Theater Seat ideas

Matthew J Poes

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I need to come up with a theater seat solution that can allow for optimal placement, maximum seating, and not be too expensive.

Ok so I currently own 2 Berkline Theater seats with brown top grain leather. This model is long out of production and is nearly impossible to find a match to. I could sell these, but I wouldn't get much for them, being old and a little scratched up. For that reason I think I want to keep them.

The theater was designed to meet ITU placement standards of the speakers in the first row of seats, not the riser. The room is too narrow to allow optimal speaker placement that would also allow two rows of eats to fit within the appropriate placement. However, currently I have the theater reclines sitting on the riser in the less than optimal location.

Replacing all of my theater seats with ones that equal the quality of what I have would be just around $6000 (two rows of three seats). Replacing them with a nice but slightly lesser quality seat would be around $4000. There are a number of upgrades I still want to make to my theater, as my personal equipment is pretty old at this point, mostly coming from 2008-2010. The idea of spending $4000-$6000 on seats when I could use that same money for a new processor, new projector, etc. is hard to swallow.
95% of the time that I use my theater it is just me. My wife isn't that into it and my 3 year old doesn't have the patience to sit for movies, nor does she like to sit on the seats. She prefers pillows on the floor.

So the problem? What can I do that will look classy and put together (given what I've invested in the room itself), that is optimal for sound, comfortable to sit in, and allows me to have a friend or neighbor over for a money and have a place to sit. Currently I have some folding chairs, but that isn't a real option.

Do you all agree that spending $6000 on chairs when I could be using that money for equipment upgrades does not make sense, given my usage?

One idea was to buy very different chairs that would not match but rather go with the current theater chairs. Some inexpensive side chairs or arm chairs. While I can do this, they are still priced high enough that I would be able to consider very cheap theater seats.

I also think it makes sense to move the theater seats off the riser. I did it because I built the riser and wanted to use it, but I don't have a use for it at the moment given that I don't have 2 rows of chairs. Since it puts the chairs in the wrong location, it doesn't make a lot of sense to use it. Since I keep finding myself sitting in a folding chair instead of my comfy reclines to critically listen or watch movies, I think I've had my limit.

Any creative thoughts would be appreciated.
 

Tony V.

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I bought seats off of the Bestbuy website and so far they are very solid and well made. They were on sale at Christmas time for half price so I picked up 3 for the front row with power recline cup holders and trays and 4 lesser non powered ones for the rear row all for less than $2700CAD delivered ($2100US).

These are the ones I got for the front row.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/octane...theater-seating-black/4367417.p?skuId=4367417

They make these in brown as well
 

Matthew J Poes

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I bought seats off of the Bestbuy website and so far they are very solid and well made. They were on sale at Christmas time for half price so I picked up 3 for the front row with power recline cup holders and trays and 4 lesser non powered ones for the rear row all for less than $2700CAD delivered ($2100US).

These are the ones I got for the front row.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/octane...theater-seating-black/4367417.p?skuId=4367417

They make these in brown as well

That would be a deal!

Unfortunately the current price is $4600 for those. Maybe I should keep an eye out for this 50% off deal. I've never seen that big a discount. The main resellers of Octane does maybe like about 20% to 30% off from time to time, but I've never seen half off.

What if I bought some seats that didn't match in style but matched in Color to keep what I have. My seat sold new for about $1200 each, but I don't know that the quality matches the price. Today I think there are better options for $1200 each. I bought them when they stopped making them.
 

Tony V.

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I think that would be your
What if I bought some seats that didn't match in style but matched in Color to keep what I have. My seat sold new for about $1200 each, but I don't know that the quality matches the price. Today I think there are better options for $1200 each. I bought them when they stopped making them.
I think that would be your best option is get the same color and just add to what you currently have.
 

JStewart

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Hi Matt. If I read the original post right you've got 2 seats now on a riser and that's it. Why the interest in expanding the seating? Unless its a compelling reason I think I'd go with equipment upgrades. Especially if 95% of the time its just you using the space.

Everyone has a different idea of what looks good and meets their needs. For me it would 1 row of 3 theater seats on a riser with a comfy sectional sofa in the 1st row because my wife likes to lay down or sit with her feet up while watching movies.
 

Matthew J Poes

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Hi Matt. If I read the original post right you've got 2 seats now on a riser and that's it. Why the interest in expanding the seating? Unless its a compelling reason I think I'd go with equipment upgrades. Especially if 95% of the time its just you using the space.

Everyone has a different idea of what looks good and meets their needs. For me it would 1 row of 3 theater seats on a riser with a comfy sectional sofa in the 1st row because my wife likes to lay down or sit with her feet up while watching movies.

