In This Article
- What is CEDIA Expo?
- Best Overall Home Theater System (Cost No Object): Ascendo, Storm, MadVR, Christie, Kaleidescape, Seymour Screen Excellence (Sound Room 7)
- Best Home Theater Under $300,000: JBL Synthesis
- Best Home Theater System Under $200,000: Lumagen, Digital Projection, Trinnov, Seymour Screen Excellence, NextLevel Acoustics, SpeakerPower, Valencia
- Best Budget Home Theater System: SVS
- The Bottom Line
What is CEDIA Expo?
Every year, in early September, the top manufacturers of CI (custom installation) gear, smart home systems, high end audio processors, speakers, projectors and displays gather at CEDIA Expo to show off their wares to dealers, distributors, custom installers and integrators. Custom installers and systems integrators are the folks who build home theaters, whole home media systems and smart home automation and security systems for those who can afford such things. There is a vast range of budgets and requirements on these projects, starting at just a few thousand dollars for a basic system. But many of the systems showcased at CEDIA Expo run well into six figures or even over a million dollars.
The show attracts over 15,000 attendees and is usually held at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver (as it was this year). Past events have been held in Atlanta, San Diego, Indianapolis and Dallas.
eCoustics senior news correspondent Robert Silva and I attended CEDIA Expo this year to check out the current state of the art in home theater gear and report back on what components and systems caught our eyes (and ears). While many of the systems shown (and some of the ones we picked) are outside the budgets of most people, there were a few affordable standout products and systems that made our list.
After careful consideration, here are our picks for this year’s “Best in Show” for home theater systems at CEDIA Expo 2025. Stay tuned for separate articles for best audio gear (speakers and processors) and for video gear (TVs, processors, projectors and screens).
Best Overall Home Theater System (Cost No Object): Ascendo, Storm, MadVR, Christie, Kaleidescape, Seymour Screen Excellence (Sound Room 7)
Every year, there’s a system that stands out as “the” system to see and hear at the show. This year, it happened to be the most expensive system on display: a $1.3 million state of the art home theater that showcased some of the best A/V gear you can buy. Located in Sound Room 7, this 14.18.10 channel immersive audio system featured forty-two Ascendo speakers and amplification, a StormAudio processor, and video powered by Kaleidescape, MadVR, Seymour Screen Excellence, Christie and Panamorph. Theater seating was provided by Moovia and room treatment by Simplified Acoustics.
While there was a bit a of a glitch that prevented us from experiencing the system during the press preview, a later visit to the room proved to us that you do indeed “get what you pay for.” The audio and video experience inside this custom built home theater was exceptionally clean and dynamic thanks to top notch gear, careful calibration and set-up.
Read more about it here: What Goes Into a 1.3 Million Home Theater?
Best Home Theater Under $300,000: JBL Synthesis
With its roots in commercial cinema systems, JBL has established itself as a premier provider of home theater gear and systems for over three decades. The company’s Synthesis brand was first introduced in 1992 with the first fully integrated THX-approved home theater system. It remains a favorite of custom installation professionals and their customers.
Designed to be heard, but not seen, Synthesis gear includes advanced audio/video processors with integrated Dirac Live calibration and room correction, amplification and, of course, speakers. Mostly comprised of in-wall/in-ceiling designs, JBL Synthesis speakers use high efficiency compression drivers, known for their dynamic range and low distortion, even at high volumes.
One thing many customers (and dealers) like about JBL Synthesis is that it allows a “one stop shop” with JBL providing everything needed for the audio chain from processor to amplifiers to speakers. Got a problem? You’ll only have to make one call.
At CEDIA Expo 2025, JBL put together an integrated 11.4.8-channel Synthesis home theater system featuring their new JBL Synthesis SDP-80 Processor and SMA Series Amplifiers, eleven SCL series in-wall speakers, eight SCL series in-ceiling speakers and four of the SSW-1 subwoofers each with dual 15-inch drivers.
Total system cost for all of the Synthesis audio gear rang up at around $250,000 with another $50K for a Lumagen video processor, Digital Projection projector and Screen Innovations screen providing the moving pictures.
On clips like the 24 Hours of Daytona scene from “F1: The Movie” and the Entity VR scene from “Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning,” the system produced thunderous bass, while maintaining clear dialog intelligibility and excellent dynamics. Sound effects had nice specificity and moved coherently around the room without any dead zones or gaps. Overall, it was a good-looking and great-sounding demo and the system filled the space nicely.
Best Home Theater System Under $200,000: Lumagen, Digital Projection, Trinnov, Seymour Screen Excellence, NextLevel Acoustics, SpeakerPower, Valencia
In Sound Room 11, video processor maker Lumagen hosted a home theater system they named “PARAGONS OF HOME CINEMA.” With a total equipment cost of around $174,000, this was one of the most affordable systems I’ve heard that used Trinnov’s WaveForming processing to optimize bass response.
