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.