What got you into home theater… what ignited your urge to want a home theater?

[Todd Anderson]

for me, it started at a very early age. We’re talking 1980s. My parents had a Sony Trinitron TV… I can’t remember the size but it was probably a 19 inch. We also had a beta max and then a separate all in one stereo system that was compact.

Very rudimentary. But that was the first time I realized you could begin to have a movie theater experience at home, fast-forward many years, finally out of school, finally earning some money… I started pulling myself closer and closer to having some sort of dedicated room to home theater, but it was never much. Much like many enthusiasts it has taken a long time to get to a proper dedicated space.

But thinking back, it really was that Betamax, Trinitron, and a little mini stereo system that planted a seed in my head.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

When Angie and I married in 1984, we got a stereo system immediately. It was an all-NAD system short of the Jubilee turntable and EPI speakers. In the very early 90s... probably in 1990, we got the Yamaha DSP100U surround sound processor, our first hurrah into surround. I remember setting up the small Klipsch speakers on stands on each side of the couch in the great room, and two more up high and in front. Angie came in from work, and with a rather "have you gone crazy look, asked me what those speakers were doing in her great room next to the couch. I couldn't explain it to her in words to satisfy her enough, but she finally gave in and let me have my way. But... these systems were all about the music, not so much home theater, as our TVs were never more than around 37-40" varieties.

Our first home theater was in 1991 when we built our first home. In the early nineties, we had a Snell speaker system with surrounds and a subwoofer underneath the great room. The laserdisc was popular, and we started buying LD movies. I'm pretty sure my subscription to Stereo Review encouraged me to set up the home theater in our great room, as they were beginning to review home theater systems in various homes, and even came out and reviewed ours.

The first real home theater was our dedicated room in the home we are in now, from the early 2000s. Ultimately, the home theater forums, magazines, and a serious craving for such a room were all part of what got me started in a more serious home theater... what I would consider a real home theater.

 

[Tim Dawson]

1985 . . . 7+1 speaker config (EV professional stuff) with about 2500 watts of amplification (mixed brands . . . primary being Phase Linear with biamped fronts), 60" Kloss Novabeam and a top end Fosgate surround processor. The desire was a video experiencenthat didn't suck . . . Over time, the Kloss evolvec through several DLP projectors, ending up full HD. Not too many speaker changes, but center and subs went EAW pro, and amps went to Crrst CA series, and more like 6kw of power. Processor went from the Fosgate to Lexicon . . . CP1 to CP3 to DC1 to DC2 . . .

(This was initially in a 1 bedroom apartment, right after Top Gun came out . . . not sure my neighbirs appreciated the opening cat shots, but nobody griped . . . :-) :-) ).

 

[gorman]

Watching Twister with surround sound in the apartment of a dear friend.

Then and there I knew I had to have it at my place.

 

[f1eng]

I got into a surround system via music, first trying 2 rear difference channels added to my stereo system then I got a Meridian DAC which had multi channel outputs and added a centre channel, sub and surround output to the rear channels rather than difference. I now use a Marantz AV7704 pre because the Meridian didn't have hdmi
I have a Sony VPL-VW760ES projector for video.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Watching Twister with surround sound in the apartment of a dear friend.

Then and there I knew I had to have it at my place.

Sometimes a little taste is all you need. Must have sounded pretty good - do you remember what they had in their system?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

1985 . . . 7+1 speaker config (EV professional stuff) with about 2500 watts of amplification (mixed brands . . . primary being Phase Linear with biamped fronts), 60" Kloss Novabeam and a top end Fosgate surround processor. The desire was a video experiencenthat didn't suck . . . Over time, the Kloss evolvec through several DLP projectors, ending up full HD. Not too many speaker changes, but center and subs went EAW pro, and amps went to Crrst CA series, and more like 6kw of power. Processor went from the Fosgate to Lexicon . . . CP1 to CP3 to DC1 to DC2 . . .

(This was initially in a 1 bedroom apartment, right after Top Gun came out . . . not sure my neighbirs appreciated the opening cat shots, but nobody griped . . . :-) :-) ).

Cool... another Lexicon fan that went through the CP and DC models. They were one of the favorites in the 90s.

