Revolution Home Theater Seating - RowOne

Company & Product Overview

At Audio Advice, we are known for our expertise in designing and installing custom home theaters and selling best-in-class home theater equipment to do-it-yourselfers all over the country. While most of our reviews are about the gear, we believe that having comfortable home theater seating is one of the most important aspects of a home theater or media room. It simply doesn’t matter how good the picture looks or how great the Dolby Atmos effects are if you can’t comfortably watch a movie or sporting event from start to finish.

We’ve designed and installed custom theaters and media rooms all over the country and carry home theater seating in our showrooms that can cost upwards of $5,000 for a single chair. For many years we were on the hunt for a killer affordable home theater chair for both our store customers and the many DIY customers who buy from us at AudioAdvice.com. We eventually launched the Row One Evolution, which quickly became our best-selling home theater chair and sold for just under $1,400 a seat. After living with them in our own homes, the Audio Advice team worked with the manufacturer to improve the chair, resulting in the Audio Advice exclusive Revolution chair, which we believe is flat out the best home theater seating available anywhere under $2,000 per seat.

Design & Build Quality

The Revolution is not your typical seat with a flat bottom and back. It has sculpted sides on both the seat and back that cup your body, much like the seats you expect to find in a luxury performance automobile. You have the choice of purchasing a single chair or grouping several together to build a row with several configuration options.

The build quality is fantastic, especially considering the price point of these chairs. Each chair weighs in at approximately 115 pounds and features a wooden frame covered with a high-quality foam material that is designed to maintain its shape over time.

The exterior is covered in a material called Leatheraire, which is extremely soft, and feels just like real leather, yet it’s able to breathe, so you won’t find yourself getting sweaty after sitting for a few hours. This is one of the key reasons you are able to stay comfortable in these chairs for hours.

Another design feature that we love is the footrest. While some footrests leave a gap between the edge of the seat and the footrest, the Revolution extends completely to the edge of the rest. This is aesthetically better while also providing better leg support.

Features & Technology

While the build quality and comfort of these home theater chairs are top-notch, what really sets them apart and makes them an even greater value is the feature set! You would think that a more entry-level chair would skimp immediately on the features, but these things are fully loaded!

The Revolution allows you to recline using up/down buttons inside the cup holder. The chair is completely motorized and it’s smooth and quiet, so you won’t disturb your friends and family if you have to make adjustments during a movie.

When you evaluate home theater seats, most good seats have at least one good motor for reclining and better seats have a second motor for the head or back. The Revolution not only has two motors, but the magic is in the design of the ergonomics and how the motorized headrest works in conjunction with the rest of the chair. For the Revolution, you first set your recline position, which extends the footrest and reclines the back. The next trick is to be able to get your headrest in the exact spot to provide effortless support at any position. This is where the Revolution shines. The headrest extends diagonally up and down at approximately a 45-degree angle from the chair. This means that you can position your head to view the screen effortlessly at any recline level. We’ve tested countless theater chairs at all price points and have not found a better motorized ergonomic design at anything close to this price point. It just nails it.

Improvements between the original Evolution and the Audio Advice Revolution Home Theater Chair:

• Removed bright LED lights on the controls from viewing in a darkened room.
• Added on/off button to control the LED brightness around the cupholders (on, three levels of brightness, and off).
• Added two memory settings.
• USB charger with slider cover near the cupholder.
• Removable tray table that stores under the armrest is now included (previously an upcharge).
• "Crumb catcher" between the bottom and back of chair for easy cleaning.
• Locking clips underneath the chairs to securely link multiple chairs together.

The original Evolution chair had five buttons--two for reclining and two for controlling the headrest and a light button. However, once our team lived with these chairs and spoke with customers, we found a handful of things that we could improve. The first was to remove the bright LED lights on the controls that distract from viewing in a darkened room. In cheaper home theater chairs, you will see all sorts of crazy bright LED lights that look cool online but are generally terrible for viewing because they add distracting lights in all the wrong places. For those of you who have watched our videos on how to design and set up theaters on AudioAdvice.com, you know we really focus on immersing in the experience. We removed the bright lights on the touch buttons and included a single on/off button for low-level LED lighting in the cup holders that makes it easy to see where your cup goes without the distraction from super bright LED lighting.

The third improvement we made was to add two memory settings to the chair. This allows you to find your perfect viewing position and save it for a one-touch motion to that position. The second memory button can be used to open the chair even more to an additional reclined position. Bear in mind for safety reasons, the memory buttons will not close the chair but only move the chair in the open direction. In addition, we’ve embedded a USB charger in every single chair in the cupholder. We’ve even included a slider that covers the USB port from food or other particles while not in use.

In the ideal chair design, you want to efficiently make use of every space you can. The Revolution armrests flip up to provide storage space in the arms. One of the things we found with the original Evolution chair is that customers often wanted to order the optional tray tables for having meals while enjoying their theater. We simply decided to include the top-of-the-line tray with every single chair sold. We also designed the trays to fit in the armrests for when they’re not in use. Then, when you want to use them, they drop right into the springloaded adapter in the armrest. We also improved the texture of the table itself so that items naturally hold to the table versus sliding. You’ll even see an indention for holding a drink on the tables. It’s all about the details!

If you have ever owned home theater seats, you know that popcorn and crumbs inevitably fall through the cracks and create a mess under chairs. The Revolution has a simple but extremely effective “crumb catcher” between the bottom and the back of the chair where most things fall. You won’t miss searching under the chair for keys and remotes, nor vacuuming constantly beneath the chair. A quick open of the seat, vacuum the catcher, and you are done.

If you’re considering Revolution home theater seating for your room, there are a few different configuration options that you can choose from since we produced the seats in 2 arms, left arm, and right arm versions. Of course, you can get individual seats, but you can also build a row of them with just a single armrest between each seat. You can even create a home theater loveseat version, although we find most customers prefer standard rows. It's worth mentioning one additional detail that we added to the Revolution that was not included with the Evolution. The Revolution chairs have small clips that easily clip the chairs to each other so they won’t move while configured as a row. While we didn’t see this issue with the Evolution when placed on the carpet, we wanted to be sure it was done right and decided to include the clips with the Revolution.

Overall Recommendation

If you are shopping for home theater or media room seating, you have to check the Revolution Home Theater Chair out. Even if you have already budgeted for more expensive chairs, the Revolution is worth considering. You may find that you can save some money on the overall system or put more into the gear.