@Home Theater Room Advantages Versus:

• Plain Acoustic Panels,
• The Competition,
• The Custom/Unique Theater,
• How Much You Invest in Little Used Parts of your Home

This page of our website is oriented towards some of the more technical FAB's (Features, Advanatages, Benefits) of the @Home Theater Rooms ClassicA Acoustic Panels as well as our complete @HomEscape Theaters. 

We'll stand by that our product is the highest quality, best looking, best sounding, best performing and best engineered product in the Theater Interior industry.  Much of what is listed below will mean a lot to an installer, saving them time and to a builder or remodeler who is seeking an answer to a riddle they may not fully understand but want to offer their client a great finished product.  In both cases, it means that you get a great Media Room or Home Theater environment at the lowest possible cost and best looks and performance.

If you still aren't sure about investing in a dedicated @HomEscape Theater, please skip to the bottom of this section and see how the cost of a Theater Interior compares to the cost of outfitting a typical Dining Room and you know one room will be used 200-300 days a year and the other will be used about three to six days a year!

If you are a homeowner, and know that you love the look you see in the pictures and know you want to spend more quality time with your family, you can skim this section quickly and move forward to get together with your local Custom Installing dealer and let them know you want one of these in your house in the next three months!

Onward to the Techno-Mumbo-Jumbo!   

ClassicA Advantages vs. Acoustical Panels

Our ClassicA acoustical panels compete with two different types of companies – companies that manufacture basic acoustical panels wrapped in fabric, and companies that also offer wood-framed acoustical panels.

With respect to companies that manufacture basic acoustical panels, they offer a functional product at a fair price that generally wouldn’t meet the aesthetic requirements of anyone who would be interested in our ClassicA panels.  So, we don’t consider them to be direct competitors any more so that Mercedes or Lexus considers Hyundai to be a competitor.

With respect to the other companies that offer wood-framed acoustical panels, here is a list of items that you can ask the “other guys” to respond to.   

Offer both 1” and 2” panels that match in appearance?  Yes, we do!               

Number of standard fabric colors available?   We offer 27 choices.
Benefit:   More color and pattern choices make designers happier and increase the chance that the resulting theater interior will look amazing.

Offers acoustically transparent, patterned fabric choices?   We do.
Benefit:   Most homeowners today want to hide their speakers such that they disappear from view. The most common solution is to place speakers behind acoustical panels and remove the acoustical panel material that is in the way, leaving the fabric side unbroken so from the theater side, you can’t tell the difference. Unfortunately if the fabric that the speakers are firing through is NOT acoustically transparent, you CAN tell the sonic performance difference! Cinergy is one of, if not the only fabric available in the world that has a nice pattern to it and also is relatively acoustically transparent.

Custom wide diffusive molding engineered for the frames?   Yes, we do.
Benefit:   Wider frames look nicer and are certainly more expensive than small, stock moldings. In addition, by having a custom molding run we can optimize the surface of the molding to act like a linear diffuser. Our moldings are over 50% wider than other wood framed panels.

Number of standard frame stain color options?  We offer 6 stain choices.
Benefit: More stain color and prime paint choices make designers happier and increase the chance that the resulting theater interior will look amazing.                   

Mounting method uses French cleats for simple install?   Installers love us!
Benefit:   Anyone who has ever tried to mount a panel with Z clips prays that the drywall framer framed the wall straight; otherwise, the clips often bind together when sliding the panels onto the walls. We use a substantial, easy to install French cleat that is wide and thick enough that bowed walls are not a factor in the installation.

Panel heights designed to accommodate 12” & 8” risers?   Yes, we do.
Benefit:   Many people end up using 8” risers for the second or third row of seats because they either don’t have enough head room with a 12” riser, or they want to simplify the riser construction. We offer panels that are designed in 8” height increments, thus assuring the designer that it is easy to make all the wall panels line up with each other as well as have the same reveal from the floor.

Can add decorative corner appliqué’s to framed panels?   We have many.
Benefit:  Allow each theater to be personalized and customized to the homeowner’s particular taste.

VS. COMPETITORS

We will evaluate our theaters in five categories:  Installation, Aesthetics, Performance, Theater Design, and Quality.  Keep in mind that this information is based on published information or actual inspection of finished parts, and may not represent the current state of affairs.  We recommend that you speak directly to any theater interiors company if you have any questions about what we are presenting below.

