If you’ve made the decision to turn your great room or family room into a home theater, you have some investigating to do. Designing a system can be great fun for an audio-visual aficionado, or it can be overwhelming for someone without AV technology experience. However, by asking friends who have set up great systems, doing online research, and talking to sales people at high-end home theater stores, you can design a system that fits your needs and your budget. Here are some of the main points from Leith Acura of Cary to take into consideration when designing your new home theater.
Room size
Before you can start your home theater design, you need to know the dimensions of your space, plus the interior volume. You also need to estimate how many people you expect to seat, and if you’ll need to purchase theater seating or use chairs and sofas already in the room. You also need a ventilated area to store your components and assess how many openings you have into the room including windows and doors.
Budget size
Not only should your components be sized to fit in your interior, they also have to be priced to fit within your budget. Design, performance capacity, and quality will depend on the dollar amount you’re willing to invest.
Existing equipment
Do you intend to hybridize your new equipment with already purchased items? If so, beware that compatibility may be an issue. Sometimes it’s easier to replace speakers or other gear than attempt to blend old and new equipment.
Separates or bundle
It’s important to decide if you want individual components for each element of your system, or if you would prefer an A/V receiver that has a surround pre-amp, a multi-channel amplifier, and a tuner combined in one box.
Whatever you choose, make sure all your components provide connections to all your sources. Be mindful that you will need extra inputs so that your system can grow and expand with time.
Audio
How acute is your ear when it comes to appreciating music? Not everyone needs top-of-the-line audio equipment to achieve a quality sound system that enhances movie viewing and plays CDs and digital music with crisp, clear tones. If you can’t hear the difference between an expensive component and a medium-priced component, you may want to choose the latter and save a few dollars.
Be extra careful when buying subwoofers - they need to be sized to the interior capacity of the room so that they deliver a performance as powerful in one part of the room as it is in the other.
Visual
The size and seating capacity of your room are determining factors in how the best location is for your screen and how large you need it to be for optimal viewing. Too large a picture, and you’ll have issues tracking motion without moving your head. Too small a picture, and the image will not be easy to see, and details will get lost. Another decision you need to make is whether you want front or rear projection.
Price
Depending on your equipment and features, you can spend an average of five to ten thousand dollars for a decent system, or you can easily spend more than $50,000 to design a high-end home theater with top-notch performance ability.
Questions?
A great resource for planning your home theater is the blog Ask Home Theater. Experts in electronics and A/V technology answer reader's questions that arise from creating a home theater design. Also, there’s no shame in hiring expert A/V techs to come to your home and not only design your system but install it for you too. Then all you do is have to pick up the remote and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
