While TV’s, projectors, and cutting-edge sound systems often take center stage in discussions about home entertainment, one crucial element is frequently overlooked – the seating. The humble home theater seat is not just a place to rest; it's a key player in shaping the overall viewing experience. As you delve into the world of home theaters and media rooms, it becomes evident that the choice of seating goes beyond mere comfort. It intricately weaves into the fabric of the cinematic journey, influencing everything from acoustics to visual angles and the overall aesthetics of your room.

If you have followed us for a while, you are probably well aware of our hot-selling ultimate home theater chair. While this chair may have just about every feature you would want, there are some people who may be looking for a more contemporary seating option for multipurpose rooms and other situations where a traditional theater chair isn’t desired.

To fill that desire, we’ve partnered with RowOne to bring you the RowOne Calveri chair, which aims to give you all the great features you’d want from a typical home theater chair but with a beautiful contemporary yet modern design that is sure to look great even outside of a typical theater setting.

Color & Design Options

The Calveri comes in black leather, a taupe microfiber fabric, and charcoal microfiber fabric. In a theater setting, black leather is the optimal choice because it will seamlessly blend into the ambient darkness without compromising the viewing experience. The leather is also extremely durable and easy to wipe down if a drink or crumbs get spilled on it. The charcoal fabric option looks cool and can also complement a theater environment due to its dark hue; it's essential to note that maintenance may be a bit more challenging compared to the leather when you or your guest inevitably spills their soda or popcorn on the fabric. But it's dark enough to hide most spills.

As for the taupe variant, we recommend reserving it for family rooms or mixed-use spaces where a lighter furniture color is desired. It's important to consider that the bright taupe fabric may not be the best fit for a theater since you typically want to try to have dark colors in your theater so that the room disappears and the main focus is on the screen itself. Therefore, opting for taupe is advised only in specific situations where its unique aesthetic is desired. You must also take into account the potential challenges in maintaining a light-colored fabric from spills or stains compared to darker colors.

The Calveri has many different configuration options, so you can set them up to fit your specific room. They are offered in a two arm chair with standard feet, two arm chair on a swivel base, two chair loveseat, three chair sofa, three chair row, and pretty much any configuration in between that you may want to build. We highly recommend contacting our team of home theater design experts for additional help deciding which setup would be the best for your room.

It’s also important to note that when you add a middle chair without arms to create a couch, the middle chair will still have power and recline just like the others! The buttons will be tucked away on the side of the cushion.

Unobstructed Sound

When we first tested the Calveri at Audio Advice Live 2023, we were impressed with the overall look and build quality. Everyone on our team gave it great praise for its aesthetics and just how comfortable it was. However, there was one feature about the Calveri that really stood out to many of the home theater and two-channel enthusiasts. The back of the chair is extremely low profile; even when you raise the back for more neck support, nothing covers the back of your head. This means that your head and ears are completely unobstructed from all sides, so you have a direct line of sight to rear speakers, side speakers, atmos channels, and more. For true audio enthusiasts, this is a very important detail and one that many may overlook. However, to us, it’s an awesome feature for the Calveris and is perfect for someone who doesn’t want their chair to obstruct any of the sound in their room.

Sit Back & Relax

When designing your theater, it’s crucial to get your sightlines perfect, especially if you have more than one row of seats. Our Free Home Theater Design Tool will do all the work for you and tell you how high your riser needs to be and where to place your seats for an optimal viewing experience. What’s really amazing about the Carlveri’s is that they have a very low clearance (only 31 inches tall), so you could have a lower riser than standard and still have good sightlines to the screen. This also makes them a great option for use in the front row of a theater. (If you do decide to vary your riser height, be sure to contact our experts to make sure it’s done properly.)

Learn more about The Importance of Sightlines

In addition, unlike most theater chairs that require 8 or so inches of clearance behind them to recline fully, the Calveri only needs about an inch or two of clearance between the chair and the back wall. This is because they are “incline” chairs instead of “recline” chairs, which means as you put the leg rest up, the chair slides forward instead of moving back. This will allow you to get these chairs right up against a wall or put them closer to the seats behind them without worrying about your head being in the way when you recline the chair all the way back.

After much testing, we found the best way to watch a movie was to put your legs all the way up, with the headrest about 90% of the way up to support your neck, and still see a screen in front of you. Although, since you don’t have a true headrest, it’s actually supporting your shoulders and lower neck more than the back of your head. So it is important to keep in mind that while it is very comfortable, it won’t have the same support as a standard home theater chair. This isn’t the end of the world, but it is something to consider and is a trade-off you will need to make for a more contemporary-looking chair like the Calveri.

