Bravo, this is a work of art and I personally love it. If I had the money I would do the same thing, but with more seats!!!!! It makes me sad to see all the people here that hate on this man for designing his dream system. It is rare in life that any of us get to do something like this, and as for the comment of "Wow...someone has a lot of cash, and needs to be donating it to charity, not spending it on rediculous "entertainment" systems" just because someone has a lot of cash does not mean they need to give it away. I have been looking at this system for over a month and I never get tired of drooling at this system. Once again thank you for putting this together for all of us to see. I would like to see what he does next!
The Greatest Show on Earth!
When it comes to home theaters, I thought I'd seen it all. But nothing's come close to this. First, I'm going to try to describe the sheer magnitude of Jeremy Kipnis' theater. His Stewart Snowmatte laboratory-grade screen is the biggest I've ever seen in a home, and in the back of the theater, there's a Sony ultra-high-resolution (4,096-by-2,160) SRX-S110 digital projector. I'm looking everywhere, jotting down questions, and Kipnis sounds almost giddy talking about his theater's capabilities. He refers to his baby, the Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS), as "The Greatest Show on Earth." And from the looks of it, he may be right.
While the KSS is technically an 8.8-channel audio system, it uses a lot more than eight speakers and eight subwoofers. Kipnis felt that a lone center speaker sounded a tad undernourished compared with the eight Snell THX Cinema & Music Reference towers, so he opted for three Snell LCR-2800 center-channel speakers. The original contingent of eight subs sounded "really good" but, unfortunately, didn't deliver the full earth-moving-under-your-feet effect he wanted. So, he wound up with 16 18-inch Snell subs! To balance the other frequency extreme, and for the ultimate in transient speed and transparency, the Snell speakers' treble has been augmented with MuRata ES103A super tweeters. Thus, from the deepest deep bass (10 hertz) up to the extreme high-frequency range (100 kilohertz), the KSS is the most full-range system I've ever heard—and felt. The speakers are fed by a well-balanced combination of audiophile solid-state and vacuum-tube amplifiers. The KSS is astonishing in the way it delivers power, but with 11,315 very high-quality watts on tap, that's hardly surprising. Not only can it play ungodly loud, the KSS sounds phenomenal while doing so and never hurt my tender ears. The theater is big but far from huge. Its vaulted ceiling ranges from 8 feet high at the rear end to 16 feet at the screen end of the room (which is 26.5 feet wide and 33 feet long). The 18-foot screen fulfilled my IMAX fantasies, and the projector's va-va-voom color and brilliant light were transformational. I just tried to take it all in as I scribbled notes, afraid I might miss some of the juicier details.
AC power conditioning for the KSS is, again, done to the max. Next to the garage, there are two mammoth General Electric 13,800-volt/800-amp step-down transformers; all of the cabling is audiophile-grade wire, and every aspect of performance and presentation is scrutinized, even down to the 40-amp cryogenically treated circuit breakers for each and every component in the system.
How It Came to Be
I first met Kipnis in the early 1990s when he worked for Chesky Records as an engineer/producer. And later in the decade, I followed his exploits when he started his own classical music label, Epiphany Recordings Limited. Hooked on video at an early age, he was the first on his block to buy a laserdisc player in 1980 and went on to amass a huge collection of players and discs. He watched them on one of the very first projectors in the market, the Kloss NovaBeam Model 1, with a 6.5-foot curved silver screen in his Redding, Connecticut, home, where he still resides. The projector's legendary inventor, Henry Kloss, was a neighbor and good friend of Kipnis' parents, so you might say the seeds of the KSS were planted long ago. The man's passions run deep. Kipnis tells me, "I've been watching movies since I was four on really big screens in movie theaters, and three years ago, those experiences inspired me to design a home theater with the absolute best picture and sound."
But it's more than that. Kipnis sees the KSS as a laboratory, an ongoing experiment to advance the state of the art. And it's not just for himself; he's dead serious about selling the KSS to movie-industry professionals and wealthy home theater aficionados. He sees his huge screen as an intrinsic part of the experience. "It's an unprecedented level of immersion that I'm looking for." The mix of brands and models for his customers' KSS systems will be site specific, and he imagines that, unlike his installation, the componentry and speakers will be stealthily deployed. The KSS pictured here is Beta Ciné, so yes, there's an even bigger KSS, the Alpha Ciné, in the planning stages. It's intended for much larger venues, such as screening rooms or perhaps even actual movie theaters. The Gamma Ciné will be a scaled-down KSS for smaller living rooms, bedrooms, or kitchens. The Gamma Ciné will likely utilize rear-projection techniques. (When not in use, the screen will look like a wall, and all of the equipment will live behind the screen.) The philosophy of all three KSS systems is the same—nothing but the best picture and sound. Price estimates will be site specific, but the cost of Kipnis' home system would be in the $6-million range.
Scaling the Heights
Setting up the Sony SRX-R110 digital cinema projector is a demanding job, and Kipnis has invested a lot of time into maximizing its potential, all in an effort to advance the state of the art. He's an Imaging Science Foundation–certified technician and studied with video-tweaking legend Joe Kane.
The Sony projector doesn't have HDMI inputs that are HDCP compliant, but it upscales Blu-ray and HD DVD players' component outputs to its native 4K resolution. So sure, it might look even better if he could use his HD player's digital outputs, but Kipnis feels the picture quality he's getting right now is "far more outstanding and realistic than any other movie theater I've experienced on the planet." Pressing the question about keeping the KSS' video all digital, he admits that he's also considering commissioning a custom-built scaler from Silicon Optix or Snell & Wilcox. The ultimate goal is to produce a picture that's an open window to the world.
