Use this thread to share and discuss current sales on home theater gear or ask about pricing on a specific item. Posts of this nature outside of this thread are still against the subreddit rules and will be removed. Comments within this thread are still subject to the subreddit rules, including but not limited to rules governing spam, self promotion, referral links, etc.
It all really seems like so much hype. My basement 4K projector looks just as good as a theater projector because most of them aren’t properly calibrated and those cost significantly more.
The jump from VHS to DVD was huge. Going from DVD to HD was huge. But at some point, we’re paying thousands of dollars for the slightest QLED/OLED improvements in picture quality. And a lot of what we’re watching is heavily compressed streaming content anyway.
There’s also something about the look of modern movies and television that feels flat and desaturated compared to older film. It’s not just an artistic choice. Film has a texture, grain, and highlight response that digital doesn’t naturally reproduce in the same way. There’s a reason filmmakers still shoot on IMAX film and people still listen to vinyl records. Technical perfection doesn’t automatically make something more pleasing to experience. Digital can be cleaner and sharper, but sometimes those imperfections are part of what makes an image feel rich and alive.
I get that better contrast, deeper blacks, and less glare can improve the picture, but I wonder how much those differences actually matter once you’re immersed in what you’re watching. I grew up watching VHS tapes on tube TVs, and sometimes I think we’ve reached the point where we’re spending ridiculous amounts of money chasing improvements that most people wouldn’t notice unless they were specifically looking for them.
I had been wanting to treat my living room for the longest time, and finally made the leap!
My living room is fairly small at 14' x 16', so the couch is about 2' from the back wall, which is as much as The wife would tolerate.
So reflections off the rear wall were a serious issue I needed to address.
I ordered DMD fabric from acoustimac in these colors after creating a few mock-ups in chat GPT. I also repainted this green to match the project.
Panels were constructed from kiln-dried pine 2x4s.
I ripped a bevel into the panels and used the leftover triangular pieces as cleats to hold the insulation in, which is 3" Rockwool Safe N Sound.
The geometry of the room forced me to put the left speaker less than a foot from the left wall to get the separation I needed, so the next stage is a large artistic printed absorption panel on the left wall in front of the left speaker.
I also plan on making 2 ceiling panels.
The change was immediate and substantial.
The separation of instruments and objects became more defined.
The center image is more pinpoint in the center of the screen.
Voices / dialogue is More intelligible, especially at lower volumes.
Even speaking in the room is a different experience!
I've been listening to music in virtually all my free time the last few days, and I'm really happy with the result!
They've been burning in OLED TVs since 2017. Newer models should hold up better, but their results weren’t that clear. Some improved, others looked similar, and a few even looked worse. With OLEDs getting much brighter, what does that actually tell us about burn-in resistance? They break down their findings, what these extreme tests mean for everyday viewing, and hint to what's next.
We bought our 1959 home last winter and our basement had a small room framed in, about 10x14x7. Only one pull chain light and two outlets in opposite corners of the room before I got started.
In total I did the following:
Demolition (removed paneling mostly, tore out old dead wiring and outlets), rigid insulation, framing, electrical (outlets, in-wall room to room fan, overhead LED dimmable lighting), rockwool insulation on all surfaces, conduit for speaker wire, drywall, and then your typical finishing work.
The 5.1 is nearly all secondhand off FB marketplace. The only item that was new and full price was the Yamaha rx300A receiver. I have a set of older JBL in-wall speakers (HTI 8 for L/R, HTI 5 for center which I mounted slightly crooked), some old Klipsch RS 3 for the rears, and an open box klipsch R12SW which is very overkill for the room.
The screen is a Hisense U65 pro 65 inch and I designed the layout to accommodate a 75 inch down the line if I wanted to.
The only help I needed in this whole project was some help hanging the drywall overhead, and some help mounting the TV.
Anybody else experiment with calibration software for Denon/Marantz XT32 enabled AVR's? I've tried them all, stock Audyssey, MultEQ, A1 Evo, Dirac, REW.... Found them all either too simple or too complicated just to get the right sound for your room. Decided to make my own software that automates everything for me and allows high level tweaks too. It's been pretty fun experimenting and essentially combining Dirac/MultEQ/REW into one easy to use program.