 

[aceinc]

Back in the 90's I tried hooking up my stereo to the stereo output of a rear projection TV I had. Most dialog was unintelligible. Fast forward to around 2006 I remodeled my living room and put in wiring for 7.1 and I bought a good Pioneer 7.1 receiver, threw on whatever speakers I happened to have laying about KEF 105.4 for the front pair. and I was on my way. Today I have a 7.5.4 system running a Frankenstein assortment of electronics with all Maggies for the 6 Fronts & surrounds and a Martin Logan electrostat for the center. The Atmos are Dayton in ceiling speakers.

 

[MeJ]

I am overall utterly uninterested in home theatre, don't watch television and avoid almost all films, especially most Hollywood product (with exceptions). So I am here for the the sound side only, specifically REW and sub theory content. My wife watches both TV and loads of Hollywood movies, but she is now totally deaf -- so clear subtitles is more her emphasis..! When I do watch anything I can't stand built-in audio, so have at least a sound bar on every TV, with reasonable quality sound system on the living room box. I am more interested in creating music than consuming media, so I am building an 7:1:4 Atmos studio to play around with and will watch some sample films there as well. I started my sound journey at 7 years old in 1958, quite a while ago now...

 

[SRW1000]

After having dabbled first in stereo TV when it was first introduced, and rudimentary surround sound when Prol Logic was the big thing, our first real experience was back when CES allowed consumers into the Chicago show back in the early 1990s. There was a specific demo room featuring a clip from Far and Away that blew our minds. I believe the room was an all M&K speakers and subs and we had never heard anything like that before. Even with zero interest in the movie itself, the sequence was captivating. I was very fortunate that my wife tagged along, since it was an instant buy-in from her. Even it was a financial impossibility at that time, it was always an ultimate goal.

Decades passed with various living room setups trying to get close to that experience, but we finally reached the point where we could build a theater of our own. As movie lovers, we are happy to be able to watch both newer titles that wouldn't be shown in our area and old favorites and old favorites. All without the distraction of commercial theater trappings, whether it be cell phone use, weak bass, or audience chattering.

 

[Sal1950]

I must say that I am utterly uninterested in home theatre, don't watch television and avoid almost all films, especially most Hollywood product (with exceptions).

That is unfortunate, there is so much really high quality entertainment available, like saying your utterly uninterested in music? Your loss I guess.
I've been chasing the High Fidelity demon since the 1960s, trying always to get better quality sound and video for my home entertainment needs. Good vinyl playback gear really broke out in the early 70s for music, and VHS HiFi really brought great sound
to the video tapes available to purchase or rent. But for home playback things really got good with the intro of multich on DVD and then BluRay. To me we live in a entertainment paradise I could only dream of 30 years ago.
5.2.4 Atmos rig here today, the futures so bright I gotta wear shades.
JBL HDI-3600s in 4 corners, HDI-4500 center, and 4 SVS Elevation Atmos on ceiling, 2 SVS SB-2000 subwoofers.

 

[Mr.Satyre]

I'm not entirely sure. Two things happened right around the same time, that in themselves made lasting impressions on me (what the room looked like, what the lighting was like, even the smells), but where they happened escapes me.

I remember my dad and I visiting a high-end audio dealer in VA or MD, to listen to the first batch of CD players (and CDs! ) in the US. I remember being impressed with the technology, but even more impressed by the electrostatic speakers that were being used. Specifics as to makes and models are all sadly lost in time. Anyway...

Shortly thereafter, at Audio Asscociates Springfield Mall in VA, I saw a pan & scan laserdisc of 2001: a space odyssey on a short-throw, three-gun Pioneer projector on a <60" curved screen (similar to the attached pic). The LD player might have also been a Pioneer. I spent the next hour sitting enthralled in front of what seemed the pinnacle of entertainment, haha.

It wasn't until nearly a decade later that I was told about a video store in Alexandria, called LaserLand, that was one of the biggest LaserDisc resellers in the country (it was shortly after the franchise had apparently broken up). They had just gotten in and were showing Criterion's first title, Blade Runner, in letterbox, off a Pioneer CLD player and on a Sony Pro Field CRT monitor. That simply blew me away, and that's when everything changed for me. I had to know more, and I had to know now. Next thing anyone knew, I had quit my job at The Edge in Electronics, and had started at LaserLand. And, some years after that, I was working at Pioneer, and the rest is (mostly true) history.

