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Posted By: nickbuol You spent HOW MUCH on your theater? - 06/30/14 04:21 PM
So I drove 2 hours this past weekend to go to an AVS Open House of their current "Home Theater of the Month" named 'The Savoy.'

Here is a link to the HTotM posts:
AVS HT of the Month: The Savoy

I was absolutely blown away by this theater.



Before things even started, I noticed that the seats were super comfy. Makes me want to get better seats.

This guy did so much DIY acoustical treatments, but they were based off of a $800 acoustical design (NOT theater design, just for the acoustical modeling). He paid his builder to build the space when the house was being constructed, so you know that wasn't cheap either.

The ground was excavated lower than the rest of his basement, which meant that it needed its own water mitigation system so that water wouldn't run to that as the lowest point. He has a HVAC system with 3 zones, one for the 2nd story, one for the main floor and rest of the basement, and one zone for the theater. It also can provide A/C to the theater in winter even when providing heat to the rest of the house. COOL.

The theater has its own dedicated 100amp service, so on and so forth. This guy dropped some serious coin. Speakers alone (3 mains, 6 surrounds, 2 subs with dual 18" woofers in each, and 4 "mid-bass-modules" with similar massive 18" woofers) came to $22,000 street price. That doesn't include all of the amps, projector, construction costs, or anything.

So you can imagine the experience. Great speakers within a great room.

I was super impressed, but you know what? Even with all sorts of fancy sound tweaking and calibration (using Audiolense) a bunch of the clips we watched were VERY, VERY "bright." Which is funny because I was asked about if I thought that my Axioms were "bright" before the demo started. I commented afterwards, "Not as bright as that was." Yes, things were being played above reference level (super loud), but the highs were just painful (literally) for some clips.

It was a super great experience, and I learned a lot about what can be done and what money will buy. I don't have that kind of bank. I would guess that this guy spent well over $100,000 to have this room in his house.
Thanks for sharing Nick. Those kinds of home theaters are incredible. The owner must have a lot of friends and family he enjoys spending time with. Definitely good for the economy .
Posted By: stoudtlr Re: You spent HOW MUCH on your theater? - 06/30/14 06:55 PM
Very beautiful theater.

I spend a lot of time in the dedicated theater and general home theater sections of the AVS forums reading and learning about all the different things that can be done in a home theater. Oh, and dreaming. Lots of dreaming.

My basement was unfinished when we moved in and from start to finish (about 85% there now) I will have spent about half the cost of just his speakers. lol.

I love drooling over the dedicated, expensive rooms like that, but expect to get just as much enjoyment out of my small, budget room as he does his.
Posted By: chesseroo Re: You spent HOW MUCH on your theater? - 07/03/14 06:52 PM
Everyone has their hobby. (well almost everyone)

My father was an avid pilot who built his own airplane though afforded two others in his lifetime.
Talk about expensive hobbies.
$60k for the airplane plus the cost of gas each flight, annual licenses, mechanical...
For that much, we built a wine cellar, reno'd the whole basement and replaced half the windows in our house plus main floor flooring in the last five years (among other things).
So i don't own a plane but i have a nice home with a great movie/audio setup on multiple floors and a wicker personal office (studded with vintage audio components).

I don't recall having an overly nice decor home when i was young and now i know why.
Posted By: casey01 Re: You spent HOW MUCH on your theater? - 07/03/14 07:42 PM
It's funny you mentioned that you weren't overly impressed with the sound and that is very possible even with an ultra expensive sophisticated set-up like this one. We tend to, at the beginning, be overwhelmed with the environment it is in, but, ultimately, when putting that aside and sitting down to do some critical listening, sometimes it isn't that particularly impressive and I think a lot of that has to do with the pre-occupation with the aesthetics of the room fitting in the speakers and the equipment in to the environment rather than the other way around. I have heard a number of expensive set-ups like this and have often sometimes walked away thinking I can achieve as good or sometimes even better results(and have done it) without having to spend a boat load of money building a dedicated room.

Myself, up until recent years being directly involved with setting up A/V systems in homes, if the buyer doesn't do his homework or has an ongoing knowledge of the equipment and HT in general and leaves the whole thing to the installer, all too often they can be oversold and buy things(or even the wrong things) they really don't need.

Then again, if you don't have to worry about money then I guess it doesn't matter.

Posted By: AAAA Re: You spent HOW MUCH on your theater? - 07/03/14 10:06 PM
The work that went into this one is incredible. I can't believe the front soundstage! Amazing!

One thing that always gets me about the guys that usually go all out in an HT build, is that the room has zero personality or decor sense. Other than that, super cool.

I would take your room decor wize over his any day, Nick.
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