@HomEscape Theaters Installation Advantages

• Panels mount with wooden French cleats vs. Z-clips
  
• No need to cut the back of a panel with a circular saw if you need to make your own speaker cut-outs on site
  
• Panels require only one upper mounting cleat vs. two to four (upper and lower) – less time spent lining up clips and panels are also easier to mount to wall
  
• Metal brackets may be pre-installed and provide a chase for audio and control system wiring, vs. having little than can be pre-installed and nothing that provides a wiring chase.
  
• 8” high soffit easily fits underneath ceilings less than 8’ and still allows a 6’8” door with casing to clear the soffit easily (vs. an 11” high soffit sometimes doesn’t fit).
  
• Ceiling mount option for soffit bracket allows installer to create a stepped soffit system (double soffit) vs. not being able to do this at all.  

• We can also span open sections of room with this ceiling mount option and custom soffits and connectors.
  
• 5-1/4” baseboard allows more vertical adjustment of columns (vs. 4”)
  
• Baseboard inside corner blocks provide a vertical surface to intersect the baseboard and column base to (vs. having them overlap each other)
  
• Removable speaker grills on wall and corner columns provides easy access to the inside of the column for securing to the wall – no need to use cumbersome bolts that need to line up with a shelf equipped with threaded T-nuts
  
• Corner connectors are designed to accommodate corner intersections of 90º +/- 3º, vs. not having any tolerance for non-perfect 90º corners.  Again, checking corner angles is not common when measuring, so another reason installers love us and keep your costs down.
• 

@HomEscape Theaters Aesthetic Advantages

• Hardwood frames for our panels are on average approximately 50% larger,which makes them look more substantial, rich, and expensive.
  
• All of our products, ClassicA Frames, Columns and Soffits feature miter joints, not butt joints. They are stronger and are a proper joint for an upscale product.
  
• Our baseboard is 5” high and has a custom milled profile, giving it a very rich appearance (vs. 4” and simply flat stock wood).
  
• We offer more standard stain color options (6 vs. 3)
  
• We offer 18 patterned fabrics and 9 solid color choices vs. 8 solid colors only
  
• Corner columns are designed to face in toward the room at an angle, vs. simply placing 2/3 of a wall column in the corner
  
• Corner connectors are available not only in a standard 90° corner but also as an angled tray connector that gives the look and feel of a tray ceiling.
  
• Panels are available in both 8” and 12” height increments for 8” and 12” risers, thus allowing each panel to maintain the same reveal (distance) from the floor to the bottom edge of the panel along each side wall.

@HomEscape Theaters Performance Advantages

• Our Cinergy fabric is far superior in allowing mid and high frequencies to pass through the fabric when speakers are placed behind acoustical panels

• When speakers are mounted in our columns, we provide an adjustable shelf for optimum placement and allow access from the front through the speaker grill without having to take the column down to service a speaker.

@HomEscape Theaters Design Advantages

• We publicize that we offer the ability to do custom size ClassicA acoustical wall panels in case our standard panels aren’t the right size or configuration

• Our panels are offered in 12” and 8” height increments, thus making it easier to determine what height panel is required when using an 8” riser (vs. 12” height differentials only)

• Since our 18” wide wall columns can accept subwoofers, it makes it easier to determine where the subs will go and also how to hide them

• The fact that our soffit is 8” high means that it will fit in lower ceiling height rooms than an 11” high soffit

• Corner columns and 12” wide wall columns can both accept speakers, increasing the locations where one can hide surround speakers in a theater (vs. requiring one specific larger size column as the only option)

• Our 5” high baseboard will be appropriate for most installation (vs. needing to worry and account for whether a 4” flat stock will be appropriate).

@HomEscape Theaters Quality Advantages

• Miter joints on all products provide a stronger joint with invisible seams.

• Our mitered corners for our hardwood-framed ClassicA acoustical panels are made with a machine that was designed specifically to drive a wide steel connector along the edge of the mitered connection (not simply across the connection), which once again yields a far superior connection in the corners
  
• Cinergy fabrics do a significantly better job maintaining the quality of the mid and high frequencies that pass through the fabric when used in front of speakers as compared to most solid or patterned fabrics other than FR701

 VS. "CUSTOM" THEATERS

There are several advantages of an @HomEscape Theater vs. a site-built or manufacturer-built custom theater.