Lumagen provided the video processing including HDR Tone Mapping in their Radiance Pro 5244 video processor ($8,745) which fed a Digital Projection E-Vision 10000i 4K+ RGB projector ($26,999). The projector features the new TI HEP 0.8 DMD (Digital Mirror Device) with RGB laser lighting, rated at up to 10,000 Lumens of peak light output. The projector lit up a 120-inch White Radiance TRIM screen from Seymour Screen Excellence ($10,523). The screen featured automatic aspect ratio masking thanks to control codes fed to it by the Lumagen processor.
The system featured fifteen Cinema Series speakers by NextLevel Acoustics plus four of the company’s high velocity 15-inch subwoofers in a 9.4.6-channel configuration. The total price for all nineteen speakers was approximately $52,000.
The speakers were powered by brand new multi-channel Class D amps from SPEAKERPOWER. The company’s amplifiers were among the most affordable we saw at the show with their 8-channel HTRx8-400 (200 WPC) selling for $1,999 and the 4-channel HTRx4-700 (700 WPC) selling for $1,499. Two of the 8-channel amps were used to power the LCR, surround and height channel speakers while a single HTRx4-700 was used to drive the four subwoofers.
Trinnov provided their Altitude 32 processor ($37,500) which includes WaveForming processing for optimized low bass performance.
While many of the Trinnov WaveForming systems we’re heard in the past have used 12 or more subwoofers, this system showed that WaveForming is possible – and quite effective – with only four subwoofers: two in the front of the room to emit the bass, and two in the back to absorb it. This allowed the system to attain deep and precise bass which was uniform across different seating areas.
Seating was provided by Valencia Home Theater Seating, featuring their Barcelona Ultimate Luxury Edition Row of 4 with Loveseat Center in Onyx, color, draped in Semi-Aniline Italian Nappa Leather. The company’s powered zero-wall recliners include power headrest and lumbar, a memory control panel, stainless steel chrome
cup holders, and low-profile-low-rise backrests for unobstructed sound and view. MSRP $8,999.99 for a 4-seat row with loveseat center seating configuration.
After a few words from company reps, we were treated to a series of movie clips. The sound was punchy and clean, and bass response was solid without being overpowering. Dialog was clear and articulate while moving objects had excellent spatial tracking around the room.
Video looked clean with natural motion and vibrant, nicely saturated colors.
The system didn’t quite have the visceral impact of the $1.3 million system in Sound Room 7, but it was also over a million dollars less expensive than that system. In fact, just the two 64-inch subwoofers of that other system cost more than all of the audio and video components combined in Sound Room 11.
Kudos to Lumagen and their partners to show what’s possible in a custom designed home theater at a relatively reasonable price point.
Best Budget Home Theater System: SVS
SVS is known for providing great bang for buck, but last year they expanded into the “reference” category with their Ultra Evolution line of speakers and Ultra R|Evolution line of reference powered subwoofers. These speakers provide a higher class of sound reproduction that we normally only see in the more esoteric speaker brands at much higher prices.
At this year’s CEDIA Expo, the company had no new product announcements to share, but that didn’t stop them from putting together a bombastic 5.2.4-channel home theater system in a booth that literally had no roof. Or maybe it had a roof at first, but then the roof was blown off during one of the company’s incredibly dynamic system demos.
Fortunately, SVS offers the Ultra Evolution Elevation height speaker which does not require in ceiling placement and it’s not a reflective speaker either so it doesn’t need a ceiling at all. The Elevation is a downward-facing speaker that installs on the wall above the listening position and fires that height channel sound directly to the listener. It can also be used as a bookshelf speaker for main channels and surrounds if you’re working on a a more limited budget.
The SVS demo system included:
The source was a Pioneer DP-UB820 4K Blu-Ray Player ($589.99) with switching, processing and amplification provided by Denon’s flagship AVR-AH1 receiver ($7,199). The TV was a 70-inch model from TCL. So the total system cost for all of the gear was around $24,000.
We sat in for some music tracks and a powerful and trippy scene from “Sinners” where an early 20th century blues music performance channeled the spirts of past and future musicians. As always, SVS did not disappoint and proved that you don’t have to spend a million bucks to get good sound. For just under $15,000 for speakers, this SVS system rocked the house.
With a couple of strategic substitutions, like maybe a pair of the smaller PB1000 Pro subwoofers and a less expensive receiver like the excellent Denon AVR-X3800H, you could put together a killer home theater system on a budget for under $15,000.
The Bottom Line
From $15,000 to over a million dollars, CEDIA Expo 2025 had home theater systems on display for virtually every budget. Depending on the size of your space and just how much performance you crave, there is definitely a home theater system out there for you. Congratulations to all of our eCoustics “Best in Show” winners for complete home theater systems. Stay tuned for more “Best in Show” awards for best audio and video technology and gear.