Hey guys. Looking for opinions or recommendations.

I've been researching for months and need to pull the trigger on some seating before I go crazy.

Anyone used theaterseatstore.com ?

I am looking at these. I'm a taller guy (6'3")so the higher seat backs are nice.

http://www.theaterseatstore.com/lane-103-matinee-black-power

Thoughts?

Well, if you've been researching for months, I probably can't be of much use to you

But the seat-back thing caught my eye. We sit on a (lovely, Thomasville) sofa that my wife has always really liked. It's comfy, and I would never sacrifice the ability to sit directly next to her (i.e. if we got theater seats, we'd have a loveseat in the middle or something).

I'm rambling, but my point was going to be that the sofa has a pretty high back. My perception is that it meaningfully compromises the effectiveness of the surround sound. Admittedly, my surround speakers are a little behind (rather than a little in front of) the seating position. And the sofa could well be the reason why I didn't get all tingly by going from 5.1 to 7.1.

Theater seating and speakers both cost a lot of money. Speaker placement matters, and so does ear placement.

I need to purchase theater seating myself at some point. Tom's point about the high backs is one that's been on my mind. I'm going to be looking for a lower back so it doesn't interfere with the sound. What would be nice would be a section that you can plug in to make the back higher if you have a guest who prefers a higher back. Kind of like the top part of some car seats, only perhaps more significant.

I'll probably end up ordering my seating online, but it sure would be nice to have a local place that carried many different brands of theater seating so I could try them all out side-by-side.

Just get 3 lazy boys, that is what I did.

No kids. I've got a dog and a cat, though.... and I guess I can scrounge up one more of something.

I've looked around at stores like that online, personally I'm just worried that if I don't sit my butt in the chair to try it out first I'd regret it.

If you do order em please report back how you like em.

When I was wandering through Costco the other day, they had a fairly nice set on the floor. It was a set of three, electric recline, black. The leather was surprisingly good quality and they were down right comfortable. They even had an arm rest that would slide back to expose cup holders. It was pretty tough for me to walk out of the store without buying them. I think they were right at $1500. I'm sure they would less in the lower 48.

We had those at our Costco, too, but I'm failing to remember the price. I didn't even try them out, though, since they're not exactly what I'm looking for, and I'm not quite ready for that part of the project. Seems like a great deal for anyone looking for something along those lines, though!

Rooms To Go had 3 wide theatre seats, fully electric reclining and cup holders for either $1500 or $1600 (iirc) ...I only looked at them for a minute but it did look good I thought.

I wish that I could spend some good dough on seats. I was looking at some non-leather seating on the cheap from TheaterSeat.com (the Eros model). Some people at AVS have them as say that they work well. Not as good as some of the premium seats, but for occasional use, they are good. Then they came out with the 5131 model... They did one production run of them around September 2011, and they sold out quickly. Now I find out that they have already been discontinued. They looked nicer and were just a touch narrower than the Eros so they were going to fit nicely.

Now I don't know what to do. I am looking at 2 rows of 8 with a loveseat option in the middle (basically the center arm is removed, which oddly cost more money on some of these models).

I can get all 8 in the configuration I want, plus lighted cupholders (free for me as part of a deal for the discontinue of the 5131) for $2254.50 shipped to my door.

That comes to about $282 per seat.

I really liked some of the options that "Roman" from AVS has. You can get leather where you touch, and motorized for about $405 per seat, but then there is shipping on top of that. His total was around $3800 for 8 seats shipped. Too much for my budget.

I really don't want to do couches since we've done that before and even if it is a reclining couch, the people in the middle still need an ottoman for their feet.

Here is the Eros:


And here is what the 5131 looked like:



I am just adding this not to totally derail the thread, but just for reference for others looking into seating options.

These one legged seats would help keep you from falling asleep while watching a movie. Not to mention, much cheaper.

Fifty bucks for a round piece of plywood on a single leg? Wow....

