SMJ Solutions

Inexpensive Home Theater: Introduction

February 27th, 2007

Home theater systems are not reserved for only the rich and famous.

Over a year ago I started to build my own home theater. I didn’t have a huge budget to work with; I needed to get the best value for my money. So, I started a do-it-yourself (DIY) project to build a home theater. I would never describe my home theater system as cheap — but it was relatively inexpensive.

Why should you build your own home theater? Here are the top five reasons to build your own inexpensive home theater system as opposed to getting one installed by a home theater professional:

1. Price
I requested a quote from a home theater consultant for several components in my home theater. The bid came back at about five times the cost I ended up paying when doing it myself. The bid also included several components that were much better than I needed, and several which were subpar. A DIY home theater allows you to shop around for the best deals on the components that best fit your needs and can save you thousands of dollars.

2. Knowledge
The home theater world is a labyrinth of connections, formats, acronymns and standards. Building your own home theater system will demystify the technologies, which is a crucial to optimizing your home theater experience because you will understand how each component works and what it does.

3. Maintenance
Building your own home theater will help you troubleshoot it when things go wrong. If done correctly, a home grown home theater will not have more problems than one built by a home theater professional, but complex systems like home theaters will have some maintenance requirements.

4. Satisfaction
Surely, I’m not the only one that enjoys sitting back and admiring my work when a job is completed properly. Your home theater experience will be more rewarding knowing that it is a product of your handiwork.

5. Helping others
Going through the experince of building your own home theater will allow you (for better or for worse) to act as a guide for friends and family who are going through the same process.

As I started to review the process of building my own inexpensive home theater, I realized the quantity of information justified a whole series of posts. Writing a series will allow the level of detail required for a topic as vast as home theater. Future articles in the series are:

• Inexpensive Home Theater: Technology Primer
• Inexpensive Home Theater: Planning
• Inexpensive Home Theater: Projectors
• Inexpensive Home Theater: AV Receiver
• Inexpensive Home Theater: Speakers and Subwoofer
• Inexpensive Home Theater: Crucial Components

Building your own home theater is difficult; you will devote many hours to learning, planning, working, and troubleshooting to get everything just right. However, for each hour invested in building your home theater system, it will provide many hours of entertainment and fun. These hours will be even more enjoyable because you built your home theater with your own hands.

Entry Filed under: Home Theater