one of the most common questions we get at audio advice is how should i allocate my
home theater budget the purpose of this video is to give you some insight into this process
to explore additional considerations in creating your dream home theater check out our various home
theater buyer's guides on audioadvice.com and even design your own home theater from scratch
using our free 3d home theater design tool now let's get started
as with many things a home theater is only as good as its weakest link we find when most people start
thinking about a new home theater the first thing they research is the video portion there's a good
reason for this a large high resolution tv or even better a projector and screen combination
will definitely put you right in the movie theater feel however our experience tells us that many
people neglect to think about the audio enough i suggest you try this little experiment watch
one of your favorite movie scenes that contains some spoken voice try it the first time with the
volume muted for just maybe a minute then watch it again with your eye shut and the volume turned up
most people are shocked by the relative impact of the audio versus the video this simple experiment
should show you how important great home theater audio will be for the best experience
another thing to consider when budgeting your home theater is technology and its speed of change
there are parts of your home theater you only have to purchase once and it will last for decades
whereas others change quite often it makes the most sense to make sure you do not scrimp on the
things you may only have to buy once first up is the display portion of your theater we have
an entire buying guide and video on how to select the best screen size so i won't get into that here
in general the larger your budget the bigger the percentage of it you can allocate to the display
we say this because we run into so many people who have spent 75 percent or more of their budget on
the tv and have far too little left to get any type of decent audio quality from the surround
sound system our advice is if you're allocating $10,000 or less for your entire home theater system
try not to spend more than about 30 percent of your budget on the display portion for those of
you with much larger budgets you can then put a bigger percentage of your total budget into an
amazing 2.4 widescreen front projection system which obviously will cost more than an 85 inch
flat panel the screen is a super important part of the equation screen technology changes at a much
slower rate than projector technology so don't cut corners on your screen as you will likely have it
through multiple iterations of projectors for a great home theater you will need basic surround
sound at a minimum for the best dolby atmos system you might have 16 or more speakers in your space
we have a really good article and video on speaker layout options at audioadvice.com if you want to
learn more about that we feel that sound is one of if not the most important part of a home theater
with the occasional exception of subs you should buy all of your speakers from the same brand
so they are sound matched and don't cut corners on the main front three speakers if your budget
is under ten thousand dollars you should target allocating at least forty to fifty percent of
it to the speaker package good speakers will last for decades with little to no maintenance
if you buy good ones you'll be happy with them for years to come next on the list is your receiver
or separate components these are the brains and power for your entire system the technology in
home theater receivers does change fairly often as both video and audio formats are always improving
while some allow you to run software updates most home theaters will improve substantially from a
new receiver every five years or so depending on how much you want to stay up to date so we
generally guide people to target about 30 to 35 percent of what you invested in your speakers
and put it towards your home theater receiver for those of you wanting a long-term investment
with more funds to invest consider separate components versus a receiver this means you will
have separate power amps to drive your speakers and a separate processor to do all the audio and
video decoding and switching power amps are like speakers they last for decades so they're a great
long-term investment separates also normally sound far more powerful than receivers with built-in
amplification if you have a larger budget consider separate components as you can just replace the
processor every few years if you wanted the latest and greatest now let's talk about sources years
ago home theater sources like blu-ray players were a bigger part of the budget in today's world for
most people all you need is a roku or apple tv it doesn't hurt to have a decent blu-ray player
but you really don't have to allocate much of your budget at all for this part of your theater today
next up is acoustics this is the most overlooked part of a home theater your room has a huge impact
on the final sound some rooms start out better than others as they might have lots of soft
surfaces and carpet to absorb reflections of sound others have bare walls and hard floors and need a
lot of help a well-designed acoustic package for your home theater will make a world of difference
in the audio quality especially in dialogue intelligibility the good news is you do not
have to spend a ton of money to get the job done you can purchase acoustic panels for a
reasonable price consider allocating about five to ten percent of your budget on acoustic panels
check out our guide to home theater acoustics at audioadvice.com if you want to learn more
like acoustics the electrical need of a home theater is something many people forget in some
neighborhoods the ac power coming out of the wall can be weak or dirty this may require some type
of ac line conditioner be sure to research the total power needs of all your gear and
make sure you think about the cost of adding a dedicated circuit if you need more power we
have a full article that breaks this down even further if you'd like to learn more about it
another thing people will sometimes forget to budget for is cables there's a big debate over the
incremental value of increasingly higher quality speaker wire in sound but whatever your personal
value for better cables the laws of physics say you want a large heavy gauge wire for longer runs
also the hdmi cables need to be able to support the latest hdmi format of the day if you need to
run a long cable from your home theater receiver to your display make sure the cable meets the spec
for the distance sometimes these can cost more than you might expect the longer the distance you
need to run your speaker wires and hdmi cables the more you should budget we typically guide
people to about five to ten percent of the budget on cables and like speakers most theaters have the
same speaker cable forever so if you do it right from the get go that's the best hdmi cables will
change more than speaker cables over time so plan out the ability to change the cable one day
the last thing to consider is home theater seating of various add-ons
once you have your theater installed it is going to get a lot of use and you will want
comfortable seating really good home theater seats can cost upwards of thousands of dollars per seat
however our number one selling home theater seats by far
are the revolution home theater chairs they have just hit an incredible sweet spot of comfort
capability and price in the market also consider the cost of an all-in-one remote sure you can
operate your system just fine with a table full of remotes or a bunch of apps but an all-in-one
remote will make things a lot easier and everyone in the house will be able to easily use the room
i hope this brief overview of how to allocate your home theater budget has helped you out there are
a lot of things to consider when planning your home theater so if you have any questions at
all please reach out to one of our home theater experts on audioadvice.com give us a call or stop
by one of our award-winning raleigh or charlotte north carolina showrooms we'll see you next time