Which Home Theater speakers for under $28,000.


I am looking for a 7.1 HT system including equipment for a 3,000 cu. ft. dedicated Home Theater & music room. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks
electrostaticman
Electroman, I'm not familiar with the conversion from cu. feet to sq. feet. What's the sq. footage of your room? Am I way off thinking it may be about 30' x 15'? (My sq ft HT is 23'x13' with ceiling of roughly 8'. Multiply them together and I get 2,392 - is that right for cubic feet?)
Obviously, I'm not expert; would appreciate a post clarifying.
Anyway, if my calculations are correct/ballpark, then this room Electrostatman is discussing is not monstrously large, and Speakers such as Eminent Technology's, Magnepans, or Vandersteens could certainly work. Especially if supported by twin subs.

If I'm way off on the measurements, I'd have to reconsider.

Electro. maybe you would like to determine how much personal effort you want to put into assembing your system. $30k is a big chunk to spend on components assembled from Agon recommendations.
You obviously have deep enough pockets to afford spending a few dollars on consulting. Seek out the highest quality audio salon near you (or two). Be very up front; tell them you're paying them for an hour or two of their time for expertise. Not for their equipment. Ask them to put together the best possible system for the $, using both items they sell as well as ones they don't.
If they don't want to play that game, walk away.

But, if they are willing to consult and sell a combo of their pieces as well as other recommended components, you could end up with a significantly better system than finding things on your own. They may give you insights you'd never learn on your own.
Again, if it's made clear you're paying them for consulting, then you don't need to feel obligated to buy their systems. They should know that up front. If their equipment/recommendations has enough merit, then they'll profit from it.
I paid $70/hour for a HT consultant from a high end independent audio shop when I built my HT. VERY worth the money spent. I would suggest two consultations with different shops. Amazing what you can learn from competitors.
I also recommend a subscription to "Home Theater Builder" magazine, if you plan on rehabing the room. Even if not, it's a terrific read to give you ideas on what kind of equipment you could pursue. You can obtain back issues. When spending that kind of $, you want to get the room "tuned" well too.
The difficulty with all this is that it seems you won't get to hear the final system until it's up and running in your room. To do that, you'd likely have to support the local audio shop by purchasing from them, and they could loan components to you to demo. If you want to go it on your own, spend lots of time researching the components and thinking about compatability/integration, i.e. will all components be able to be controlled by universal remote.
If you get some esoteric equipment that doesn't have remotes, etc. you may be frustrated at having to mess with switches all the time, etc. Also, if this will be used by family members, you need to keep it simple enough operationally, or it'll collect dust.

One last thought; become intimately familiar with audioreview.com an excellent source to weigh in on used equipment being considered.
Will not defend my recomendations on any level. Will explain them though. This is a large room you are working with. Electrostats will not reach the absurdly loud volume levels that horns will and will not sound like the local cinema multi-plex. They will reach reasonable volume levels with the big ol' Parasound amps for anyone who still has enough hearing left to tell the difference between quality components (can we give him credit for still having this ability?). The Logans will do something that few other speakers will do though. Because the sound comes from a curved pannel approxamately 4 ft in height you can expect the seamless integration of 7 speakers in a huge room (given good processing). No you will not be able to reach the volume levels that you would with 7 JBL horn-loaded speakers. If loud were your only concern you would not be at this level of gear though. Also in a room that size you will benefit from two subwoofers and a pre-pro with great tweakability. Since your budget is larger than I thought you may want to consider the Lex MC-12. Do qualify your installer though. A good installer can make a 10K system sound better than many 40K systems by proper speaker placement and processor set-up.

Good luck!
I have a friend who has a killer custom home theater setup in his townhouse basement. The L/R front speakers he is using are Revels, Ultima Salons as I recall. The subwoofer is also a Revel Ultima Sub 30. The center is also a Revel Voice I believe. I do not know what the surrounds are, they are hidden from. Actually, ALL the speakers are hidden from view. The system sounds *fabulous*, partly from the speakers and partly from having a pro room designer come in and do his magic. It's a *system*, act accordingly...

-RW-
Douglas_schroeder the room size is approximately 16'-5" wide by 18'-10" long (122.4 sq. ft.)with a champfered ceiling at 10'(3100 plus cu. ft.). The HT consultant recommended the JBL synthesis system for 28,000 plus dollars (this includes the systems equipment as well as speakers for 7.1 system).
Greetings,
I have a room about the size of yours, and have the system as described in the system section. As you apparently like stats, as you can see I wouldn't disagree that a stat makes for a nice HT set-up, although my system is home theater and music. As you say this is a dedicated theater, I think I would probably go with dynamic speakers.

I recently heard Revel and Aerial home theaters, and have to admit that dynamic drivers do have some serious benefits for a home theater. You can get a very nice set-up of either brand. As Douglas_schroeder suggests, the room is such an important part of the theater set-up, that you need to dedicate a reasonable amount of your budget to getting that straight. Try www.auralex.com for a tremendous number of great ideas for the room.

What would lead cinema systems to provide the "input" he did truly escapes me. As a dealer, he should not only feel limited in what he can say, but also feel that if he does feel a need to say something, there should be a hint of intelligence in it. That a dealer has the time to write such a long post that says nothing should give a fairly good indication of his success as a dealer - apparently about the same as it is as a poster.