These impressive custom home theaters will inspire you, fill you with envy

By Caleb Denison and Brad Bourque March 29, 2015

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awesome custom home theater installations 2014 elitehts batmandooropencrop — Pull the bust of Shakespeare to reveal the tumbler and escape tunnel. Elite HTC

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 hometronics nbaroom — NBA broadcast center? Nope, just an awesome game room. Hometronics

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 kipnis studio standard — Jeremy Kipnis built this 6 million dollar home theater in its own building on his property. Kipnis Studio Standard

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 hometronics hunting golf — This media room is split for golf on one side, and hunting on the other. Hometronics

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 hometronics outdoorpavillion — Sometimes you just wanna sit by the pool while you enjoy your favorite movies. Hometronics

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 modernhomesystems deathstar — This is where Vader and Luke would watch movies. Modern Home Systems

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 hometronics twolvesbilliards — Not every home theater involves rows of couches and a huge projection screen. Hometronics

awesome custom home theater installations 2014 sportsbar — This is actually the sports bar next to the home theater room, but it's still pretty sweet.

Need a little inspiration for that home theater project you’ve been thinking about? This should do the trick. From the simple and understated, to the fanciest themed rooms, these home theaters all bring something special to the table. If you want to build the perfect homage to your favorite sci-fi series, or your favorite superhero flick, or something totally original, it won’t be easy, or cheap. But when you dim the lights for the first time and fire up the system, it will be worth all the effort.

There are a lot of different options for designing your home theater, and not all of them just involve couches in a rectangular room. Some people have laid theirs out as game rooms, with pool tables and golf simulators. Others have opted for even less traditional designs, with full bar setups or poker tables around a set of TVs. If you watch mostly sports, you can set up several smaller screens around a pool table, or place them in a row over a full bar for an unforgettable experience that will ensure your friends always watch the game at your place.

There’s a lot of careful planning that goes into building the perfect home theater for your house, from deciding on a layout and theme, to choosing the right audio and video gear. These pictures should help you develop an aesthetic, and some design ideas, as well as helping you make that crucial decision between a television and a projector screen. But once you’re done with all that, you’ll have a room all your own to impress friends, kick back with family, or just catch up on your streaming. Work hard enough, and you might just find your house on our list.

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Amazon’s $35 Fire TV Blaster extends Alexa to all of your home theater gadgets

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If you own an Amazon Echo speaker and one of three select Fire TV devices, Amazon has a pretty sweet proposition for you: Spend $35 on its new Fire TV Blaster and you'll be able to take command of your entire entertainment environment with just your voice.

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First ‘Tuned by THX’ home theater speakers need no A/V receivers — or wires

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THX has become synonymous with top-notch cinema sound in commercial theaters. However, the George Lucas-founded company (now owned by gaming giant Razer) has been increasingly focused on helping consumers get a better quality of audio (and video) at home. To this end, it has created a new technical service called Tuned by THX, which gives audio companies the opportunity to have their products custom-tuned by the sound experts at THX. While it doesn't guarantee that the speakers and audio components will knock your socks off, it's THX's way of saying that it has adjusted the characteristics of these components to deliver what is (in THX's opinion) the best sound that these components are capable of.

In automotive terms, it's like taking your car to a Formula 1 mechanic for a tune-up. They won't be able to magically turn your Fiesta into a Ferrari, but they'll still be able to coax more performance out of it than it had when it left the factory. With a Tuned by THX audio component, the difference can be very noticeable.

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You can now buy Klipsch’s new WiSA-certified wireless home theater speakers

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When we first got a glimpse of Klipsch's new wireless reference speakers at CES 2019, we were pretty excited. Equipped with WiSA technology, these speakers can be unboxed and set up in minutes to create anything from a modest 2-channel stereo home theater sound system, up to a 7.1 bone-shaking monster. They're now finally available for purchase at Klipsch.com and select retailers like B&H Photo Video.

The speakers in question are the RW-34C center-channel speaker ($699), the RW-51M Monitors ($699/pair), and the RW-100SW ($499) wireless subwoofer. You can buy these three components for a really good 3.1 system, or double up on the RW-51M Monitors and give yourself a truly surround sound 5.1 setup.