Home Theater recommendations

[Seanut__Brittle]

Finishing up my basement and looking to do a small home theatre section. 12 feet by 12 feet with 90ish inch tall celling's. budget is fairly open maybe a couple grand at most. looking to hopefully do some in celling speakers. any recommendations for the speakers would be greatly appreciated  

[Bombastinator]

57 minutes ago, Seanut__Brittle said:

Finishing up my basement and looking to do a small home theatre section. 12 feet by 12 feet with 90ish inch tall celling's. budget is fairly open maybe a couple grand at most. looking to hopefully do some in celling speakers. any recommendations for the speakers would be greatly appreciated  

My likely unpopular recommendation  is “don’t” but assuming that one gets ignored the three things about the space that are reliably important is power access, light control, and sound proofing.  Speaking to wiring access I actually suggest large diameter NM for the data cable.  Bigger tube than you need, and put pull strings in it.  You’ll want to get some sort of data down there, and specs keeep changing.  With nm conduit you can change as needed. 
Speaking to sound proofing there are a lot of cheap but heavy materials that can actually work better than the thin and light high tech stuff.  Sound absorption. One of the more famous ones is a type of insulation called “blue fill” made from recycled blue jeans. It’s layers of cotton.  Seems to work best if it’s laid edge on. (Which means a lot of cutting)  luckily the stuff isn’t itchy like pink insulation.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Bombastinator

[IPD]

You aren't going to get good non-planar speaker setup + quality display that fits the space nicely--for 2 grand.  You are really better off just getting a 75" tv and a $200 soundbar and calling it a day.

 

A high quality projector screen, can easily take up anywhere between 1/4th and double your total budget.  Atmos is $500 on the low end for any decent quality.

[Stahlmann]

Get a big OLED TV, add a good sound bar to the mix and call it a day. That will do most of what insanely expensive projector + speaker setups can do for a lot less money. Plus you don't have all the hassle with positioning and wiring.

 

LG's C2 series is a great choice for a TV, they can be had for 42" - 83".

 

As for a good Soundbar, the Samsung HW-Q80R is a great choice. You can also get additional sattelite speakers for a good surround experience.

[cmndr]

General thoughts:

Run ALL the wires you might ever want to while the walls are open. This means ethernet, speaker, HDMI, etc.


I'd probably go for wiring to a 7.2.4 set up, that's about as much as is practical.

In terms of actual config, 5.2.2 is probably a good starting point. If there's only really one person sitting there then consider 4.2.2 and spend more $$$ on the L+R.
Also THINK ABOUT SOUND TREATMENT early on. Ideally you treat the early reflections. You get diminishing returns beyond treating the early reflections. 2" of rockwool is kind of the minimum (4" is ideal) and it works best if you place it on top of a 2" box (think grid of 2"x4"s) to effectively double the depth.

 

-----

TV: check RTING's suggested list - your desired size/budget will matter here.

L+R speaker - Polk R200 if you're skipping the center; if you want a center, maybe SVS Prime (bookshelves + center); if you're trying to down cost a pair of Emotiva B1+           
Sides: ELAC OW4.2             
Subwoofers: 2x SVS PB-1000 (see if you can find ANYTHING SVS, Rel, Hsu, Outlaw, Monolith or similar on Craigslist, it's like half the price of new or less)      
AVR: Denon s760h

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, cmndr said:

General thoughts:

Run ALL the wires you might ever want to while the walls are open. This means ethernet, speaker, HDMI, etc.


I'd probably go for wiring to a 7.2.4 set up, that's about as much as is practical.

In terms of actual config, 5.2.2 is probably a good starting point. If there's only really one person sitting there then consider 4.2.2 and spend more $$$ on the L+R.
Also THINK ABOUT SOUND TREATMENT early on. Ideally you treat the early reflections. You get diminishing returns beyond treating the early reflections. 2" of rockwool is kind of the minimum (4" is ideal) and it works best if you place it on top of a 2" box (think grid of 2"x4"s) to effectively double the depth.

 

-----

TV: check RTING's suggested list - your desired size/budget will matter here.

L+R speaker - Polk R200 if you're skipping the center; if you want a center, maybe SVS Prime (bookshelves + center); if you're trying to down cost a pair of Emotiva B1+           
Sides: ELAC OW4.2             
Subwoofers: 2x SVS PB-1000 (see if you can find ANYTHING SVS, Rel, Hsu, Outlaw, Monolith or similar on Craigslist, it's like half the price of new or less)      
AVR: Denon s760h

This is why I said nm conduit. By far the easiest time to install wiring is before the interior walls go on.  With NM you retain some access.  Fishing wire is doable but it sucks. The standard device for horizontal fishing is a diversibit, which is a 3 foot long flexible shaft with a spade bit on the end.  Got to drill holes in the studs.  The diversibit is designed to also act as a fish tape, so you attach the wire (or flexible conduit) after it is back out of the wall and pull the bit back again, thus threading the otherwise inaccessible hole.  They’re expensive and they wear out fast.  I had to go to using just the extensions and putting regular spade bits in the end so I could have something sharp enough to cut. 
 

Video projectors are really expensive at the point where they start to rival LCD, and are really only useful at sizes larger than TVs can manage. Also, not just the projector is expensive.  The screens can cost as much as the projector does.  You can project onto just a white sheet or a bare wall, but it doesn’t work terribly well.  To get the kind of brightness that rivals TVs you need a special surface with glass beads in it.  Projectors have such severe light problems even the “silver screen” was brought back because it reflects more light.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Bombastinator

[IPD]

Screen gain is a consideration based on the ANSI output of the projector, and the ambient light in the room.  ^  And yes, some screens will cost you more than the entire stated budged the OP listed.  That's why I said the budget really doesn't justify a full-bore setup.