It was the early 80s and for my 12th birthday all i wanted was my very own turntable so i could listen to records. My Dad, of Colombian decent, was a big influence as music was a big
part of his life growing up and one of his main hobbies. Boom boxes & Hifi Stereos was were it all began leading to wanting to be a DJ in High School. I was always drawn to PA systems, lighting and electronics. I began my own DJ Services company in the late 1990s and it was a great side hustle for about 20 years. I had a lot of fun and made a lot of people dance over the years. It allowed me to make extra money that I would then invest in my Home Theatre set up. My first " Real " 5.1 Surround Sound set up was a JVC 32" TV, Technics AV Receiver (Still works and at my Dad's house). 2 Paragon towers (white van specials) up front with an Acoustic Profiles center channel on top of the TV with matching book shelves for rears and a 10' powered Subwoofer. My Good friend at the time Kam, (Insane AV, Texas) also shared this passion and had a similar set up in his bedroom plus a Laser Disc player!
When I got married and bought my first house in 2001 it was upgrade time. I invested in at the time a very expensive display. It was a 1080i 58" 16x9 rear projection TV by Hitachi, I paired that with my previous booked shelves upfront, same center and picked up some HECO di-pole speakers for the surrounds and a Mirage 8" subwoofer. This set up at the time was awesome and remember watching Star Wars special edition DVDs and Jurassic Park for demo scenes to impress my friends and family. My big jump to the next level came in our second home that had a fully finished basement and a dedicated room that had ideal dimensions for Home Theatre. I got my first projector (used EPSON) HD , a used manual 100" screen and a brand new Marantz receiver!!! I kept the HECO rears and eventually upgraded my fronts to some used Mirage towers to complement the sub and same center channel from the previous system. I painted the walls a dark gray , had DIY teared seating, a display with my Star Wars toy collection. It was a huge improvement and my first dedicated space.
This was around 2010 and the hobby was slowly becoming an obsession. I thought " Hey I'm pretty good at this stuff" and started offering my services to others converting my DJ business into an AV Installations company instead. Vibe Home Media was born. Fast forward 15 years and we moved again and my system has gone through a few different stages of upgrades including Receivers, Projectors, Paradigm speakers, a variety of different Subs (Polk Audio, Acoustic Research, Athena) and configurations. Thanks to forums and YouTube I have been able to do all the work myself and slowly build the system to where it is now. When I bought my current home, one of the deciding factors like most of you was , where is the Home Theatre going go? It also had a great area in a finished basement with ideal dimensions. Thanks to the pandemic in 2020 I had plenty of time to work on it and working in the industry allowed for big discounts and access to quality used gear. Fast Forward to present day my current set up (As seen on HT Guys , @TheHtGuys November 2024) has evolved to a dedicated 9.3.2 Atmos system.
- NEC P547UL Laser 5k lumens projector with 4k upscaling
- Denon AVRX 3800H Receiver
- Panasonic 820 UHD 4K player
- Athena AS220 Full Range Towers and matching Center Channel
- Definitive Technologies Dipole speakers for Side Surrounds -2
- Definitive Technologies In-Ceiling Atmos speakers - 2 - Middle
- Paradigm Millenia Series 200 Towers -2 Rears
- Polk Audio ES12 Subwoofers - 2 up front
- PSB 10 inch Subwoofer -1 left rear
- 120" Custom Screen
it's a bit of a Frankensystem built slowly over time on a modest budget.
The experience is excellent, but the room is in desperate need of acoustic treatment, which will be my next project.
Cheers and thanks for inspirations.
