2. home-theater
  3. 1205800329

Brother, can you spare some time for HT advice?

Hi. I've been a two-channel guy for years but am exploring an HT setup and could use some help. I'm thinking about a Samsung LCD TV (LNT 4671 or 5271), a Panasonic dmp-BD30 Blu-ray player and either an Onkyo TX-SR705 or the Denon AVR-988 receiver. I've also heard good things about the KEF KHT3005 surround speakers. Ideally, the receiver would have multi-room functionality so we could run a pair of speakers to an adjoining patio.

The gear would be placed in a 15x18 foot family room that's open to a kitchen about the same size, with hardwood flooring throughout. (I know, not an ideal configuration, but it's where we spend most of our time). We're about to start a remodel of both rooms that will allow us to hide cables and keep things nice and neat, but will also leave us running lean for a long while, so we're looking for gear with the most bang for the buck. Any opinions of the equipment I'm considering, or suggestions on better choices?

Thanks.
newsman

Showing 1 response by drew_eckhardt

drew_eckhardt
394 posts
 
One piece televisions aren't big enough to provide a cinematic sense of impact beyond the shortest seating distances, especially when you limit yourself to flat screens priced less than nice german cars.

A 50" plasma is good out to 5-6' or 65" out to 6-7'. Once you get out to 10-11' you really want a 100" screen once you get used to thinking in terms of small movie screens (at 11', 100" diagonal gets you the subtended field of vision you'd have in the last row of a decent THX theater) instead of big TVs.

You really want to use front projection with some light control and a grey screen. If you must watch with high ambient light you can hide a flat panel for casual TV viewing behind a retractable screen for movies.
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