Are you looking to take your movie-watching experience to the next level? If so, you're in for a treat. We've got an inside look at a home theater that's sure to blow you away!

The CEO of Audio Advice, Scott Newnam, takes us on a tour of a home theater located in the basement of a luxurious residence. This home entertainment Mecca has it all - from a killer wine cellar to a weight room and a massage room. But, it's the full golf simulator and the large seating theater that steal the show. In this article, we'll focus on the theater and everything it has to offer. Get ready to be impressed.

Home Theater Design & Installation

Designing and planning the layout of a room like this is crucial. With a size of 21 feet deep by 19 feet long and 10 feet high, this is a big room that can accommodate three full rows of seating. One unique feature of this theater is the use of sofas instead of traditional home theater seats, which allows for a seating capacity of up to 12 people before adding additional seating options. The placement of the door also played a role in the design process, requiring an aisle on one side of the room that offsets the chairs and the screen. To achieve the perfect layout, the team at Audio Advice started with our free home theater design tool to map out the room, ensuring that the screen, speakers, and everything else were perfectly aligned.

With the layout and design in place, the team then pre-wired the room, preparing it for the installation of the audio and visual components that would bring this theater to life.

Home Theater Video

In this particular home theater, the owners spared no expense in selecting the perfect video components. As mentioned before, the screen is a 2.40:1, 165-inch diagonal Stewart Filmscreen acoustically transparent screen, with speakers behind the screen to create a fully immersive viewing experience. This is paired with the Sony GTZ-380, which boasts an impressive 10,000 lumens. This means that the colors are vibrant, the darks are truly dark, and the brights are truly bright. The result is a stunningly clear and vivid picture that truly brings the movie to life.

This projector has such a powerful laser that it requires a 240 volt outlet. To hide the projector, we’ve built a small enclosure behind the last row of seats where it can fit snugly away from the viewers, minimizing fan noise in the room. This also allowed us to route the wires directly behind it into the wall to maintain the clean look. If you have the space, this is a great way to do it to keep your projector hidden and out of the way.

Home Theater Audio & JBL Synthesis Speakers

At Audio Advice, JBL reigns supreme among our top-rated brands. If you're seeking a superior home theater audio experience, JBL Synthesis sets the standard with a range of price points to suit your budget. What sets JBL Synthesis apart from other brands is that it offers a complete system solution, encompassing both electronics and speakers. You can expect an unparalleled level of dynamic range, frequency response, and slam — all of which are hallmarks of the most remarkable theaters. The front left, center, and right (LCR) speakers are all JBL Synthesis SCL-2 2.5-way 8" in-wall speakers, designed to deliver a fully immersive audio experience.

These speakers are not for the faint-hearted. If you're seeking reference-level impact and dynamics in a large room, look no further than the SCL-2. Featuring the D2415K D2 driver with a 1 ½” dual voice coil driver - a step up from the 1” single coil found in lower models, the SCL-2 packs a serious punch. Three 8” aluminum cone matrix drivers make up the 2.5-way configuration, perfectly complemented by its own sealed enclosure. But here's the kicker: the massive and solid cabinet requires a 6” deep stud bay for installation. Driving these incredible speakers is an Anthem MCA 325 Gen 2, 3-channel power amp - each channel equipped with 8 high-current discrete output transistors, and a massive toroidal power transformer to ensure your speakers stay engaged. Capable of delivering an impressive 600 watts into a 2-ohm load, the MCA 325 offers real-world power in abundance.

The side and rear speakers in this setup are the JBL Synthesis SCL-6's - 2.5-way quad 5.25" in-wall speakers that deliver an unbelievable impact despite their modest 31" height. Having tested many speakers over the years, we can confidently say that JBL Synthesis home theater speakers are the real deal. The weight of the magnets and electronics alone sets them apart from other solutions in their price range. The SCL-6 is no exception - with its very wide and linear on-axis dispersion, it's an ideal choice for surround and rear channels in a typical home theater room. Position them as you normally would and prepare to be blown away.