We also tested the Calveri with people ranging from 120 lbs to 300 lbs and all different heights. To our surprise, it proved to fit every single person that tested it. It has a ton of support on the seat cushion and lumbar area but is also soft enough to sink in and get comfortable. One of our testers, who was 6’5”, was easily able to fit in the chair and set the position to their liking for an enjoyable experience. So, no matter your size or shape, the Calveri proved to be versatile for just about anyone.

More Features

We’ve discussed the unique aspects of the Calveri, like the unobstructed sound, low clearance for risers, and how versatile it is for people of all sizes. What we haven’t touched on yet, which is arguably the coolest part, is all the great features that this chair has to offer.

First, as we mentioned before, this chair reclines by using buttons on the inside of the armrest. We do have to note that when we surveyed people for our ultimate home theater chair, the majority preferred these buttons to be near the cupholder so they weren’t accidentally hitting them with their legs and didn’t have to fumble around to find them. However, to get a clean, contemporary look that fits well in a living room type of setting, having them on the inside of the armrest makes a lot of sense from a trade-off perspective.

There is a button to control the headrest to go up and down, another button to control the leg rest to go up and down, a home button that you hold to bring it back to its standard setting, a USB-A port, and a USB-C port to charge your phone or tablet with. For all furniture that has USB ports inside the chair, you must be careful when plugging in your device here, as you could potentially hit the port with your leg and damage your cord if you are not cautious. We’ve found that most people don’t use the charging ports in theater chairs, but these chairs are wide enough that if you do choose to use them, the risk of snagging the connection is reduced.

Another feature that most home theater chairs have is a cupholder to hold your beverage while watching a movie. The downside is that cupholders in your chair may not be the most aesthetically pleasing in a modern or contemporary room. The Calveri has solved this problem by having a cupholder in the armrest but has a piece on the top of the armrest that slides forward and back, which will cover the cupholder when it’s not in use. This allows you to use it when needed and cover it back up to keep that clean, aesthetically pleasing look. To us, it’s small features like this that really make the Calveri stand out as a great alternative to a standard home theater chair.

The Calveri also boasts a host of hidden features designed to enhance your experience. Nestled discreetly beneath the armrest, a spacious drawer effortlessly slides out, providing ample storage for remotes, beverages, snacks, cables, and more—keeping everything you need close at hand yet neatly tucked away.

But that's not all; the armrest also accommodates the Calveri's stylish reading lamp. The lamp is a sleek light reminiscent of a mini lightsaber that conveniently folds up when not in use. When needed, simply unfold it and slot it into a designated power port behind the armrest. The best part? No messy wires. The chair powers the light through contact points on the base of the lamp. With three adjustable brightness levels, activating and customizing the illumination is as easy as a touch. The reading lamp adds versatility with its swivel capability—move it left, right, up, down, or sideways to direct the light wherever you desire. Features like this really show that the Calveri doesn't just offer comfort; it provides a seamless blend of functionality and elegance.

Overall Recommendation

Our final evaluation involved immersing ourselves in a few movies while sitting in a Calveri. Let's address the elephant in the room upfront: When it comes to extended viewing sessions, traditional home theater chairs with their plush headrests and lumbar support take the lead in comfort. However, the Calveri, although slightly trailing in this aspect, holds its ground admirably. If your priority is a chair that seamlessly blends aesthetic appeal with an array of remarkable concealed features, the Calveri is going to be an excellent choice.

In our view, it stands out as the premier alternative to a conventional home theater chair in today's market. Remarkably, the Calveri not only excels in functionality but also comes with an affordable price tag, considering the myriad features it offers, making it our number one choice for an alternative to traditional home theater seating.

We’re here to help!

Audio Advice has been in the industry since 1978, and throughout the years, we’ve developed a team of professionals who live and breathe all things audio and video. We spend countless hours testing and reviewing every product we sell to be sure it stands up to our extremely high-quality standards. With our state-of-the-art home theater audio lab, we can become product experts and provide our customers with in-depth, honest feedback. If you are thinking about building a home theater or media room, check out our free home theater design tool at AudioAdvice.com. There, we also have lots of buyer guides, an inspiration gallery, best-in-class equipment, and home theater seating options. You can also stop by one of our award-winning showrooms.

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