 

[stjernholm]

How I Got Hooked on Home Theater

I’ve been fascinated by sound since I was 13. That early obsession led me into music production, and later, audio post for TV and film. Working with sound professionally gave me a deep respect for the craft behind cinematic audio, and I always felt a responsibility to hear our productions the way they were meant to be experienced.

My first home theater setup was humble – a receiver with Dolby Pro Logic just so I could monitor surround mixes at home. But once the ball started rolling, there was no turning back. When I moved into a house, I set up a proper 5.1 studio where I did movie work. I also wanted a more relaxed setting for client screenings, so I installed a projector and studio monitor-based 5.1 system right in the living room.

One night watching Iron Man, I heard my sub bottoming out – and that annoyed the hell out of me. So I upgraded. And then upgraded again. You know how it goes.


Today, I run a full M&K Atmos system with a JVC projector and a 110” screen. It’s not just about movies – I listen to Atmos music productions too, and I’m blown away by what immersive audio can do for music. Once you’ve heard it done right, stereo just can’t compare.


I still love going to the cinema – nothing beats that. But having the ability to enjoy my 3000+ film collection in high quality at home is a constant joy. I probably watch three to four films a week, plus loads of YouTube and other content. I also tinker with a stereo setup on the other end of the room, but for me, home cinema is where the magic happens.


Reproducing a great mix in Atmos at home feels like the least I can do to honor the creators. I’ve been on the production side, and I know how much thought, effort, and artistry goes into those soundtracks. When the system disappears and the sound takes over – that’s when I believe in the movie.

That’s why I do it. That’s why I love it.

 

[Dietmar]

I grew up in Berlin, Germany after world war 2. All we had was a simple AM radio. In the late 1950's a vocational School teacher demonstrated his HiFi system to me (at that time still mono). I was stunned about the sound quality especially about the difference to our AM radio. I wanted something like that, but I could not afford to buy anything near HiFi quality. A friend of me was an electronic wizard and he suggested that we build HiFi systems together. It turned out that we could build something good at low cost and we liked listening to much improved sounds.
Much later, when I had my own TV, I combined it with stereo sound, first with FM simulcasts in Germany and I liked the much more enjoyable experience. Once I had moved to the US, I got a Beta HiFi and used it with a stereo system.
In 2006 I got the first home theater receiver and used a 5.1. system. I was pleased and surprised about the improvement in the experience. Now we have two 5.2.2 and also a 7.2.2 system. I am a great fan of those systems, especially with much better subwoofers now. In my small office I use two 18 inch subwoofers in an infinite baffle configuration and love it. The minus 3 db point is at 13 Hz and rattles the room. I very much enjoy many of the great sound tracks we have available today.

 

[Kevin G]

In the 90's I started with a TV connected to a stereo. Still in the 90's I bought a 42 RCA CRT with so-called surround sound that had rear speaker connections.
Only in the last 10 years or a bit more I was given a SONY 5.1 receiver and the journey has been a frustrating, expensive(to me), time consuming, at times enjoyable and always educational.
Those ten+ years was to make at-home movie watching fun and exciting for me and my kids. Now that they(and wife) have moved out it is not much fun anymore.
Even though I'm the only one here I am learning a lot about calibrating AV systems and I have my 9.3.4 very budget system tuned to the best I have had yet.
Having the system perform as well as I can currently get it does bring some joy to me.
Now that it is performing so well I hearing audio details I don't remember hearing before.

I must give great thanks to John M. for building us the awesome and professional grade audio calibration software REW.

Wishing everyone here all the very best in your AV journey!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

That is unfortunate, there is so much really high quality entertainment available, like saying your utterly uninterested in music? Your loss I guess.
I've been chasing the High Fidelity demon since the 1960s, trying always to get better quality sound and video for my home entertainment needs. Good vinyl playback gear really broke out in the early 70s for music, and VHS HiFi really brought great sound
to the video tapes available to purchase or rent. But for home playback things really got good with the intro of multich on DVD and then BluRay. To me we live in a entertainment paradise I could only dream of 30 years ago.
5.2.4 Atmos rig here today, the futures so bright I gotta wear shades.
JBL HDI-3600s in 4 corners, HDI-4500 center, and 4 SVS Elevation Atmos on ceiling, 2 SVS SB-2000 subwoofers.
View attachment 84064

Nice!

Is that a carburetor on top of the speaker?