That's great, Nick. Getting it down below $300 a seat seems like a good deal. I'm totally with you on the loveseat-in-the-middle thing.

No kidding.

Hilarious, CatBrat! LOL! Ideal for a spartan Quaker home theater, don't you think?

Alan

Add in a pogo stick spring, and I'm in!

I can't say for sure, but I think that image is upside down.

Instead of a Butt Kicker, you'd have a Butt Sti. . . . . . . .well, you get the picture.

I'm looking into seat now. I have been advised that my good ol' squishy couch I've had for a decade would be better appreciated at the dump.

Too damn many choices.... I have a headache from looking at Internet sights.

I can't decided if I should just go cheap, or pony up for a quality seat. I only need three, as I can't really fit any more that a row of three and a stand alone recliner in my room.

I'm leaning towards Palliser brand seats at this point. I kinda like the Axis. Lots of options for this chair. I like the adjustable head rest too. http://www.stargatecinema.com/Palliser-Axis-Home-Theater-Seat-model-41934-pr-92533.html

Antother seat I'm considering is the Fusion Escape. It also has an adjustable head rest. http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/h...er-seating.html


What really sucks is I can't just hop on over the local HT seating store and check these things out.

Contact Roman (who sells the Fusion). He has some great products with power recline for around $415 per seat. He can't advertise those prices, but he can get them for you if you mention AVS or HTS....

ROTFLMAO! Really? Oh! I can't breathe!

Mike, when was the last time you "went cheap" and how did that make you feel?

I'm gonna be giggling about that one for days.

Hey, some of us can only afford the cheap stuff from time to time... For me, that is my seats. I would love to have been able to throw about $4500 + shipping into two rows of 4 seats, but I am still choking on the $8500 for the carpeting that we want for our basement.

Nick, I totally understand. I'm in the same boat, except I don't even have the money for the carpet at the moment.

Mike just doesn't have a good history with "restraint".

Hey, I'm 'frugal'. It's not like I'm out buying MacIntosh stuff, (not that I could even consider or afford stuff that expensive). But one thing I've learned with furniture, is that you really do get what you pay for. So it's either go cheap with the expectation that it'll fall apart in a couple years and need to be replaced, or move up a bit and buy something that will last for a decade or longer. In Nick's case, buying 8 seats is downright expensive. I'm glad I only have three to worry about....

i have a question for you guys looking into hometheater seating...


What is the deal with electric motorized seats? i would view that as un-necessary. An added expense, as well as an expensive item that can break in the future... Why not the age tested steel braided cable?

I love to see the people not used to my living room sofa push the mechanical button that releases the foot rest, only to watch them wiggle all around before they figure out how to make the foot rest pop out. Electric would solve this problem.

Electric recline is so that you can get the seat in the exact right reclining position as desired. Manual is fairly reclined or not reclined...

With the motorized recliner, you have infinite control over the amount of recline. Most, if not all recliners with manual recline are all or nothing. Some of the euro's are much better in this regards.

So I have one more on the list. IMG Norway. I can fit four if I go with them, as the euro's are a bit narrower. I have a few Ekornes chairs and love them. Kinda like Volvo seats.

http://www.imgcomfort.com/ProductsList/Home-Theatre.aspx

Yeah, Mike, but if you buy seats with the capability of being motorized, you buy seats that are capable of 'sploding.

With our manual Palliser recliners I can recline it to pretty much anywhere in between and it stays there. I did have to try several different makes & models first, though. As you say, many of them are all or nothing.

Not sure if it's relavent, but mine are the individual ones, not the HT w/cup holder ones you see "grouped" together.

Mark, go to your room.

Why don't you just get a wheelchair with tilt? It'll cost $15,000, but heck, you can drive to the fridge to get a beer.

That is the most awesome thing I've heard all day.

Mikey's got a pet polar bear that fetches his beer. He don't need no stinkin wheelchair.

