"Home Theater" sounds very grand, and certainly can be. Architect John Kedzierski of MKP Architecture in Newfoundland, New Jersey, a firm that specializes in integrating technlology with architecture, said a sky's-the-limit version can cost $500,000. He has based his estimate on purchases that include up to $200,000 for a 120-inch-diagonal front-projection system, plus $5,000 for each top-of-the-line theater-style seat placed in a fully detailed room. But Kedzierski said a basic setup - using your existing sofas and easy chairs - can cost as little as about $4,500 and deliver "a high-quality viewing experience." Most systems fall somewhere in between, he said, with two to 10 seats in a room that's a minimum of about 12 by 20 feet in size with walls at least 7.5 feet high.

Basements are popular venues because they're easy to darken for the desired theater ambiance and "because they're easier to acoustically isolate from the rest of the house." A home theater's audio will have at least five channels of audio (left, center, and right speakers up front; left and right rear speakers) plus a subwoofer channel that delivers those ultra low frequencies for explosion and similar rumbles.

Kedzierski said the best advice for anyone considering a home theater is to balance the system - the quality of each component - and allot some money for acoustics. "Good acoustics can make an inexpensive system sound great, or poor acoustics can make an expensive system sound cheap."

[ Photo Above: Galaxy Custom theater, installed in private New Jersey residence ]