By Leon Shaw

As I was sitting watching the Mumford and Sons concert in South Africa last night in beautiful 4K from Directv, I started thinking about just how much the wonderful world of home theater has changed over the last few years. When I think about the performance levels Audio Advice was installing just a mere ten years ago compared to what the industry now has to offer, it just makes me so happy to know we can now bring what was not even dreamed of 10 years ago to your home for far less than something not as good cost 10 years ago.

What is happening right now is a magical convergence of changes to both sound and picture technology. We’ve never really had this happen before in the audio video business. Normally there will be some improvement in video or audio, but no comparable improvement for the other half. So what are these changes, and why should you be as excited as I am?

Unless you have been under a rock, you have probably heard about 4K or UHD video (they are both essentially different names for the same thing). 4K TV sets have been out for a few years and look fantastic, but true 4K projection technology for home theaters has been at the upper end of the price ticket. Also, as with most new technology in the video sector, the tech usually comes out in front of the content. We’ve had 4K for a few years, but content lagged behind initially.

Two things have happened that are really exciting. 4K Blu-ray players are now at very reasonable prices and the number of 4K movies available is pushing 1000 and that is not including those on 4K streaming.

4K series and movies are becoming very abundant on the streaming services, especially Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, HBO, Showtime, and Disney.

We can confidently say that the shift to 4K UHD content is full speed ahead.

While just a few years ago the price of entry for a true 4K projector was pushing $30,000, Sony now has models that start under $5,000 that give you a simply amazing picture.

Another thing that is far more affordable than a few years ago is widescreen front projection. Most big-time movies these days are filmed in widescreen (actually about 85% of movies are). This is a wider format than the standard HDTV picture. At Audio Advice, we have been installing widescreen theater rooms for almost 2 decades, but until just recently, this type of projection system was fairly expensive. Well, once again, we have new technology making it far more affordable! Yes, Epson has a new projector for under $2,500 that will get you into that great widescreen experience. On the 4K side of things, a 4K solution that got you into widescreen used to be north of $15,000. As you might have guessed, Sony now has widescreen 4K projectors for almost half that price at $7,998!

As you can see, massive shifts have occurred on the picture side of home theater that make it a fantastic time to invest.

On the sound front, lots of changes are afoot as well. Dolby Atmos was introduced just a couple of years ago. This is the first major upgrade to surround sound we have had in about 15 years and the improvement is just huge!

Dolby Atmos adds additional speakers to give you the most amazing surround sound experience you have ever encountered. Everyone who hears it for the first time just comes out grinning ear to ear. Just like the projector world, Dolby Atmos surround sound receivers have come down dramatically in price. We have them as low as for the Sony STR-DN1080!

Speaker companies have recently jumped into Dolby Atmos full speed ahead offering up new models that do not require you to run extra wiring for the Atmos height speakers. They are starting to build this into the tops of many tower speakers offering a simple alternative to get fully into Dolby Atmos.

For as long as I have been in this business, one thing has been a huge elephant in the room, and that is the room itself. The room your system is in affects the sound of your system far more than anything else. Over the past 25 years, there have been many attempts to fix issues caused by the room. Some have been ultra-expensive and worked well, while others were complete flops. Fixing the room has a lot to do with measuring the problems and having the horsepower on the computer processing side to fix them without screwing up the sound. I bet you guessed it, yep, technology has come out that fixes issues in your room for far less than ever before! We are particularly impressed with the technology Anthem uses, which can be had in a full Dolby Atmos unit for as little as $2,499. Just five years ago you had to pay $21,000 for a Datasat processor only to get great room correction! And this year we have seen the Dirac room correction previously found only in things like 20k+ Datasat units show up in receivers and processors from Anthem and Lexicon starting under $5000, which is just incredible.

The final part of the theater room is the acoustic treatment side of things. In the last couple of years, more companies have gotten into producing acoustic treatment materials, thus driving the price down for this very important aspect.

Do you see now why it is a great time to start planning that dream home theater? At Audio Advice we love designing custom home theaters. I personally get involved with a lot of them and just have a blast figuring out the best way to set up a room. We’d love to help you get started. Please take a few minutes to watch the great video we’ve put together on home theater, we think you will like it!