I've got a pretty solid home theater system, but my front tower speakers and center speaker are mismatched and I'm looking to upgrade. Here's a list of all the equipment:
Denon S760H 7.2ch receiver
Velodyne HGS18 subwoofer
JBL Studio 665C center speaker
JBL ND310 tower speakers
Mirage OMD5 surround speakers
DIY projector screen
Valerion Streammaster Plus 2 projector
It's all from Craigslist/Marketplace so it's a pretty eclectic system. I want to upgrade the front speakers, or at least the towers and I'm looking for recommendations.
I got the JBL Studio 665C on a killer deal, but I can't find any JBL Studio 680/690s or 698s to match it cause they're discontinued. I also looked at the JBL HDI 3600 tower speakers cause they're on sale right now. The problem there is I'd probably want to upgrade the JBL 665C to match with the HDI 4500 and that's discontinued as well so it's hard to find.
I'm also totally open to selling the center and tower speakers and upgrading all three, but I'm not sure what to get. I mostly watch movies, but some music.
Btw, I don't use the wood stove, so I'm not going to melt any of the speakers.
My budget is about $2500. I saved money on the rest of my system, so I'm willing to splurge a bit to get some nice front speakers.
I have an opportunity to buy an open box unit for $1700. It has some damage on the lower right two outputs but unsure if they work or not, and I may not even need those anyway. I was looking at a x3800 unit and even that would be overkill for my needs but it seems like such a good deal to pass up. I'm just starting to put together a system and have no way of testing it. I was looking at the q3 meta for speakers and a sb 2000 pro for sub. So do i grab the 6800?
Context - I’ve had a 7.1 system in my living room for about 2 years. It sounded good but never the way others described theirs despite lots of experimenting. I visited a buddy with a Sonos setup (Arc + 2 SL 100s) and it sounded incredible, so I decided to do a test and remove all the surrounds. At first glance, it sounds way better.
My question for the group - is this expected or did I just have a poorly calibrated system?
Denon S950H
Polk M20 Towers (60hz - I know it’s lower but I like them here)
Polk CSi3 (80hz)
Infinity SM62 (80 hz)
Yamaha NX-150 (80 hz)
Polk PSW10 ( I know it’s a junk sub but it’s what I got, LPF 250hz receiver, knob at 120 hz —>this was a recent change, used to be just 120 on the receiver and full 160hz knob)
EDIT - Thanks for the feedback everyone! Also would love to know if there is a better or standard way for me to share the info about my system in posts like this. I've got a markdown/text file with these settings and a change log and it could be easier to copy paste from there or share the file.
Anyone else irritated by sustained bass notes in your setup? As a bass head I prefer the bass notes in the intro of Edge of Tomorrow, the explosion in the beginning of Sicario, the grenade scene in Ballerina for example. I did not enjoy the bass in the intro of Blade Runner and the Submarine scene in MI8:The Final Reckoning. Anyone have similar bass preferences? I have 7 subs in my setup, a triple stack of Starke SW15’s each front wall corner and an Arendal 1723 2S nearfield behind sofa.
Currently have a Tonewinner SP8500 11 channel amp powering by 7.2.4 set up. Wondering if there is any advantage getting a 2nd amp to run just the LCR (Klipsch rp-250F L/R + Klipsch rp-504c )….
My new Dayton Audio subwoofer has a low sensitivity threshold for it to wake up. I really need to give it some volume and that simply won't do. It doesn't have a trigger input.
Can anyone recommend a reliable and affordable smart power strip so the receiver can be the master that also turns on the sub? Thanks.
Thanks for those who gave feedback. This is my updated setup. It’s not completely done yet. I’m putting up wallpaper next and broadband panels behind the towers. This is my bedroom btw that’s why it looks really small.
My setup: LG C5 65” Polk es55 Polk es30 pb1000 pro denon x1800h Ps5 pro
I'm a newb planning on setting up an AVR (Denon x2800) with 5.1 speakers and looking for a solid media console that won't break the bank. Since BDI is out of my price range, what are you all using? I'd love to hear your recommendations.
Has anyone ever had an electrician recommend adding an addition circuit for their HT? We are having custom cabinet work done, etc. So once stuff is on the wall, it’s going to be expensive to remove stuff and go back into the drywall. Measure twice, cut once situation. That being said, the electrician discussed adding a separate 20 amp circuit. HT is in the living room and not much else on the circuit. What will be on is: LG C4 83”, Denon 3900H, 1 or 2 SVS (or similar) pb-3000 and a PS5. Am I losing my mind or is this electrician trying to drum up work?
