Best Home Theaters $25K and Under
By Arlen Schweiger
As we prepare to roll out our annual Home of the Year Award winners next week, we're taking a look back at favorites from 2009.

May always marks the Electronic House annual Home of the Year Awards unveiling. But before we get to that next week, we wanted to give you a look back at some of our favorites from last year, so we’re rounding them up for the end of April.

Today we’re taking a look at the Best Home Theaters in the $25,000 and under category. These are some pretty worthy winners and good examples of what can be done on a relatively small budget (and if you’re thinking $25K is still a lot, remember that all of those pieces of equipment, speakers, projector and screen can add up in a hurry).

We’re also including some runners-up, because we could only award three theaters but plenty of others deserve recognition.




Gold Winner
The Panasonic PT-AE1000U projector is mounted in a soffit and projects onto a 92-inch fixed Vutec Silverstar screen, and Sonance Symphony front speakers are located in the custom-built cabinet below the screen, along with a 10-inch Sunfire subwoofer.

Silver Winner
The corbels are the cherry on top of the room’s extensive woodwork, which itself was designed to complement the rest of the home. From the cabinetry that surrounds the 92-inch screen to the ceiling soffit to the columns and outlining panels, there’s plenty of wood grain to go around.

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