Huge brown, furry buffaloes stampede across the den, clouds of dust flying, hundreds of hooves pounding, music building dramatically.
Music? On the plains? Sure-if you’ve turned a room of your house into a home theater.
If you’re willing to spend anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars to 10 times that amount, you can have a nearly life-size Kevin Costner dance with wolves, buffalo or a beautiful Indian woman right in your home.
“It’s a new kind of lifestyle, that’s for sure,” says Todd Goens, a salesman at Sofas ‘n Cinemas, a home-theater outlet in Evansville, Ind. “It’s changing how people buy furniture as well as electronics.”
“The term `home theater’ can mean different things to different people, but the root of it is trying to make your home be like a movie theater,” says Mark Risley, owner of an Evansville audio and video outlet.
Some people really want a movie theater in their home, he adds, “and, with this concept, they get close to it. The picture size and quality are better and the sound quality is better than regular TV, and the theater feeling is there.”
There are a couple of ways to outfit the room. Risley says home theater planners should remember they don’t have to buy everything all at once.
“Most people like the idea of getting it all at once and being ready to go, but let’s face it: Most budgets won’t let you do that. So you buy pieces, one or two at a time, until you’ve built the system you want.
“You can get started for under $1,000, or you can spend more-much more-for individual pieces and build from there. And when you replace parts of your current system, think in terms of upgrading, not just replacing.”
The basic pieces, of course, are the large-size TV screen-48- to 60-inch screens-and the sound system.
“You want the biggest picture possible for your room. With the improved electronics and improved signal quality (for TV), there’s not as much distortion as there used to be. With the digital age upon us, there’s no end to the possibilities,” says Risley.
“You also want to have a nice audio system `surround sound’, where there are speakers behind your head.”
Dolby Pro-Logic sound-also known as surround sound-is the best, Risley says. “Most people have a nice TV, but what they’re missing is the sound. You can have a 31- or 35-inch TV and it’ll seem like a whole different system if you add a five-speaker `surround-sound’ system.
“And for movies you have to have a hi-fi/stereo VCR, too, if you want the big sound from them. But a lot of people have those already.”
Goens prefers to look at the room as a package, complete within itself. Sofas ‘n Cinemas has set up three display rooms-dubbed “good,” “better” and “best”-to help potential buyers see just what they’re getting.
The “good” room, with 55-inch TV and Dolby Pro-Logic sound, runs about $6,000 for the electronics.
The “better” room, with a 60-inch TV and Dolby Pro-Logic sound, runs about $7,000. Goens starts rattling off equipment only an audiophile would understand or appreciate: “That room will have a top-notch sound system, with a good receiver and amp (amplifier) and tuner, a five-disc CD, dual cassettes, a hi-fi/stereo VCR, five speakers with one subwoofer.”
The “best” room has all of the above, but everything’s just a little bigger and a little better than in the other two rooms. Even the terms sound fancier: 6X100 watt amplifier, two subwoofers, three JBL front-channel speakers, two dipolar surround-sound speakers, laser disc. This one runs about $8,000-again, just for the electronics.
“This is the Rolls Royce of home theaters,” Goens said. And Sofas ‘n Cinemas furnishes and decorates each of the rooms to mesh with the high-flying electronics.