To create the ultimate JBL Synthesis system, we've incorporated two subwoofers, all powered by the JBL DSi 2.0 MA4-D 4-Channel Home Theater Power Amplifier. Our chosen subwoofers include two SSW-3 Dual 10-Inch Subwoofers, boasting a 2.5" voice coil for impressive power handling and deep, fast bass. These subwoofers, combined with the Anthem 1140 surround sound receiver, offer a fully calibrated and phase-aligned bass experience that evenly fills all 12 seats in the room.

Audio Advice is the largest seller of Anthem and we can tell you it's for two main reasons. First, they simply sound amazing with great design, power supplies, and DACs. The second is their Anthem Room Correction software called ARC Genesis. We really can’t overstate how impressive this software is. Historically good calibration systems were extremely expensive and very complex. Anthem has done a superb job making this software very user-friendly. We have the most popular tips & tricks/setup guide video all about ARC Genesis that walks you through every single step. Our team can even remotely calibrate your theater so you don’t have to worry about setting it up yourself.

Having the ability to automatically adjust the delay and phase align your subwoofers has set ARC Genesis apart from most others out there. If you don’t know the delay in your subwoofer or how to phase align your subs, check out our subwoofer calibration video where we show you exactly how to find the delay and phase align your subs.

In this theater, we chose to use six JBL Synthesis SCL-8 2.5-Way 5.25” atmos in-ceiling speakers. The high-frequency driver and its waveguide are mounted at an angle that presents a perfectly centered sound at 45 degrees off-axis from the speaker itself. This waveguide has such linear dispersion that you still have consistent sound at plus or minus 30 degrees from that 45-degree position. These cover all twelve seats in this theater with great coverage, no matter which seat you choose.

One of the reasons that so many people around the world are using Audio Advice’s Home Theater Design Tool is to nail down the exact location of where to place all of their speakers. One of the most challenging aspects is being sure you place your Atmos speakers in the correct position for optimal performance. This room was designed using the Home Theater Design tool. You can see that the atmos speakers are all just outside of the entire seating area. The tool gave the exact position for these speakers to give every single seat an accurate Dolby Atmos experience.

Home Theater Sources

• Kaleidescape - Kaleidescape is undoubtedly the most visually and audibly stunning movie player we've ever come across. With the ability to flawlessly stream lossless 4K, HD, Dolby Atmos, and DTS-X encoded movies, it stands as the unequivocal platform for a breathtaking cinematic experience. Without a Kaleidescape in your home theater, you're not taking full advantage of your impressive projector, screen, and Atmos speakers - that's a fact. The larger the screen, the more pronounced the difference you'll observe, especially with compressed streaming's increasing detriments as you go beyond 75". And when you consider the excellence of their movie store, it's a must-have for anyone serious about their home theater setup. With Kaleidescape, you're not just getting top-notch performance; you're also gaining an unparalleled movie browsing experience. We wholeheartedly endorse it!
• Apple TV 4K
• Roku Ultra

Acoustics

The entire room has been acoustically treated with Kinetics acoustic panels from floor to ceiling. There is a great mixture of absorptive panels at the first reflections of the speakers and diffusive panels to manage the sound in the room. It was all custom curated to make the room sound the very best it could for a movie.

Home Theater Automation

A good control system can add a lot to a room so everyone in the home can easily control the system without having a dozen remotes. In this case, the homeowners can use their phones, the Control4 Neeo remote, or a Control4 touch panel to control it.

Build Your Home Theater Today!

If you are thinking about building a home theater or updating yours, be sure to check out Home Theater Central, including our free 3D home theater designer where you can design your system, see lots of videos of complete installations like this one, and browse our inspiration gallery and how-to videos.

At Audio Advice, we've been designing and installing high-performance home theaters & smart home systems for decades. In fact, we've delivered more custom theaters than anyone in the Southeast! We are now offering Home Theater Design no matter where you live in the United States. If you are interested in a custom home theater or upgrading your current system, give us a call at 888.899.8776, chat with us, or stop by one of our award-winning showrooms.