Table of Contents

Intro

Let me get one thing out the way first: “Home cinema” makes it sound like I have some separate room for this, and I really don’t. We live in a 81 sqm/878 sq feet and all of this exists in our living room.

Receiver

A Denon X4700H purchased in January 2021 for €1519.

Speakers

I have a 5.1.4 speaker setup, meaning:

  • Two regular left and right speakers in the front
  • One center speaker under the TV
  • Subwoofer
  • Left and right surround speakers (unfortunately mounted in rear surround speaker locations due to room limitations)
  • Left and right top front overhead speakers
  • Left and right top rear overhead speakers

Center

HECO Music Style Center 2, purchased June 2017 for €199.

Front Speakers

HECO Music Style 900 x2, purchased June 2017 for €899.

Subwoofer

XTZ SUB 10.17, purchased December 2020 for €399.

Back Speakers

XTZ Cinema S2 Atmosphere x2, purchased December 2020 for €399.

Top Front Overhead Speakers

ELAC WS1445 x2 + ELAC Ceiling Bracket WS1445 x2, purchased July 2017 for €430.
I intend to replace these with another pair of XTZ Cinema S2 Atmosphere to have alignment, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Top Rear Overhead Speakers

XTZ Cinema S2 Atmosphere x2, purchased December 2020 for €399.

4K Blu-ray player

OPPO UDP-203, purchased June 2017 for €899.

The OPPO is strictly used for physical Blu-ray disc playback, it has no other uses.
As the device has dual HDMI output, I have it configured with one HDMI cable going to the TV and the other to the receiver, both to maximize HDMI bandwith but also to reduce any potential interference - and all that may be pseudoscience but since the device supports it and the cost of one additional HDMI cable is like 10 bucks, I figured it was worth it - if nothing else just for the feeling of getting maximum possible A/V quality.

Media Player

Apple TV 4K 3rd generation, purchased November 2022 for €199.

TV

LG OLED C9 77" purchased on Black Friday 2019 for €3999.

TV-mount

Vogel ELITE TVM 5645 Full-Motion TV Wall Mount (black) Size L Full motion (up to 180°), €250

Cables and accessories

  • Supra PLY 2x3,4 speaker cable terminated, €240
  • Dynavox Banana Plug High-end x4, €40
  • System One speaker cable 2x2,5mm2 10m, €50
  • Speaker cable 2,5 OFC (m), €90
  • Schneider cable ducts, €149
  • All HDMI cables are Ultra High Speed certified, mix of brands but I don’t buy expensive here. As long as they are certified, I am good.

Installation

When we moved into our new apartment in December 2020, I paid an installer to make everything look pretty, especially since I have speakers installed both in the ceiling and on the walls, plus the TV hangs on the wall.
This is the compromise to still make a huge setup look pretty (prettier) and acceptable to T. I paid €690 for the install, that gave me 11,5 hours of technician time.

Products that aren’t technically part of the setup

I do have two original HomePods, set up as a stereo pair, in the living room which acts as my music players + smart speakers. I do not play any music through the full home cinema setup, that’s only for watching movies and TV.

Total budget

About €10 800.
Do note that this system has been built up and purchased over the course of five years in total.
The speakers I expect to last for a very long time, there isn’t really much that can break in them - and speaker technology doesn’t warrant upgrading - and they were a quarter of the total cost.
The TV was a significant expense (37% of the total budget), but is to me more than worth it as those things are just amazing.