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Most ridiculous home theater ever? You decide. - Page 3

post #31 of 86
2/9/08 at 5:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rsaavedra View Post
I doubt high-profile millionaires would fall for such system, even movie buffs and moguls.
+1. I was watch a documentary on "The biggest spenders"; multi-millionaires spending $15,000/month on HGH and 'anti-aging' drugs, new custom Bentleys and Rolls every year, tailored clothing with 24k gold thread woven in that gets worm twice and replaced, one even bought a whole town in Bulgaria!

What do all these millionaires have in common? $3000 Bose Lifestyle systems.

I certainly applaud his dedication, but I'd be shocked if there are six people who buy such a system for their house. A business looking to spend money to impress clients certainly, but not many for home use.

And I'd keep the Macs in another room. All those blue dials would wash-out the picture!
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post #32 of 86
2/9/08 at 6:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ethebull View Post
It doesn't really add up and seems to me to be a weird hodgepodge.
(Updated Feb-10-2008)

Now that you mentioned that, I did go in detail and searched for the prices of all individual components. Even found a rough bill of materials for this system on the web, but I did my own anyway.

It really doesn't seem to add up anywhere near 6 million. I got up to near $1.6 MM, and being rather loose with some extra expenses. The core of this rig seems to go for under $1 million for sure, as that other BOM indicates. Here´s my own breakup.

I made up some of the ludicrous prices when I wasn't able to find any referential price. For instance, the screen I estimated at $200k. All the "audiophile" cabling, $100K. The power transformers I estimated at $80K each.

Code:
Video:                                                    Unit price  Quantity    Total
Sony ultra-high-resolution (4,096-by-2,160)
SRX-S110 digital projector                                  150000        1      150000
Stewart 18-by-10-foot Snowmatte 1.0 Gain 
Laboratory-Grade Motion Picture Screen                      200000        1      200000

Sources:            
Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Player                                    1000        1        1000
Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Console                              600        1         600
Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player                                   500        1         500
JVC HMDH-5U D-VHS Recorder                                     600        1         600
SATA Drive (72 HDTV Hours Total)                              1000        1        1000
Mark Levinson N° 51 DVD/CD Media Player                      18000        1       18000
Pioneer HLD-X0 Hi-Vision HDTV MUSE Laserdisc Player           3000        1        3000

Surround Processing and Decoding:            
Theta Digital Generation VIII 32-bit 8x Oversampling
Dual Processors                                              10000       13      130000

Amplification:            
Mark Levinson N° 33h Amplifiers                              30000        2       60000
McIntosh MC-2102 Amplifiers                                   6000       30      180000
Crown Macro Reference Gold Amplifiers                        10000        3       30000
Solid Tech mono stands                                        2000       33       66000

Speakers:            
Snell 1800 THX Music & Cinema Reference Subwoofers            2500       16       40000
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers                    15000        8      120000
MuRata ES103A Super Tweeters                                  3000       10       30000
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference LCR-2800
Center-Channel Speakers                                      25000        3       75000

Power:            
General Electric 13,800-volt/800-amp step-down
transformers                                                 80000        2      160000
All of the cabling                                          100000        1      100000
40-amp cryogenically treated circuit breakers
for each and every component in the system                    2000       35       70000

Shipping                                                     50000        1       50000
Room acoustic treatments                                    100000        1      100000

                                                             Grand Total        1585700
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post #33 of 86
2/9/08 at 9:04pm
That cost break-up mismatch with the $6 MM made me keep thinking about this system and its suboptimalities. I ended up writing a post in my blog summarizing all the aspects I find suboptimal in the system. Sorry it's in Spanish, but in case anyone might be interested: Fluvio Labenti
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post #34 of 86
2/9/08 at 9:23pm
Wow, what a setup! I'd love to watch a movie there.

I'd also love to see the guy's HVAC setup. That room would be a sauna without it. I'll bet his electric meter spins wildly when he powers up!
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post #35 of 86
2/9/08 at 11:05pm
As my namesake says, "Excess in everything! Moderation is for monks."

The amps should be kept in a separate, isolated room with active ventilation, to keep down microphonics and heat. What this fellow has is a Machenge.

Laz
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post #36 of 86
2/9/08 at 11:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lazarus Short View Post
The amps should be kept in a separate, isolated room with active ventilation, to keep down microphonics and heat.
And besides microphonics and vibration avoidance, and heat, there is all that light produced by the tubes. That will be way distracting all around the viewers when watching the movie. And most importantly in a home theater based on a projector, any light not coming from the screen will greatly reduce our capability to appreciate the contrast ratio the system is capable of. (See this link for more info on that.)

So this guy has lots of money, and is supposedly ISF-certified, and has such an expensive yet suboptimally configured rig.

Speaking of poor light/optical conditions, notice also the coffee table, made of glass. While watching the movie you'll have all that image up there in front of you on the screen, nice, but there will also be that annoying reflection all the time down there in your front field of view. You can always cover it with something when watching the movie of course, but any coffee table with a reflecting top in general is a poor choice for a home theater.
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post #37 of 86
2/9/08 at 11:51pm
that guy needs to explore the outdoors more..

nature > technology
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post #38 of 86
2/10/08 at 12:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ueyteuor View Post
that guy needs to explore the outdoors more..

nature > technology

x2
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post #39 of 86
2/10/08 at 2:16am
Isn't excess wonderful?

To the $6 cost estimates above, we do not know the entire scope of the project and the list of equipment is likely not complete either. He may have built the theater from ground up so you have other materials involved besides audio and video. Don't forget labor; that is always among the largest project costs. Then there is the architect, designers, cabinetmakers, etc., etc. Look beyond the speakers and screen and you can find lots of additional infrastructure cost.
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post #40 of 86
2/10/08 at 5:19am
Anyone in the Seattle area ... you NEED to check out this place

Definitive Audio custom home theater, high-end audio, video and systems integration for the Seattle Tacoma area
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post #41 of 86
2/10/08 at 10:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshatdot View Post
Hey I almost thought I had been to that store, but actually I haven't.

The store I went to (also north of the University of Washington, and actually very close to Definitive Audio's main showroom,) was Experience Audio. Check this old post of mine. Excellent store, and great attention and service. I did intend to check Definitive Audio's store that day too, since it was very close, but didn't have the time.

At Experiece Audio I heard the B&W Nautilus 801, and the Revel Performa M20's. The latter being the best bookshelf speakers I've heard so far in my life.

Anyone near the Pensacola area in FL should check out another great home-theater store and showroom with great service: All Pro Sound. This is where the speakers in my ht come from.
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post #42 of 86
2/10/08 at 11:06am
[edit](Corrections now incorporated in previous post.)[/edit]
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post #43 of 86
2/10/08 at 1:38pm
But see, he overlooked a MAJOR flaw...that glass table with the fish/ship model on it, isn't conducive to ABSOLUTE room SQ....lol.

That room is stupid. That said, I bet it sounds stupid nice...but way, way, too compulsory for even me....
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post #44 of 86
2/10/08 at 3:13pm
I wonder if he's got insurance for all that equipment in case of a fire or some other disaster...It is excess, but he seems really happy about it. He has a passion for movies, and so he just took it as far as he could. I wouldn't be surprised if he died a happy man.
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post #45 of 86
2/10/08 at 3:24pm
Amount that system is worth: $6,000,000
Amount he probably spent on that system: $0

Article said he was good childhood friends with Henry Kloss. He was an Engineer and Producer and now owns a record label. He probably has CRAZY connections and all it took was a couple phone calls saying he'll be in a magazine and I bet it was all given to him...
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