but why would you spend more money just so you can skip setting things up the right way?
I'm not sure I follow. I'm guessing you are referring to the practice of adding more subs to beat a room into submission? It's actually a very valid approach to a difficult problem. I already need more than one subwoofer to get what I am after for output, and the good side effect of this is that I can smooth out the response throughout the whole room by placing more subs, so it is a win win. But every room has room modes, and there are always compromises to be made, regardless of the money you are throwing at it. Acoustic treatments are a requirement. So both the money spent on treatments and the money spent on more subwoofers is heavily justified and some would say necessary.
There are no corners being cut here, but I do have a budget, and if I want to get this room done for less than $250k, I can't just buy my way into perfect sound. This theater has been a year in the planning and will be another 6 months before it is done. I have consulted with acoustical engineers, done hundreds of hours of research, and actually built and practiced with various acoustical models to get to this point. And I am drawing on the experience of hundreds of home theater enthusiasts, many whose rooms make mine look like child's play.
but what exactly does one do with a home theatre with speakers that high end?
Enjoy the experience, of course.
What else would you do with good things? What do you do with a car with 500 horsepower? You enjoy it. What do you do with a woman with a nice rack? You enjoy.. her (or is it them?). As long as you can afford the finer things in life, what is wrong with having them? Besides, do you question someone who will spend a couple thousand to have a refurbished original arcade cab when they could build a mame cab for a fraction of the price? As Yots says, build what you dig, bro. I happen to dig big sound and big screens.
Funny thing is I posted something here a few years ago saying that I would never spend that kind of money on a home theater. Funny how priorities change... I started this whole project 3 years ago with a $500 upgrade budget in mind. Ended up putting nearly $13k into my last home theater, and now I built a damn house just to have the theater I dreamed up. But hey, I had the means, so why not, right?
Anyway, these are all far from high end speakers. They are all DIY, and while the price is REALLY good for what you get, it is not high end. At best, I am doing "budget high end" theater, although it is relative. My entire budget wouldn't buy one piece from a high end system, and the entire cost of my house wouldn't cover a complete high end theater.
If you are interested in good inexpensive "DIY" speakers (high end taste with low end budget) that are easy to build, check out diysoundgroup.com. The mains I am using are the Titan 615lx and cost less than $700 each with the flat packs for the enclosures, and will cost a few dollars more in polyfill and neutrik connectors when I assemble them. Comparable large home theater speakers would normally cost in the $1500-3500 range. Each. My surround and Atmos speakers are under $200 each for the kit and the materials. The subs were about $275 each, add another $100 in materials per sub for the 2 sheets of MDF and the polyfill and connectors. Amps for the subs are under $400 each (3 of them). Between DIYSG and Parts Express, they cover 90% of my system. At these prices, why would I NOT just go off the deep end?
Really the most expensive part of a good home theater is the room. Of my roughly
$50k $40k all-in budget, about $15-20k of this is the room. From there, the projector and screen is the next most expensive part, but you can certainly get top quality for a good budget if you don't care about squeezing the last 3% of performance out of your video. Due to some unexpected hits to the budget, I may be going with a more budget projector than originally planned. Next, in my case, is the furniture. The seats I plan to use are kind of expensive. I drove to California last summer and spent about 6 hours at a showroom that had just about every home theater seat made, and in the end the one I liked most was about $1500 per seat (need 8 seats). But honestly, I cringe at spending $12k on two couches, so I may go cheap on the second row. I am planning another road trip in a few months and I will hit that showroom again and demo the new stuff and then make a final decision. I might be able to shave about $5k from that part of the budget, which I need because building this house got more expensive than I had planned. From there, the electronics is the next most expensive part. The receiver, amps, and various media players add up to a big chunk, especially when you are going with components. In every case I will do all the work, which is saving me about $20k in labor. The plan is to have a theater that is comparable in aesthetics, sound quality, picture, and overall "wow" factor as a $100k theater.
Of course I could always scrap it and go put the money down on a camper, or on a boat. Or a car. Or something else I will use 3 times a year...