Which Home Theater speakers for under $28,000.

Its good to see everyone's so sure of themselves that their entire opinion is based on what a few other guys write in a magazine. Ever meet an audio reviewer?

Way to be independent thinkers. How about some facts or where am I mistaken? How could I be this dumb and yet know how to build a theater better than you? Have you asked yourselves that question :)

BTW Elctrostaticman, despite lashing these Noobs for being very unimaginitive (with your money) I will recommend a system that will fit your budget and will be peerless in your room.

Sony Qualia 004
Immersive Simmetry DVD/Video processor http://www.immersiveinc.com/

Meridian G98xxl
ATC Concept 5 Active speaker system with 4 SCM 10's for rears
ATC Concept 6 Subwoofer

Don't get a perf screen if you don't have to. See if you can squeeze the center under. If the picture is a touch high it won't matter much and the Meridian can help you out if the center is a touch low.

Properly setup you will have the best audio/video for the money. If you live near western Chicago, My friend has this very system setup except it has a TAG McLaren AV192 at the core. Video is by far the best I have ever seen, and I know that he is working hand in hand with Immersive to actually customize and enhance the interface software specifically to the Qualia.

The audio system will afford you incredible dynamics for movies and natural vocals and music that many people in the music world see fit to make their recordings on, like DSOTM, infact the same front speakers Pink Floyd themselves judged the SACD mix on.

See, I know famous people who can back up my equipment too and there not a bunch of armchair critics.

Cinematic, you seem to think you are king of something and better than everyone else, Michael Jackson calls himself the King of Pop...that doesnt make it so, and you claiming to be better at this then anyone else is only supported by your words and maybe your mom, get off your cloud, and hug your mom if you can..she is most likely your biggest fan.

Chadnliz,

Trying to be helpful is noble, but you weren't trying.

Recommending equipment that is not compatible with the job at hand is a disservice to us all.

See you guys jump all over me because i'm criticizing your recommendations which is in bad form. And two wrongs don't make a right, but seriously is the ET system the best home theater you can think of?

I look at your recommendation as insincere and irresponsible since you own better theater speakers than the ET's in the Innersound actives and they would have been the best rec till the Vandersteen and Revel systems. So why try to be clever with some background music speakers and waste Estatman's time and maybe his hard earned money. All due respect to ET's they do what they do well, but HT is not on the resume even if you have two pairs?

Why are you wasting bandwidth with this almost evil recommendation, let me ask you this, if I owned a Martin Logan Aeon two channel system, how far down the list is Parasound to run on those speakers for two channel? Is Parasound and Martin Logan like peanut butter and jelly? It could be a regional thing I'm unaware of, where i'm from that ain't right.

Why ten years ago would a CUSTOMER and GUYS LIKE YOU laugh in my face for suggesting using Magneplanars and Martin Logans for home Theater and somehow today its the best theater according to Absolute Sound.

What has changed to make a laughing stock a reference multi-channel speaker system. Can anyone tell me? I'm at a loss to understand where the paradigm shifted.

I just want you guys to think a little, how hard is it to thumb through a magazine and step out of your world and go....if I had a room that big and a budget like that I would do this. When MAcdadtexas insisted that the Maggies were tops and Absolute Sound said it was the best, I went for another listen, it was ok, I might even say better than I thought it would be once we got the delays on the rears right. But no way was even as good as the Paradigm Signatures as a theater (not insulting the Paradigms, they are very good)

ET8's if that's the best you can do than I am really sorry if i dumped on your best effort. But I must say if you feel striongly about your rec why is your comeback to pick on my joke DIY system and supposing who I think I am. You can't even defend your choices or atleast qualify it? I try to explain why your recommendations are limited and you call me names. You have been unable to rebuttle anything I have said about your recommendation and DS writes a paragraph on how important dynamic range is or isn't and that somehow having dynamic range must mean something else is wrong with the speaker. Even music guys want dynamic range.

Here's 20 brands of speakers that all make better theater speakers than the mentioned dipoles; * by rec'd already.

PMC Dynaudio
Meyersound B&W*
Genelec Westlake
Peak Consult Vivid
Verity Audio Elac
Vandersteen* VonSchwiekert
Revel* Kharma
McIntosh James
JMLabs* Genesis
DALI VMPS

BTW if you can post a Theater system as good as the one I have that retails for $45,000 or less and can atleast give a few objective reasons why it is equal or better than I'll never criticize you again and differ to you as the expert in these threads. So now its put up or shut up.

I'm just a Mama's boy pretending to be a dealer, should be a snap. 5 minutes of your time.

I'd like to throw in some more stellar pieces to your budget, depending:

Consider used/retubed world class Sony G90 CRT pj at $10k range. Also, Wilson Cub's for passive speakers. I second the ATC actives (no brainer), as Infinity Prelude MTS system, or other high end actives (sans Meridian's...too dark sounding). Amp's, depends.
Get a good scaler at $1500-2k or equivelent scaling DVD player. Sub's, look at the the Paradigm Servo 15's(multiples prefered) and Earthquake 12 or 15" models. All fine value...

I am not going to through in Innersound because they pushed out the man behind the magic (Roger Sanders) and now it is run by accountants not audiophiles, plus all the sudden they hiked the prices over 100% with no real new technology. Whatever he picks I hope it is a great experience, as for any more time on this, I think I will pass.....P.S. my father has a Legacy Focus 20/20 theater system and it sounds fantastic. Best wishes for a good Fourth of July to all