Be the Judge: The Ultimate Home Theater Room Review Thread

[Todd Anderson]

Just for fun, let's roll this again and pick apart some home theater spaces! Anything goes...good, great, bad, and the ugly. Point out what you like, what you dislike, and what you would have done better! Just remember, most everyone has to make compromises (so be gentle! )

With that, here's room number 1:

 

[tripplej]

That is a nice looking room. The only thing that would bother me would be all the lights from the equipment in front of the screen. Otherwise, I would be very happy with it.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Has a lot going for it... nice black ceiling, dark rug... pretty good from that stand point.

Not sure what's going on with that glass door (why isn't it covered with a curtain?

 

[tripplej]

Yeah, without a curtain, I would assume the lights in the hallway there next to the door would be turned off otherwise, you would get a lot of light leaked into that room..

On the plus side, the room does have curtains for the windows on the far right side.

 

[Peter Loeser]

Agreed - very nice looking room but I'd want to do something with the glass door for light control and acoustics.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Agreed with the glass doors. Personally I don’t care for the popular “low boy” entertainment system furniture. Not fond of having to crawl around on my hands and knees to load a disc. But I suppose if you have a media server and / or only stream, they would work fine.

That is a nice looking room. The only thing that would bother me would be all the lights from the equipment in front of the screen. Otherwise, I would be very happy with it.

I was worried about that when I put together a system for our bedroom, but I found myself easily engrossed in the program and not bothered by it. I did set all the displays to the “dim” option for the components that could do that, and used window tint film for the rest.

Regards,
Wayne

 

[tripplej]

Wayne, that is a good idea to use window tint film. All those blue lights, etc. would distract me from the picture. My eyes would eventually wonder to the led lights. lol.

 

[phillihp23]

It appears to be a 3.0 system. No subwoofer, surrounds. Don't know that it would be immersive enough for me. Agree that the door needs to have a curtain. Even if there is not light coming through it, light from the screen will reflect off it. Otherwise it appears to be a cozy hideout.

 

[JBrax]

I like it and as others have mentioned those glass doors would be an issue. The lights don't bother me and as long as they dim I actually like them. That screen is beautiful!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

The equipment up front doesn't bother me, as that is where mine is located and I am use to it... don't pay it much attention. I did have to use a bit of small black tape to black out part of the DDRC88A led lights, as they were super bright, but otherwise, it's a non issue for me.

It appears there are curtains on the right side, so matching on the left and covering that french door set would be a must for me. Is that a fireplace on the right?

If it's all home theater, speakers are fine, but for music listening, those speakers are way too close to the screen wall... likely missing out on proper imaging and very little depth acuity, if any at all. On top of what is probably a much narrower sound stage that could be accomplished. Then again, it's all some folks have ever heard and they like it.

And... is that a 2-seater or 3-seater couch? Gotta have a center seat for the best mix of music and surround for at least one person.

 

[Todd Anderson]

NUMBER 2

Be VERY gentle!

 

[JBrax]

Umm, it's triggering my claustrophobia. That's really all I've got.

 

[tripplej]

hmm, I am not so sure about the lights on top.. Also, I agree with Jbrax, need some breathing room there. lol.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

The list is too long for this one... I might get rather tired typing it all out.

 

[Peter Loeser]

So let's just say the lens is causing it to look more narrow than it really is...

And bad exposure is causing the cove lighting to look weird...

And let's assume we're all huge fans of non-functional decorative pillows...

Yeah still pretty bad...

 

[phillihp23]

I'm just wondering...is there audio or is it a silent film?

 

[Todd Anderson]

There are some seriously obvious problems here. But the one that sticks out the most is: why bother painting the ceiling black if you're painting it a glossy black??

LOL

Ugh


I am dying to pull those curtains back and see what's there...

 

[tripplej]

If we learned anything at all from Hollywood, we should know not to pay any attention to what is behind the curtain from the Wizard of Oz. lol.

 

[Tonto]

On the positive side, he was able to combine the side clearance of the 1st row of seating by moving them apart! Now it's easier to get to the 2nd row!

 

[Todd Anderson]

And there are two stacked rows... which I *wish* I had ;-)

I wonder if there are giant glass windows behind those curtains? A true acoustics nightmare!

 

[Jack]

Very interesting, kinda close quarters and i do not like sitting off center. Just sayin

 

[Todd Anderson]

NUMBER 3

 

[tripplej]

Now, this one is much better than the other one (number 2 posting) earlier. My only complaint would be that the TV is small for the room. But it looks like it is constricted due to the furniture.

 

[Peter Loeser]

Very nicely done, luxurious looking room. IMO, the movie themed cutouts on the wall sconces are cheesy and don't match the rest of the decor. I agree the TV looks small, but sometimes the camera lens can have that effect. I'd go bigger personally, but it might be ok at their viewing distance. Otherwise, very clean and well put together. I wonder if that's actual marble crown molding.

 

[tripplej]

Yeah, it does look like it is similar to Nero Marquina Black Marble Crown Molding.. Does look nice.