 

[Gerry Iaria]

I remember watching at the cinema in London a film I think it was called Earthquake, or something like that, in Sensurround, everything was shaking all around,it was amazing, but started with a VHS recorder, and a surround amp, only 4 speakers connections, can't remember if it was front stereo or not, had 2 cheap spekakers at front and 2 small even cheaper at back, could just about hear anything from them, also a small 60 watts passive sub, I thought it was amazing, using a 21inch tv

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

My mom was the root cause, I think. She always had a decent stereo system, and by decent, I mean a good Zenith system. We didn't have a lot growing up, but music was a big part of everything we did. I remember all my friends having VCRs at home, but she held out until she could afford a HiFi model so we could connect it to her stereo, then all my friends were jealous of our setup. At the same time, I was working at the pizza place in town, which doubled as the video rental store, so I was always bringing home tapes on Friday nights, and buying the previously viewed copies of the big movies at the time - Top Gun, Pretty Woman, Crocodile Dundee (yes, I went there).

A few years later, in college, I visited a friend's apartment and he had a full 5.1 Pioneer/Kenwood Dolby ProLogic system. He put on The Blues Brothers on LaserDisc and the moment I heard the horns of She Caught the Katy come from behind me, I was addicted. It sounded so incredible (still does).

I started building my first surround system at that point with a JVC AVR and a $99 KLH center/surround kit from Best Buy. Those speakers were garbage, but it was a beginning.

It was also this time when I came across an issue of Audio/Video Interiors magazine, which I immediately subscribed to and maintained until they stopped publishing it. Those were the dream systems.

 

[Blueshound]

In my case, I got hooked on stereo music systems in my teens. Starting in my early twenties, I worked part-time in a HiFi dealership in Toronto, while going to school. Since then, my working life has been in various facets of the A/V and systems integration industries. My history includes retail, publication (working for The Absolute Sound in Sea Cliff, NY), marketing and distribution, and eventually founding a Custom Design & Installation business in the Toronto area, with both Canadian and international clients.
Many of these projects included private theatres, which we designed, oversaw and equipped, from the shell in.
I've been involved with more interesting products than I could list. One marquee project in Barbados included stacked PMC BB6 mains monitors and Bryston amplification, various other bits and bobs, and Crestron control. Theo Kalomirakis handled the interior design.
Lots of stories.

Brian

 

[MusicManLen]

I did not like watching movies in the theaters with a bunch of strangers so as the home theater options became more prevalent I slowly started to build up my gear. Over the years as I made upgrades more and more of my friends liked coming over for a movie.
For me having friends experiencing theater quality movies in my home theater has always been superior to me watching movies with strangers or watching movies alone in my home theater. I don't bring people over to impress them but to enjoy the experience with them. One thing I've learned over the years is to have them pick the movie so I can't be blamed if they don't like it (smile).

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I’d have to say it was my wife who got me into home theater, strange as that sounds.

I was a hi-buff from my high school days in the mid-1970s, and as soon as I started working, I put together a modest system. I enjoyed putting on some music every day after I got home from work.

Then I got married in 1980. Donna is a fantastic vocalist, #10 in Texas when she was in high school. But she’s the strange musician that doesn’t enjoy listening to music. She always complained I was playing it too loud, and wanted it turned down and down, until it was basically background music. What’s the point of listening like that? So I just turned it off and gave up on the whole thing.

Instead, it turned out my new wife was an avid “vidiot,” and liked running the TV for noise, even if she wasn’t watching it. I determined, “Well if I have to listen to the TV, at least it can sound good.” So, I ran a cable from the headphone jack of our little 19” TV (!) to my system. I was disappointed to find it sounded like a cheap, low-fi TV speaker, only louder.

So I gave up on that, and that’s the way things stood until the late 80s until we got our first VCR. It was mono, but at least sounded excellent plugged into (now) our stereo. Finally I could watch TV with my wife and actually enjoy it!

Of course, it was only a slight jump from there until Dolby Pro Logic gear came out and home theater really took off. Donna was enthusiastically on board for all of it. In fact, in 1990 she got a nice bonus at work and insisted we go out and buy the top-of-the-line Yamaha Dolby Pro Logic AVR.