Shopping for a tv stand and realizing I might need to move my tv location to find anything that works so I'm trying to figure out if the new spot would even be doable with all my speakers. AVR can do 7.1 and 5.1.2
Optimizing for - noncompetitive RPG gaming, movies as a secondary.
55in TV - against wall
65" loveseat (live alone so I generally sit more centered than on one side) - 6 feet from screen
Front L/R - 6 feet apart
Side Surrounds - near couch ~3ft from MLP OR against walls ~6ft from MLP
Rear Speakers (MY MAIN ISSUE):
The couch would be in the middle of the room along the split of my kitchen/living room which leaves few placement options:
1.) Rear satellites ~6ft apart on a stand directly against the couch to not block the kitchen table path.
2.) Rear satellites 10ft back from MLP, 7ft high, ~7ft apart (could MAYBE do up to 15ft apart but would prefer not to mount objects on wall.)
Does any of this seem like it would work and if it did, would they be heights or surrounds? There is also a third option of using those two speakers in a different room/separate zone and just do 5.1 but I'd really like to try out surround sound with all my speakers if possible while gaming since I haven't yet.
Please do not give me any other options other than the ones suggested above, especially if they involve buying anything. These are the only viable placements and I am FAR below the income level a lot of people on this sub seem to be. I just got lucky at a couple estate sales.
Everything here is free, runs in your browser, requires no account, and nothing to install.
We’ve been dumping old video games to files for years so they don’t disappear when the cartridge is gone. I started thinking: why don’t we do the same thing with remote controls?
When a remote breaks, gets lost, or the manufacturer stops supporting it, the codes can disappear with it. So I’ve been building an archive to preserve them.
Remote Finder
Search by brand, device, or simply what the device is — TV, fan, garage door, blinds, bed, etc.
There are currently 1,000,000+ remotes and codes covering 12,000+ brands, including IR, RF, network, and Bluetooth.
🔍 REMOTE FINDER - Just tell it what remote you’re looking for and then save it in whatever format you need. .irc - .ir - Flipper Zero .sub - Flipper RF - Pronto Hex - LIRC - conf - Global Caché - GIRR - XML - Harmony - Arduino - .ino - IRDB - CSV - JP1 .rmdu - SmartIR - Tuya - IR - ESPHome - Sonoff - RfRaw - Broadlink + more
The Remote Finder is at the top of the page. If you can't find a brand or model, let me know and I'll see if I can add it.
Use whatever format your setup needs
IR remotes can be exported in formats such as BroadLink, Flipper, Pronto, LIRC, ESPHome, Global Caché, GIRR XML, CSV, JSON, and more.
So whether you're using a BroadLink, Flipper, Home Assistant, ESPHome device, custom hardware, or something else entirely, you can get the remote into the format your gear requires.
RF is supported too — including things like fans, outlets, blinds, and gates at 315/433/868 MHz. Just keep in mind that the hardware still has to support the frequency and type of RF you're working with.
Choose the device type and brand, flip the on-screen DIP switches to match your remote, hit Build, and it generates the code..
You can also clone DIP-switch remotes without any additional hardware, along with a bunch of other tools.
Rolling-code devices, such as most modern garage door openers and car fobs, are flagged because they can't simply be cloned like a standard fixed-code remote.
One important detail
Some of the RF, network, and Bluetooth tools save the remote as .irc. That's an open format that can hold an entire remote rather than just one type of signal.
Drop the .irc back into the editor, hit Bulk Export, and convert it to whatever format your hardware or software requires.
Network and Bluetooth remotes stay as .irc because they aren't IR codes.
And if your remote isn't in the archive, you can paste a learned BroadLink code into the editor and it will identify the protocol and clean it up.
The whole idea is pretty simple: Generate. Convert. Clean. Move. Preserve.
I got tired of fighting with IR and 433 MHz codes — capturing raw timings, converting them for whatever blaster I was using, and hoping they actually worked. So I built these browser tools to make the process easier.
If there's a remote you've been trying to find and it's not in the archive, I'd genuinely like to know what it is. That's how I can keep growing it.
Enjoy the tools!
A capture you might have given up on a year ago can often be turned into a working signal in a few clicks. This is probably the feature I get the most questions about. Ever learned a code from an original remote only for the result to barely work—or work once, only from a few inches away, or work for one button but not another? Usually, that's not you or your blaster.
