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Best home theater setup


Aron Siegel

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My home post setup is my theater setup too, obviously. Older Sony SXRD projector, Denon receiver, Lipinski L-707 LCR, Some Sonus Faber on-wall for rears (due to limited space), Lipinksi L-150 sub (being replaced by B&W CT SW15 15" sub since the Lipinski doesn't physically fit in my setup) I really like B&W's new CT700 custom theater line. I think it gives a lot of bang for the buck, plus the finish quality is great. If I were building my setup from scratch today, I think I would have gone with CT7.3 LCRS up front. Small speakers are cute, but there is something missing from not having big cabinets with big drivers, or at least not as effortless to achieve the same results.

Don't forget to treat the room. I have about half of the walls in my work room / theater treated. Because it is a residential setup, I recognize you can't always go hog wild, but to make it somewhat more attractive, I bought a bunch of shallow, cheap, IKEA bookshelves and lined the inside back wall with 4" Auralex foam. There is another 6" or so of foam and air gap between the back of the bookshelf and the house's wall. The front third to half of the room has some polystyrene diffusors panels, that actually don't look half bad.

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also, if your just starting out, figure out what your realistic budget is right this moment. buy the cheapest receiver (I recommend Denon, Marantz, or Integra/Onkyo) that has enough HDMI inputs for your needs. Then spend the rest on just two speakers (CT7.3 LCRS in the budget?). Forget the sub, forget surrounds. Don't buy the fancy HDMI cables or speaker cables that they sales guy will try to pitch you. Use lamp cord and buy decent workhorse level HDMI cables online (from a company other than M$%(^er). I would normally say go ahead and buy cables from you brick and mortar store, but everyone, even RadioShack, has been swayed by a couple of the boutique cable manufacturers to drop their cheap cable lines and just carry the expensive s%(t.

Next year you can add a sub, then surrounds, and finally a center channel (which is the least important element in my opinion, if you buy a decent quality pair of mains in the first place and actually sit down in front of the TV to watch things).

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My home post setup is my theater setup too, obviously. Older Sony SXRD projector, Denon receiver, Lipinski L-707 LCR, Some Sonus Faber on-wall for rears (due to limited space), Lipinksi L-150 sub (being replaced by B&W CT SW15 15" sub since the Lipinski doesn't physically fit in my setup) I really like B&W's new CT700 custom theater line. I think it gives a lot of bang for the buck, plus the finish quality is great. If I were building my setup from scratch today, I think I would have gone with CT7.3 LCRS up front. Small speakers are cute, but there is something missing from not having big cabinets with big drivers, or at least not as effortless to achieve the same results.

Don't forget to treat the room. I have about half of the walls in my work room / theater treated. Because it is a residential setup, I recognize you can't always go hog wild, but to make it somewhat more attractive, I bought a bunch of shallow, cheap, IKEA bookshelves and lined the inside back wall with 4" Auralex foam. There is another 6" or so of foam and air gap between the back of the bookshelf and the house's wall. The front third to half of the room has some polystyrene diffusors panels, that actually don't look half bad.

Ha Lipinskis for TV, awesome - I too run mine through music music system ( Bryston/Sony M5's/Boutique handmade pre ) it's great when the mix / production sound is good, but eww on most television, shows the garbage up.

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  • 7 years later...

I have a Sonos beam as my primary speaker.

 

I've learned in life that I can be of two minds – If I'm working I want my gear to be the best possible and clinical, when I'm relaxing I want it to be easy to use, and good enough – sonos is way better than the TV speakers, but it is no where near the best living room system.
 

My TV is a 43" 1080p best buy special, I bought it because it didn't have any smart features and my Apple TV covers those needs

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Interesting topic.

 

Currently my system includes the following all setup in the living room:

 

- Panasonic 65" OLED 4k TV

- Bose 5.1 surround sound box thingy (bought second hand from local HiFi store)

- Marantz NR 1509 7.1 Receiver setup using the Audessey which definitely helps with getting the settings right

 

Sound is good all round and rumbles are enough to upset the wife.

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