After that, she’d sign off on anything I wanted: High end outboard equalizers? Subwoofers? Laser disc? DVD? Blu-ray? No problem, go get it! Eventually it all blossomed into an 18-piece system complete with three super VHS VCRs (so we could record two shows while watching a third, either via tape or live - I told you she was a vidiot!). I still shake my head in disbelief that a $20 Roku can essentially do the same thing as $1500 worth of high-end JVC super VHS VCRs!

These days Donna likes to watch TV in bed on a modest system I put together for our bedroom. Often after some explosive scene from one of her police shows, she’ll gush “I love our system!”

Regards,
Wayne

 

[austinblackboxspace]

pretty much since birth in 1967 as i was born into a big hifi/cinema family. my parents had a 2 channel hifi klipschorn listening room with all playback/recording formats available at the time. and they played back movies in a separate 1960s three channel version of an HT space on 16 and 8 mm projection. in the 70s it was projection and crude surround with all the video tape formats available at the time, and then eventually projection with dolby surround laser disc in the 80s. there were lots of places to rent or checkout of libraries all formats of video playback in nyc during those decades. cheers, |||||K

 

[Ty_Tanium]

Holy cow this brings back memories. I’m not sure when I decided to go the home theater route because up until then I had been into audio basically my whole life. My audio journey began when I was only 4 years old, literally. My oldest brother came home on leave from the Navy with this fabulous looking newfangled contraption - a “Stereo” phonograph (this was 1957, and my parents only had mono phonographs as that’s all there was before that). It was a pretty big unit as it had a built in amp and some pretty big speakers. Being the incredibly fabulous brother that he was, he said I could use it all I wanted as long as I didn’t break it. Well, I was hooked from that moment on. When I got a little older and a paper route, one of the first things I saved up for wasn’t the usual boyhood things, it was my own stereo set-up.

Fast forward to 2007, we bought the house we’re in now because one of the things it had was a big, unfinished basement that I could build a dedicated home theater in. I spent the next 17 years and a large inheritance from my mother, designing and building my theater. I finally finished it about 2 weeks before Halloween last fall. I must say, it turned out far, far better than I imagined at the beginning. And the first time anybody sees it, they’re absolutely floored and can’t believe it.

This was a nice stroll back through the memories. Thanks for the thread. Sorry I can’t answer your question. Don’t know when or why I decided on a dedicated home theater instead of a dedicated listening room, which is what I wanted ever since childhood. I’m so glad we’ll be able to enjoy it now through our retirement years.

 

[Sal1950]

Nice!

Is that a carburetor on top of the speaker?

Yes, that's a S&S Cycle GBL from the early 1970s.
I ran it on my 1966 Harley FLH for close to 2 decades, originally a 74 ci engine with lightened flywheels and a bunch of other racing tricks. Then later it was bored & stroked to 96 ci. and so much more. One of the fastest Harleys in the Chicago area for many years. Great memories of that bike, wish I had some better photos.

 

[nathan soul]

for me, it started at a very early age. We’re talking 1980s. My parents had a Sony trying to try on TV… I can’t remember the size but it was probably a 19 inch. We also had a beta max and then a separate all in one stereo system that was compact.

Very rudimentary. But that was the first time I realized you could begin to have a movie theater experience at home, fast-forward many years, finally out of school, finally earning some money… I started pulling myself closer and closer to having some sort of dedicated room to home theater, but it was never much. Much like mini enthusiast it has taken a long time to get to a proper dedicated space.

But thinking back, it really was that Betamax, Trinitron, and a little mini stereo system that planted a seed in my head.

How the tv sounded when I set up my
first floor standing speakers, AEGIS EVO 3’s. It’s a wonderful memory to remember hearing those first few opening bars to the seminal tv cop show Hill Street Blues.
Until my recent retirement I never had the time to do more than dabble, but now I’m really enjoying learning all about ways to achieve a marriage between the acoustics and aesthetics of home cinema. I’m discovering a whole new language, as previously I thought a micro Henry was a short guy rather than a form of acoustic measurement. It’s been such fun to research what’s needed for my new rectangular cinema room and websites like this and a whole host of YouTube videos have provided so many sources of inspiration and information. It started as a journey and has become an odyssey.
I finally decided upon Klipsch.
So RF-7 111 floor standers for the front, an R64 for the centre and RP 600 11 for the surrounds, all in black. Powered by an Onkyo RZ50 av that’s supported by an emotiva XPA Gen 3 amp. Chord for the cables and interconnects. Next stop is researching room treatments and I’m currently looking at GIK.