Video Asylum

Posted by Dalancroft (A) on November 28, 2003 at 20:28:59

In Reply to: Mini Home Theater posted by DanS on November 25, 2003 at 19:41:13:

You don't really talk about budget, but I had a very nice little theater shoehorned into a 9x9x8 space so I know it can be done.

I would recommend:

-One of the newer, MUCH thinner rear projection TVs, unless you have about $6-8K cash for a true HDTV-ready plasma. Don't be fooled, most of the cheaper ones are only analog TV quality or, at best, EDTV (enhanced definition) which is the same quality as DVDs -- good but not the best. I saw an ad for a 55" Philips HDTV RPTV that's only 17" deep

-SMALL speaker set. Paradigm (Cinema), Energy (Take 2), KEF (2005.2), Definitive Technology (ProCinema 60 or 80) and many other companies now manufacturer very decent sounding, small, wall-mountable speakers

-A good but small and, preferably for music, sealed subwoofer. In that space, the Dayton 10" kit from PartsExpress is probably a good bet. I wouldn't go in-walls for bass as, unless you REALLY brace everything well, you're going to get a lot of vibration from the drywall.

-Depending on budget, any of the major brand receivers should be fine. Depending on your room and where you'd mount the rear center speaker, I'd consider going 6.1 for an added touch of realism. For cables, I would just use Bluejeans Cable for component and interconnect wires and a decent grade of speaker wire for everything else (there are innovative products such as "tape wire" that you can affix to walls and paint over for a clean, custom look -- check out www.accessories4less.com for a few options.

Finally, about $100-150 will get you a decent progressive scan (assuming the monitor you select will display progressive images) player. I'm partial to Panasonic myself but if you visit www.hometheaterforum.com you'll get lots of opinions. One nice evolution recently are the DVD/VCR combos, which allow you to play both media from one player which saves room in your AV rack.