@HomEscape Theaters take substantially less time from start to finish.  Whereas a custom theater might take anywhere from 12 weeks to more than a year to complete, a typical @HomEscape Theater can be installed within 8 weeks of when the project was started.

@HomEscape Theaters are significantly less costly.   You can expect to pay well into six figures ($100K plus) for a "Custom" Home Theater Interior with installation and Audio/Video equipment.  You have probably seen them in the magazines built for entertainment and sports stars.  On the other hand, depending on room size and options selected, an @HomEscape Theater Interior will typically cost well under that and perhaps only half or a third depending on the seating and equipment selected.  In many cases we will use more hardwoods and millwork than some of the fabric-centric custom theaters sold by other theater interior manufacturers.

@HomEscape Theaters are easier to visualize what the finished theater will look like.   It is relatively easy and quick to visualize what an @HomEscape theater will look like from images and renderings of projects already completed.  This in turn increases the chance that the people who will be using the theater the most (normally the people who paid for it) will know ahead of time exactly what they are getting and how it will turn out.

 VS. A DINING ROOM

In this section we will compare and contrast the investment in a dedicated @HomEscape Theater interior vs. a well-furnished dining room in an upscale home.  The purpose of this exercise is not to attempt to convince anyone to forgo their dining room in lieu of an investment in a dedicated theater, but to show the relative value of a theater as compared to an investment that most people don’t even give a thought to doing.

To convert a basic 14’ x 18’ (252 ft²) dining room from a drywalled room with a sub floor to a finished space, consider the costs of the following:

• A hardwood, marble, tile, or stone floor
  
• An Oriental rug on the floor
  
• A high-end chandelier hanging over
  
• A nice table that can seat 10-12 people sitting in
  
• 10-12 matching dining room chairs
  
• Window treatments for the windows
  
• Nice wooden baseboard
  
• Crown molding running around the perimeter of the room
  
• A chair rail, perhaps with either wainscoting or decorative panel frames underneath
  
• Decorative wall sconces and/or picture lights
  
• A mirror mounted on one of the long walls
  
• The furniture: server, hutch, buffet, etc.

We’ve excluded the cost of painting the ceiling and walls because you need to do that in a theater as well.

If you add up the cost of everything above and want to compare apples to apples (what does it cost to convert the interior of a finish-ready room to a finished room), you should be able to see that it will cost at least $25K and in many cases over $50K to outfit the rarely used dining room in most luxury homes. We have even been in homes where the cost of the table or rug alone was over $50K.

Assume you use the dining room 8-9 hours/month, or 2-3 times a month (which is a stretch for most families but we’ll use these numbers anyway), at the end of a year you would have used the dining room approximately 100 hours for the purpose it was intended for (vs. doing puzzles, homework, etc.)

If one uses $25,000 as the cost to finish out the dining room, and we divide this amount by the approximate square footage of 250 ft² we come up with $100/ft² as an initial finishing cost (this is not the same as the construction cost). Dividing this number by the annual usage of100 hours/yr we get $1.00/ft²hr if the finishing cost were amortized over the first year only.

Compare this to the effective cost of an @HomEscape theater interior.  Assume that the theater interior cost $50,000 (which would be on the high side) for the same 14’ x 18’ room, or $200/ft². Further assume that between the adults and children and friends of the family that the theater will get used only 10 hours a week (the real usage should be substantially higher when you account for watching movies and concerts and live sporting events; multi-player video gaming; karaoke, skits and plays; jazzercize/exercise/yoga, etc.). Doing the same math before yields $200/500hrs/yr or $0.40/ft²hr for the theater, or 40% of the relative finishing cost of the dining room example. The difference becomes even greater in favor of the theater investment if the cost of the theater is less than $50K and/or the annual usage is greater than 500 hours for the family annually.

Finally, unlike much of the finishing work in a dining room, everything except for the carpeting in an @HomEscape Theater can be easily taken down and removed from a home and reassembled in a new home.  We will do a free, no deposit required design for any current client who wishes to move their existing @HomEscape Theater to their new home a sign of our appreciation for your past support!