Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Now that I have the theatre in the basement I don't really go out to the cinema anymore. It can't quite beat the full cinema experience but unfortunately all the interesting old theatres have been run out of business by Cineplex so going to the movies has all the atmosphere and character of a Walmart. I just don't care to spend $50 to watch movies in a Walmart.
One of the theater chains up near me went out of business and the new owners have this self-serve model for concessions which is insane and weird and the whole place is creepy.
 
Now that I have the theatre in the basement I don't really go out to the cinema anymore. It can't quite beat the full cinema experience but unfortunately all the interesting old theatres have been run out of business by Cineplex so going to the movies has all the atmosphere and character of a Walmart. I just don't care to spend $50 to watch movies in a Walmart.
The Revue still rules!
 
CULT CONFIRMED
I don't know how to say this without sounding like a racist scumbag, but it's an Indian family that used to show Talil/Telugu/etc films at the theater and once it went under they just bought it and instead of hiring like ten staff per theater they just hired one to clean the theaters and restock the soda bags and what not. Walking into a theater where there's literally no one in the lobby is eerie.
 
I went to the theater for the first time since the pandemic this weekend, Dune Part 2. I saw it at the local Dolby Cinema, and it was a good experience, but the ticket was $20 (that’s like $400 loonies @Mather just fyi) and it was $8 for a “regular size” soda. I’d rather watch it at home but I have too many sci-fi friends that suck at keeping quiet and wanted to watch it before they ruined it.
 
I went to the theater for the first time since the pandemic this weekend, Dune Part 2. I saw it at the local Dolby Cinema, and it was a good experience, but the ticket was $20 (that’s like $400 loonies @Mather just fyi) and it was $8 for a “regular size” soda. I’d rather watch it at home but I have too many sci-fi friends that suck at keeping quiet and wanted to watch it before they ruined it.

I go to one of either two cinemas on a Monday or Sunday. With one I get buy one get one free on a Sunday and the other does ticket with medium drink and popcorn for €10 per person on a Monday. Any other time and the prices are crazy!
 
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The Fortes are authoritative down to the upper 30s, so it's basically that last 10hz I want for music, and not even at a very high output. *That* is the easy part. The hard part is the LFE channel for home theater, which is high-output and needs even more extension. If I had space I might run small RELs at speaker-level and then leave the SVS for movies.

But that would be crazy, right? 👀
Have you looked at Ryhtmik subs? More musical than SVS and their 12” isn’t much larger than your cylinder.

I like SVS, knew one of the founders, but music is a weak point with them.
 
I think that's very reasonable. Movies are, unfortunately, another one of my expensive interests. I should probably pick one of these hobbies to drop.
I’m big on escapism, music, movies, books. I think I have a little upwards of 2,000 movies in my collection (DVD/BR/4kBR discs, no idea what my wife and kids bought through the Apple Store), and I like that I own them. Streaming services are assholes who just “lease” whatever to you.
 
Yeah I mean this is a really high end store, I can afford very little in there, and I know these guys have their... THOUGHTS about some stuff regarding hifi gear. But I just can't figure out how he thinks this would make any difference at all, science wise I can't see it beyond it being a ground.
He’s probably wrong in how he’s thinking of it, but I know a AV calibrator who is very knowledgeable and works with OEMs that feels if you want a good 2 channel system and a good home theater, you need to separate rooms or be willing to use headphones for your music. The acoustic treatment, speaker placement, what items “should” or “shouldn’t” be in the room, etc., always leads to compromises for at least one if not both systems.

Of course, he normally works on people who spend a minimum of $100k USD on just the theater side, So, his experience and expectations aren’t really around a TV based set up or align with 99% of the populations homes and gear.
 
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He’s probably wrong I. How he’s thinking of it, but I know a AV calibrator who is very knowledgeable and works with OEMs that feels if you want a good 2 channel system and a good home theater, you need to separate rooms or be willing to use headphones for your music. The acoustic treatment, speaker placement, what items “should” or “shouldn’t” be in the room, etc., always leads to compromises for at least one if not both systems.

Of course, he normally works on people who spend a minimum of $100k USD on just the theater side, So, his experience and expectations aren’t really around a TV based set up or align with 99% of the populations homes and gear.
I mean they make stupid big tvs now. That scoff at that budget even:
 
He’s probably wrong I. How he’s thinking of it, but I know a AV calibrator who is very knowledgeable and works with OEMs that feels if you want a good 2 channel system and a good home theater, you need to separate rooms or be willing to use headphones for your music. The acoustic treatment, speaker placement, what items “should” or “shouldn’t” be in the room, etc., always leads to compromises for at least one if not both systems.

Of course, he normally works on people who spend a minimum of $100k USD on just the theater side, So, his experience and expectations aren’t really around a TV based set up or align with 99% of the populations homes and gear.

Yes I imagine most of the people are dubious about putting up a textured ceiling panel, up 40 years after artex went out of fashion, because rich people tell them it’s the best €5k they’ll ever spend, never mind having bespoke music or home theatre treatments on top of a system that costs as much as their mortgage.
 
Yeah. But my screen in my basement is 11 feet wide and was on the small side of what he deals with. Soo…🤷🏼‍♂️

He calibrated the his one for example.
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He’s probably wrong I. How he’s thinking of it, but I know a AV calibrator who is very knowledgeable and works with OEMs that feels if you want a good 2 channel system and a good home theater, you need to separate rooms or be willing to use headphones for your music. The acoustic treatment, speaker placement, what items “should” or “shouldn’t” be in the room, etc., always leads to compromises for at least one if not both systems.

Of course, he normally works on people who spend a minimum of $100k USD on just the theater side, So, his experience and expectations aren’t really around a TV based set up or align with 99% of the populations homes and gear.
Yes I can definitely see when you're getting into treatments how separate rooms would be ideal. That makes sense to me, but that's not what this guy is saying. I suspect due to this being a audio store and not a theatre store, he may not actually understand HOW these would be connected. He also told me the Luxman 509X doesn't have HT bypass but it definitely does so...... I think there may be a knowledge gap here. I decided to just follow up in person since the emails were starting to make my head hurt.
 
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