The following is a transcription of the walkthrough video. Here are the components.
Sony 325 4k Projector – https://electronics.sony.com/tv-video…
Screen Innovations 120″ Screen – https://www.projectorscreen.com/scree…
Klipsch 5800 – https://amzn.to/3COuwa4
Klipsch 5502 – https://amzn.to/3KGIUU0
Klipsch 5650 – https://amzn.to/3wPbbBP
Klipsch 5800 – https://amzn.to/3KEZ9AP
SVS 1000 Pro – https://amzn.to/3RnIGmC
So there were two things going on with this room. One, my wife wanted it to be basically invisible. She didn’t want to see a bunch of tower speakers and everything else sitting around. And number two, it’s kind of a difficult room to work with. I’ve got an open pool table, wine area over here, and the rear wall isn’t even level. We have the steps coming down in the back, which makes it so that speaker placement would be really difficult. So what we ended up doing was a pretty good compromise. And I think the result came out really well.
The 4K Sony Projector and 120″ Screen
So let’s get into the shining star of the entire setup, which is the video setup. So what you look at right here is the Sony 325. Now, ironically enough, I bought this while they were finishing the basement. They actually came out with a new laser version shortly thereafter. But I had very specific requirements that I wanted for the projector one. It needed to be 4K native. I didn’t want any upscaling. It also had to have a good response times because we do want to game down in this theater setup and it had to be within my budget. So it came down to the JVC and the Sony and the Sony was just a little bit better on the response times. And they seemed review wise to perform the exact same for video.
Now, to make everything invisible in this room, we really had to think about speaker placement and what we were going to do from that end. So what we ended up going with is a screen innovations fixed five audio transparent screen. So it’s 120 inches and the speakers are actually behind the screen and project through the screen itself, just like you see in an actual movie theater. And the reason we went kind of overkill on this screen is because everyone that I talked to said, if you’re really going to invest in a 4K projector like the Sony, you have to get a screen that matches the same quality. Otherwise you might as well just downgrade the projector if you’re going to go with a cheaper screen.
So this screen is actually the screen that Sony uses to demo their products and the quality is outstanding. When we turn the lights off in here and put on 4K UHD footage, it is amazing how great it looks. This particular version actually has a gain of 1.2, which gives us a little bit more brightness out of the projector itself and a little bit better contrast. It really fits the room really well, especially since we don’t have any ambient light coming into this room from outside.
The Audio and Video Components
Then we get into the sources themselves. To start, we’re powering all the speakers with the RZ250 from Ankyo and it is a monster. I actually preordered this before it even came out and I really wanted to have as much power to the speakers as possible with really good sound processing within a budget that I wanted to stay around that $1,000 to $1,500 range. And this is probably one of the best options, if not the best that you could pick in this category, if you have those kinds of specs. Two hooked up at Apple TV, what you see playing right now. Then three, we’ve got the latest Xbox sitting in the other cabinet. So we can do our gaming and all the Blu-ray playing through that unit itself. Then we’re getting our direct internet connection to everything through the TP link bridge. And then we also have a clean power source going to everything as well.
So I had one main problem with this setup and that’s the fact that I can’t put rear speakers in the walls back here because of the way the room’s set up. So the technical term we did here is actually a three one four setup where a typical bare bones atmos requires a five one two. And the reason for that is because all four speakers are in the ceiling and we went with clips eight inch in the rear and clips six inches in the mid. And the reason we did that is because you can actually angle these tweeters towards the stage in the front. And what that does is it kind of simulates it actually being at ear level.
And then up front, we went with eight inch on the left and the right and the dual five and a quarter for the center channel that are actually situated right behind the screen itself. Now I was lucky in the fact that I was able to do all the math and the placement for these speakers before they actually did the drywall. So what I was able to do was pre drywall, go ahead and run all the wires, HDMI cable and everything else. And then clips actually makes brackets that you put in pre drywall. That makes it super simple to install. So when they put the drywall up, all I had to do is place the speakers in, turn the knobs and they were in. And then the ceiling speakers have the added benefit. They are actually in their own enclosure. So not only does that keep some of the sound from going up into the upstairs, but it also makes the sound quality of the speakers better because they actually are in their own sealed enclosure in the ceiling.
And then for the subset up, we went with the SVS Pro 1000. If you guys have heard anything about SVS, you know what I’m talking about. These things are monsters. It really does give you a home theater experience by just shaking the room and with awesome sound quality. That was another area where I wanted to make sure that we were not skimping at all because that home theater experience really requires you to feel what you’re watching on the screen. And there is nothing better that does that than a monster of a sub.
How does it perform?
So overall, how does it perform remarkably well for the setup? I think doing all the math upfront and actually having the enclosures for the top speakers really help out. And we get a lot of performance out of this setup without being able to see it at all outside of the projector and the screen. I was really surprised. It sounds a lot better than any of the 7.1 or 5.1 setups I had in the past. And you do get some of that height at most experience while basically trying to fake it. But I do think my favorite part of this entire setup is that projector and screen. The image quality is amazing and it actually makes watching movies down here more enjoyable than even going to the movie theater itself. We have a nice large 120 inch screen which we probably could have gone 10 inches bigger on. If I would have done it again, I probably would have gone 130. But it makes for the quality experience down here when we just get to sit as a family and watch movies and shows so much better.
And then we did little final touches like these are Phillips smart bulbs that we’re able to set up scenes for whether we’re watching movies or doing anything else. We have a brilliant light switch that makes it so that the lights come automatically on when you walk down the stairs. And it’s just little touches like that like even the cuisine art popcorn maker that makes it so that we can have a great experience down here and it just meshes with the rest of the basement.
So guys I want to hear what you think. What do you think of this home theater setup? I know it has a lot of compromises to it but we’re really happy with the overall setup and the fact that you don’t see a lot of speakers down here in the basement. I want to hear what you think down in the comments section below. If you have any questions about anything that we did down here, let me know as well. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to Rob Sutton for more videos like this in the future. Thanks guys. On to the next one.