Home theater setup recommendations?

Here is our take on how to do this please take this guidance for what you wish, 30 years of professional audio/home theater design including designing a Home Theater for Rev Run’s Home, check out DIY network Rev Run’s Renovation Season 2 episode 9 Secret Cinema.

1: For surround sound yes multi channel sound is what is what will recreate the experience of being in the action, many people don’t like multi channel music as it tends to sound gimicky
2: The quality of the receiver or electronics really matters. If you are trying to get the best bang for the buck use a high end receiver.
3: Stick to the Audiophile brands, NAD, Primare, Arcam/Audio Control they really do sound better, and put their money into better circuits and conversely are easier to use and setup vs the mass market Japanese brands which tend to feature useless surround sound modes like Cathederal and others, All you need it Dolby Digital and DTS for most codecs.
4: Choose speakers that will work for both music and theater, that means a matching center channel and so the look and size of the center channel which may be under the TV and visible may be important as you must have the room for the speaker. Choose floorstanders as they sound best for music, with a small speaker and sub combo doesn't sound nearely as seemless for music but works for TV, the more bass the fronts have the easier it is to blend with a subwoofer. 
5: The rears can be of another brand than the fronts and in ceiing speakers if you can install them work great for rear surrounds.

It is best if you can use the same speakers or same brands all around but the rear effects speakers are for mostly effects so any difference sonically will be less noticable. If a speaker for the fronts use metal dome tweeters then seek the same for the rears.
6: Especially for music put the majority of the budget into the main left and right speakers, so if you have to economize use cheaper backs and forgo the subwoofer which can be added later.

7: If you are going to use a subwoofer, most home owners do not want giant subwoofers, so stick with Rel, Jl Audio, Paradigm, SVS.

The new Paradigm Dominator series offers a very high performance subwoofer, with state of the art bass correction and a very useful app and they sound great for music and theater, we just put out the 10inch $1,000.00 woofer and it is very impressive.

For louspeakers the Kef R series can be formidable loudspeakers especially for theater, the speakers use a dual concentric driver that puts the tweeter inside the woofer which acts like a mini horn this creates a very wide soundstage with very little localization.

Many dealers are now selling older R for 50% off with full warranty, we have a set of R700 which were $3,800 now for $1,900.00 a pair add in a center for $500 and you have almost $5,000.00 worth of speakers for $2,400.00

Other good speakers for Home Theater are Golden Ear Triton’s which have good bass with built in subs, howerver they are very ugly and sound better for theater then music.

Step one is to figure out a budget a cheapie 5 speaker sub/receiver package starts at around $3k a much better theater is $5-10k

So one of the things you may want to do is to actually audition a system so if you can get to a good dealer that would be our recommendation.

Most dealers often have demo or display products that they can sell you to rival the prices found here with the added benefit of having a warrranty and support.

Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any further questions.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