The size of your theater room greatly influences the projector and screen you choose. Most projectors, including our recommendations, come with a chart to help you determine throw distance (the distance required between the screen and the front of the lens), and you should confirm what your room can accommodate before you buy any gear.
A basement rec room measuring about 300 square feet (20 by 15) is large enough to easily fit a 100- to 120-inch screen and a standard, long-throw projector, but you can use an online calculator to figure out what’s right for your room.
Best home theater projectors
Top pick
This laser 4K projector delivers a big, bright, beautiful image and has almost all the features you need—except 3D support.
The Epson Home Cinema LS11000 is our favorite 4K projector because it offers a combination of high-end performance and features that you won’t see in any other 4K projector priced lower than $5,000. It delivers a theater-worthy image with great contrast, detail, and color—yet it’s also bright enough for more casual, everyday TV watching. Plus, its laser light source should last through the next decade or longer, with no need for you to pay for replacement bulbs. It’s easy to set up, too, thanks to its motorized focus, zoom, and lens adjustments.
The LS11000 is also a great 4K gaming projector. It produces low input lag and is one of only a few 120-hertz projectors that have high-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to work with the most advanced 4K gaming consoles and any future 8K sources that might emerge. The only thing missing is support for 3D video.
Top pick
This projector produces a bright, rich-looking image with more accurate color than most competitors can offer. It’s easy to set up and quiet in operation, but it lacks features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
We tested a number of projectors around $1,000 or less and found that the BenQ HT2060 had the best picture quality and the easiest setup. Though you have a lot of budget 1080p projectors to choose from, the HT2060 boasts the best combination of black level, brightness, and color accuracy, so it produces a great-looking big-screen movie image. It has a long-lasting LED light source and supports 3D playback and the input of a 4K HDR video signal.
Many budget projectors rely on digital keystoning and zoom to position the image on the screen, which hurts image resolution. The HT2060 offers physical adjustments (1.3x zoom, vertical lens shifting, and adjustable feet) to preserve picture quality. It’s pretty quiet in operation, and its backlit IR remote is easy to use in a darkened room.
Some people may notice the rainbow effect in this DLP projector’s images, and it has no built-in streaming apps. However, a streaming stick connected to one of its HDMI 2.0 inputs solves the latter problem.
Best home theater screen
Top pick
This screen is comparable in performance to those costing seven times as much, plus it’s easy to set up and install. It’s a huge bargain for what it offers.
A good home theater screen should be neutral in color and evenly reflect the appropriate amount of the projector’s light back at you while preserving black level. In our tests, we found that the bargain-priced 100-inch Silver Ticket STR Series screen (in a 16:9 aspect ratio, the shape of an HDTV) was nearly as good as the very expensive Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130, a go-to screen for a lot of professional home theater designers.
In comparison with some more expensive screens, the Silver Ticket model’s frame and tautness are not quite as fine, but you probably won’t mind, considering that the $2,000-plus savings you get with the Silver Ticket screen can pay for your projector and more.
Best AV receiver
The AV receiver is the hardest-working component in a home theater. A receiver is both the amplifier and signal processor for your theater. All of the audio and video input signals, and even networking connections, route through the receiver, which processes them and passes them on to your projector and speakers.
Look for a receiver that offers enough inputs for all of your sources—which could include a Blu-ray player, a game console, a media streamer, and more—as well as sufficient power to drive all of your speakers, a good room-calibration system that tailors the system’s performance to your space, and the most up-to-date HDMI connections for your audio and video gear.
Top pick
This is a great-sounding, easy-to-use, 7.1-channel receiver that has all the necessary features to satisfy movie fans, music lovers, and gamers alike.
The Denon AVR-X1800H is a great-sounding receiver that holds your hand through the setup process and is loaded with features. It has seven amplifier channels that can power a surround-sound speaker system or a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X home theater setup with two overhead speakers.
It can also wirelessly stream music via Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay 2, and the Heos wireless streaming platform. Three of its six HDMI inputs are HDMI 2.1 compatible, so it’s great for gaming on more advanced systems such as the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X.
The only negatives are that it lacks analog video connections and needs good ventilation because it relies on Class AB amplifier technology, which can heat up the unit with extended use.
Best home theater speakers and subwoofer
Top pick
The ES15 bookshelf speaker pair sounds great, looks cool, and is surprisingly affordable.
The small ES10 is easy to fit or install just about anywhere, so it’s ideal as a surround speaker.
The ES30 is a good, affordable center-channel match for the ES15 and ES10 speakers in a surround-sound system.
The Polk Signature Elite Series is the best deal we’ve found in a surround-sound speaker system. The Signature Elite line includes a variety of options, but we recommend the ES15 for the front left and right channels, the ES10 as surround speakers, and the ES30 center speaker.
We found that these speakers sounded better than many more-expensive systems we tested. In our tests, the combination of the ES15, ES10, and ES30 delivered a robust, full sound with both stereo and surround sources. And the Signature Elite Series’s design is far more stylish than we expect to see in such an affordable speaker line.
Top pick
This 10-inch subwoofer offers an ideal blend of bass power and finesse in a compact package, but you can buy it only directly from the manufacturer.
If you think subwoofers are nothing but big, ugly boom machines, the Rogersound Labs Speedwoofer 10S MKII is likely to be a refreshing surprise. It has practically everything one could want in a midpriced subwoofer, offering the power necessary for action-movie soundtracks and the subtlety and precision required for great sound on music recordings.
It incorporates a 10-inch woofer in a ported enclosure, driven by a 400-watt internal amplifier, and it has the necessary connections for you to add it to most any audio setup. Plus, it measures a relatively compact 16 by 15 by 16.75 inches (HWD). But it is sold only through the Rogersound Labs website.
