Projector and Screen recommendations

Hi Semi,
One thing that seems to accentuate the perception of being "too bright" is if you actually have some "hot-spotting", meaning that your picture is brighter in some areas than others. This occurs with higher-gain screens with short projector throw-distances, because the relationship between projection and viewing angles varies more across different points on the screen as the distances get shorter. 1.8 gain is 'high-ish' for a home theater with a DLP/LCD projector, and your throw distance (less than 2x the screen width) is somewhat on the short side. If you can get the projector further away, or even try it temporarily, you might see if this makes an improvement. I'm assuming of course, that you've set up your black and white levels correctly.

Hi Russ,
The modern "microperf" screens are very good in terms of audio quality, especially when they're used in front of the center channel only . . . which to my ear needs more X-curve compensation (HF rolloff) than the other channels for movie soundtracks.

There is also an optical tradeoff with a perforated screen, that is, at the very least, you lose some brightness . . . this really hurt in the days of CRT projectors when lumens were very, very expensive. But you also need be careful of the reflectivity of what's behind the screen, as sometimes this can show through the perforations.

The best-sounding multi-channel system I have ever heard (by far) is the 5.1 system in Transparent Audio's listening studio . . . big Wilsons (Alexandrias?) all the way around, with a custom Wilson sub the size of an average refrigerator. The projection screen was a Stewart microperf that came down in front of the center channel . . . and in several scenes I could catch a glint of the shiney black Wilson through the screen, and it was a bit distracting, especially given how amazing the picture and sound quality was otherwise.