Thank you, you do understand correctly. I have 2 seats. The only problem with leaving them on the riser is that the Riser is too far back from the screen to be an optimal placement. I built the long and narrow room so that the front row would be ideal. The room is just 11 feet wide and that is so narrow that it was not possible to make 2 rows that are ideally placed. Either one would be the perfect placement and the other wrong or both would be a compromised placement. The room made it so even 4 feet is enough to make a significant difference in the placement of speaker around the listener. That's why I have found myself listening from the front row where I currently have these folding Papasan chairs. They aren't very comfortable, hence why I want to reverse the layout.

I too think new equipment would be a better investment. The plan is to add ATMOS as I don't have that yet and to update the projector.
 

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Matt - have you considered dropping the idea of theater seats and going with some other type of seating? My room is slightly wider than yours (around 14.5ft if memory serves)... after going through options I ended up buying modular couch sections from LoveSac.

Atmos is a worthy upgrade IMO... and it sounds like your PJ is old. Perhaps some money in that dept would be worth it ;-)
 

Matthew J Poes

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Matt - have you considered dropping the idea of theater seats and going with some other type of seating? My room is slightly wider than yours (around 14.5ft if memory serves)... after going through options I ended up buying modular couch sections from LoveSac.

Atmos is a worthy upgrade IMO... and it sounds like your PJ is old. Perhaps some money in that dept would be worth it ;-)

Thanks Todd. It is pretty old, JVC DLA-RS1. I think it was made in 2008, so 10 years. I didn't upgrade it because 1080p was 1080p and the contrast improvements in the better JVC's wasn't that great until recently (of those JVC's I could afford). The best JVC's are certainly in another league from mine, but the bottom of the line JVC models only looked a little better. A little brighter, a little deeper blacks, etc. I wanted to wait until something big came along. Now it's just getting old and true 4K won't be in my price range anytime soon.

I know we have discussed this before. I'm fully setup for ATMOS, I just don't have the processor yet. Similar deal, I was holding off until the dust settled. I seem to early adopt the wrong format. Whatever I think is better never ends up being what lasts.

As for seats, I'll look at LoveSac's, not sure what those are. Sounds a little too salacious for my room. What I've considered have been normal chairs and couches. There are some cool chairs that match my style and the style of the theater, but they wouldn't be as comfy as theater seats.
 

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LOL... the lovesacs are simply modular couch systems. They're actually ingenious in their design. You can use the sections and pieces to make couches, chairs... just about any configuration. Comfortable too ;-)
 

JStewart

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I have 2 seats.

The room is just 11 feet wide and that is so narrow that it was not possible to make 2 rows that are ideally placed. Either one would be the perfect placement and the other wrong or both would be a compromised placement.

Makes sense. Sounds like your leaning toward the equipment upgrades too. In the future, if theater style seats become a must, I had looked at these https://www.fusioncollectionseating.com/pages/jive-configurations years ago because they were the only theater style seat I could find that would fit in 11 foot wide space and still leave a middle seat for stereo listening.
 

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My wife always takes the middle seat but I was smart as I could have gone with 4 seats in the front row but then It would have pushed the outsides seats to close to the walls and would have made getting to the back row tight. Even in the front row side seats I am still sitting 4ft away from the side wall so sound is still quite good.
 

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My preference for theater seating is to use regular couches. Less expensive, more flexible. And I would favor equipment upgrades over furniture upgrades in general. To give you an idea of my priorities, I've been thinking about and planning for equipment and acoustics considerations for my new theater for a few years now, but only very recently have I been thinking at all about seating. And only because I will have to make a decision on it soon. We'll probably reuse some seating for now.

Personally, I don't think I could justify even $4k for seating, anywhere. When we upgrade our seating in the theater, I would probably be looking at $2-3k for two rows if I can get away with it. I guess I'm cheap!
 

Matthew J Poes

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My preference for theater seating is to use regular couches. Less expensive, more flexible. And I would favor equipment upgrades over furniture upgrades in general. To give you an idea of my priorities, I've been thinking about and planning for equipment and acoustics considerations for my new theater for a few years now, but only very recently have I been thinking at all about seating. And only because I will have to make a decision on it soon. We'll probably reuse some seating for now.

Personally, I don't think I could justify even $4k for seating, anywhere. When we upgrade our seating in the theater, I would probably be looking at $2-3k for two rows if I can get away with it. I guess I'm cheap!

I don't want to spent 4k either. I'm just as cheap.

I keep saying I'm going to use my bonus for this. Every year I fund two IRA's and a college fund instead. Ugh priorities.
 

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Matthew J Poes

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61C97B45-AFA5-4C6F-9A34-277F2DD64D30.jpeg


I decided this might go well. It matches the blue walls but I'll need to change my lights with something equally gaudy.
 

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Matthew J Poes

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I'm familiar with that model. The trim is highly diffusive while the cushions provided excellent LF absorption.

Well yeah of course! Form follows function.

My room is all blue. Navy blue walls, door, and trim. All tone on tone. I was thinking of blue furniture and looked up blue velvet chairs and that came up.
 
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