... all the best in your search.

MK speakers are very good but they are 4ohm speakers. Remember to put power amplifier as most of the AVR will not do the justice to these speakers. NAD is very stable and has pre outs as well.