He'll get me a beer, but he can't make a martini worth a damn.

This polar bear can make a great martini if you prefer shaken to stirred.

http://www.1stdibs.com/furniture_item_detail.php?id=336589

Too funny!

I bought one of these last year and I really enjoy it, I paid less than $600.00 on Prime, not sure why the big price jump.
But then again I just wanted a cup holder on my chair. The wife can bring me the beer. (good luck with that)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QKYMSA/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

Black ones are in the mid $600 range. The brown ones are much more expensive.

I noticed that, I bought the brown one.

Now I'm looking at Fjords furniture (I like Scandinavian furniture). Similar to Ekornes, but a lot less expensive. They have a few recliners they call "zero gravity" that can be joined together with wedge tables. Their web sight is a PITA to get around, but here's one of the recliners with integrated foot rest. http://www.hjellegjerde.com/fjordsred/?menu=50

Here's a better web sight.... http://www.lifestylesfurniture.com/catalog.php3?category=0000003219

Selfishly resurrecting this thread as I'm in the middle of trying to pick out my seating. I just checked out a selection of HT seats at NFM (Nebraska Furnature Mart) and fell in love with a set from Lane. I'll have to go back and verify which model it was but they are very similar to Matinee or End Zone line. Had power seats, bonded leather and LED cup holders. First week of May is when the Berkshire shareholder meeting is held in town, since my family owns some stock we get a decent discount at NFM so I'm hoping the seats will be under $500 each. Looking around thou these unpowered Matinee's are going for $399. I think I have room for up to 6 seats across in an oval shape but I don't think I want to spend that much money. Pretty frustrating, can't make up my mind what to do. I like that 5 seats would give me one exactly centered in the room but with friends/family coming over I was hoping to have maybe 6 perm seats and something extra (bean bags maybe) for up to 8.

My biggest worry about buying online is not being able to sit in it before buying. Now that I know I like how these Lane seats feel (tall back, great feeling when reclined) I feel my choices are narrowed a bit.

I just found out today that TheaterSeat.com (HTOutlet) isn't going to have me send back the one defective chair I got from them. So while I will have 8 perfect seats, I will have a 9th that I have no idea what to do with. It works just fine, but has some cosmetic issues.

you can use it when your wife puts you in time out.

What happened? did they basically say that they weren't going to do anything about it? Decline that part of the charge on your card... Depending on who your card issuer is that may be the best way to go... I have BofA, one thing i like about them is they do not mess around... I have called the fraud department several times because companies wouldn't deal with me... When BofA got involved things got made right FAST... One of the guys i was talking to said that when the bank gets involved, almost always the company will do the right thing. He explained that if the company decides to fight it.. VISA charges them 5,000$ per charge... There was one company that got my card info and had made 3 charges for 40$ each.... Needless to say i got my 120$ back, as opposed to that company paying 15,000$ to visa..

Try going that rute nick... That is what i would try if i was in your situation.

Good luck man.

Woa.. Sorry.. No they are sending a full replacement. They just don't want the other one back. My guess is that they didn't want to pay the shipping for a seat with cosmetic issues since they won't be able to resell it. So either it goes to the dump, or I try to find a use for a single theater seat.

ah. gotya nick, i miss interpreted what you were saying... Your most likely right, they would loose even more money by having you ship it back to them... Donate it to Goodwill and get a tax write off!!

Or, if you were in my area, you could put it on the front curb and it would be gone within an hour or so..... There are guys who drive around looking for "good stuff" that people are throwing away all the time... I got rid of 2 recliners this way year before last. As well as an old aluminium shed...

In looking for the cheapest possible seats I came across these Klaussner Twilight Black Bonded Leather for $320 each. But again, I have no idea if I'd find them comfortable or not.

$320 for any kind of leather is a pretty decent price. The size and configuration wouldn't work for me (I needed something a little more narrow and with a loveseat option for the middle), but they are priced aggressively for a brand name seat.