Mostly looking for a reality check on the never ending issue of it could always be better. Also, want other people's experiences going from dual subs that are smaller/mid size to larger dual subs, and if they really felt like they got a lot of bang for their buck. Or are we just moving the needle from better than 99% of the general population to 99.2% of the general population and maybe getting a slightly better experience once a week.
I have a large room connected to a kitchen; I know there's no replacement for displacement. Roughly 21' x 21' x 9' living room connected to a kitchen that adds 10' so essentially 31' x 21' x 9' of actual cubic feet. I know that's a lot of space, and there's a hallway into the foyer so I had given up on pressurizing the space. This is a family living room that I wanted the best I could get at that time, not a dedicated smaller home theater space. Quite honestly, I'm happy with my dual VTF2 MK5's. I know the Hsu website says they would be undersized for this space, but their gain isn't even at the halfway mark. If I use audyssey xt32 on my denon 4500 it wants the gain below a quarter on the knob to stay calibrated around 75 dB. I know the issues with audyssey setting subs too low so after calibration I turn each of them about a 1/4 turn higher.
However, I can now technically afford dual VTF TN1s if I sell the dual VTF2's. Will I truly see a huge benefit? I know the basic answer is yes I will hear and feel more bass. But for people that have upgraded, is it worth an extra $1,500+ with shipping added in? That assumes I can find a buyer for my current subs which isn't a given. What I've found over the last 5 years is that a lot of material doesn't have that much low bass to begin with. The 4k discs I've gravitated toward do have some scenes with great bass (the beginning of Spectre this week was a great example, and Fury the week before was another). I definitely love having those occasional wall rattling experiences, and I feel like I'm already getting those when the material occasionally has good bass. It's not like adding larger subs will increase the amount of bass experiences, it'll just make those few rare big bass experiences better. It leads me to question if I'm actually missing something.
My options - my placement is already the best I can do in the space I have so 1. get the larger subs, 2. turn the current subs I have up higher on the gain (but I'm not sure if I'd risk damaging them), 3. keep what I have since it seems great already, but keep wondering if it could be better.
I've got an ~10 year old home theater setup in need of upgrading. It's an Epson 5040UB and a Denon X3300W -- a decent enough 105wpc Atmos receiver with a bunch of 4K HDMI inputs and outputs. But it pre-dates eARC and 48gbit HDMI and all the associated formats with it (4k/120, etc). The Epson is starting to have issues.
Going to a 10 year newer projector, I'm finding myself feeling like it's time to jump out of the Epson 3LCD bandwagon (this was my 3rd) because that tech seems to have plateaued around that time and the 5050 is only marginally different from the 5040. The new lasers from Xgimi and JMGO supporting 4k120 and 2k240, plus the newer TI anti-RBE and anti-speckle tech has me thinking that's the way to go.
The problem is, the 2026 equivalent of the X3300W is the X3200H at $1300 or the X3900H at $1800 if I want to keep the 105wpc. (Although that one is 9.4...) All, really, because I can't do HDMI 2.1 passthrough.
I only (currently) have one device that needs the 8K bandwidth (an Xbox Series X -- my ATV4K maxes out at 4k60. I either run two "8K" cables to the projector (I have one, a second is going to be $100+ because it is 50' and needs to be a fiber optic cable). One for the Xbox, and one for the ATV through an eARC extractor, but it needs to be an eARC extractor with an audio output over HDMI. Those seem a lot less common, and all the ones I've found have iffy reviews. Or I need an "8K"-compatible HDMI switch with audio extraction and run everything through the switch. But they seem to be a combination of expensive, fairly poor reviews, and IR-controlled (at best).
Am I missing some other options? What have others done? It seems really silly to spend $1300 for a receiver with worse specs purely because I need HDMI 2.1 switching. But obviously ARC and optical aren't options, being limited bandwidth and not supporting uncompressed audio.
I had an annoying and depressing problem with a subwoofer humming when I connect it to the Denon X3800H receiver. Moved cables and connected to the same outlet but nothing worked. I bought a shielded cable. The humm went away like magic. Poof devil be gone.
Anyone have experience with this? I really want a great home theater sound system, but i'm in a small apartment. Tempted to just get something basic but thinking this might be a better alternative. Anyone have thoughts on this?
