Whats the best speakers to get the same movie theater experience?

Question

Whats the best speakers to get the same movie theater experience?

Answer 1

High End JBL, MartinLogan, Vienna Acoustics, or Bowers & Wilkins.

Answer 2

Hmm, not an easy question to answer.

It all depends on what YOU like in sound. Your likes & dislikes will most probably be different to mine. There's no right or wrong in that - just differences in personal taste.

In my case I started a few month ago in pretty much the same position as yourself.

The first thing you have to decide is how much do you want to spend. As with everything, the more you pay the more you get.

I have a set of Krix speakers that I absolutely love. But expect to pay over $7,000. Yep, that right, more that a good second hand car.

Of course you could pay less. It's up to you what you like. Go and listen to as many options as you can. Believe me, its the only way you'll be certain of getting what's right for YOU!

I know that not what you wanted to hear. I'm sure what you want if for someone to say "buy brand X from store Y and you'll only pay $Z". Ignore anybody who ways that. They're WRONG.

Answer 3

JBL. Because JBL provides sounds to over 80% of Cinemas worldwide. You can also go for Harman Kardon or Infinity.

Answer 4

At one time, JBL sold a series of Cinema-grade speakers which required high wattage amplifiers.  Unfortunately, they are no longer available.  You should check into earlier pre-1990 reviews of home speakers from Consumer Reports which rank speakers according to their accuracy with 100 points issued to the very best.  The uniqueness of movie theatre sound systems is the huge amount of volume pumped out of their amplifiers which is not necessarily the case in a smaller home theatre setup.  The proper placement and calibration of the sound direction of any home speaker system is the key -- no matter how costly was the initial investment in so-called "quality" speakers.  My recommendation is still the THX Optimizer calibration option found on many Disney rental DVD's -- under "setup."

Good luck!

Answer 5

Here is a rule about music vs HT speakers:

"Music is about accuracy, but home theater is about impact".

You can get away with less-accurate (read "less expensive") speakers, for home theater but you need a smooth, powerful subwoofer.  These all have to be properly placed in the room, but you can rival a commercial movie theater.

I had a friend who had over $20,000 invested in his dedicated HT room and was asked one Christmass by his in-laws to setup their new $500 HTIB system.  He did and they watched 2 movies that night. After the second one - he ran home and popped in his copy of one of the movies.  Yes - his system did sound better, but not like you would think given the price difference in the 2 systems.

Properly setup, inexpensive speakers with a good sub can give a great HT experience.

My advice is to:

- Find a matched set of 5 monitor-style speakers from a SPEAKER company.  (Not Sony, phillips, samsung, etc.)

- Get a good SVS or HSU subwoofer (sold over the internet)

Then learn how to place the speakers, do the calibration with a Radio Shack SPL meter and ... thats about all it takes.

There are other things you can do like equalize the sub to prevent peaks, and some wall treatments to eliminate early reflections.

A good book is: "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget" by Everest.  There are 2 chapters on home theater.