With a bit of luck, Kipnis will get to play the KSS for the likes of George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese. And who knows—they each might be so thrilled, they'll buy one on the spot. That would be great, but I wonder out loud, "Would you have done all of this if you didn't hope to turn it into a commercial enterprise? Would you have done it just for yourself?" Without hesitating, Kipnis says, "Just to see what's possible? Yes, I would."
For more information about the Kipnis Studio Standard, please visit www.kipnis-studios.com or call (203) 938-3767.
Partial Equipment List for the Kipnis Studio Standard Beta CinE:
Picture Elements:
Sony SRX-S110 Professional Video Projector
Stewart 18-by-10-foot Snowmatte 1.0 Gain Laboratory-Grade Motion Picture Screen
Players and Sources:
Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Player
Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Console
Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player
JVC HMDH-5U D-VHS Recorder
SATA Drive (72 HDTV Hours Total)
Mark Levinson N° 51 DVD/CD Media Player
Pioneer HLD-X0 Hi-Vision HDTV MUSE Laserdisc Player
Surround Processing and Decoding:
Theta Digital Generation VIII 32-bit 8x Oversampling Dual Processors (13)
Amplification:
Mark Levinson N° 33h Amplifiers (2)
McIntosh MC-2102 Amplifiers (30)
Crown Macro Reference Gold Amplifiers (3)
Speakers:
Snell 1800 THX Music & Cinema Reference Subwoofers (16)
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers (8)
MuRata ES103A Super Tweeters (10)
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference LCR-2800 Center-Channel Speakers (3)
»
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Comments
Submitted by JW Baker on October 17, 2008 - 3:49am.
"My Infinity 12' Sub and surround is the dopest ive seen or heard, along with my Kenwood 400 watt Surround HEad, and my Samsung50'' wall hung Plasma....i spent $2,500. Wut an asshat top spend 6 mil and only have to worry about tripping over all the lame amps and front speakers...could have mounted the subs in the floor with isobaric bandpass tubes coming out in all directons for the same affect." This is not car audio land. you sound like a reject talking like that here. I'm an admirer of this system for many reasons and I work in the industry. I have installed numerous Hi-Fi systems my self and know what goes into them. Any man with a set up such as this one knows his stuff inside and out. He's not crazy... he's not doing it to piss you off. He's being HAPPY. This is what he wants to do. I hope to work my ass of for 20 more years and build a Hi-Fi system of my own. Let him enjoy it and stop criticizing him because this is not how you would spend your dime.
Submitted by GCharb on October 22, 2010 - 6:40am.
Okay, this gives the term overkill a new meaning!First of, a normal, 20/20 vision(not wearing glasses) person cannot make a difference between 2k and 4k resolution picture passed 20 feet on a 30 feet high screen, so even his pet pray bird could could not enjoy the quality bonus a 4k projector gives on such a small screen.Still, this is a pretty cool setup, and he obviously enjoys it, so good for him I say!
Submitted by Kipnis Studios on September 4, 2008 - 11:34pm.
doctronic - Thank you for such kind and wonderful words of praise. It is not always that new ideas are so well understood. much less received positively! I hope you, and all that care about picture and sound fidelity, will join me in appreciating and then defining the next generation of presentation standards. In the end - It is up to US! Cheers = Jeremy R. Kipnis Studio Standard , www.Kipnis-Studios.com
Submitted by Austin Kuipers on September 12, 2008 - 6:30pm.
David (and others irritated by this extravegance)If you work for your own money shouldn't you be able to spend it on what you want?This idea is also known as "capitalism"In my (and others) opinion, you are simply jealous, perhaps by charity, you meant they should give the money to you?
Submitted by Small Timer on September 19, 2008 - 8:01pm.
Well, he *is* more or less giving his money to charity in some way. Much more so than having it sit in a fund, stock, or other large non-materialistic investment. I mean, real people make these products. This guy; he has provided for over a hundred families to have homes, children, vacations and jobs.Does a trust anywhere do anything near what this guy does with his generous support of the arts? Think he has *any* bootleg media? Hello, this is capitalism at its finest.
Submitted by Kipnis Studios on September 19, 2008 - 8:02pm.
My dear readers, please do not be led astray by heinous spamming, as found here listed just above by Justin, of this Dallas based HT BS. Kipnis Studios is devoted entirely to custom and hand-tailored design solutions to the question: "What is the Ultimate Screening Room Experience, for ME?".Curious? Try Calling us for a complete demonstration, and be completely amazed!!!(203) 938 - 3767Cheers -JeremyKipnis-Studios
Submitted by James on April 14, 2008 - 5:01pm.
@ Michael. You don't understand the world at all. Your comments are very idealistic and it'd be great if that was the case. What about the man who desperately wants to 'build' but can't even afford the basic materials to allow him to do so. You completely skewed what David had to say and took it out of context. I'm certain that David meant he should give money to a worthwhile charity, not to 'parasites'. Or do you consider the third world to be a breeding ground of parasites?
Submitted by Zaphod on April 27, 2008 - 9:30pm.
Meh, the only thing good about that system is the use of McIntosh amps, second only to Crown. But for all it's flair... it is seriously flawed. 1. The auditorium should be THX shaped, no shelves. 2. All that audio equimpent in front of the speakers will be subject to vibrational wear 3. will introduce buzzing into certain frequencies due to resonance 4. will cause strange enhancement and canncelation nodes to appear in the listening area.Once again, it's a case of too much money, not enough education.
Submitted by Joey Ceasr on August 11, 2008 - 7:43am.
$6 million? Surely an installers wet dream. The system is pretty and all but I have seen similar systems by www.copperbox.com at a fraction of the price. But I do like the Submarine ;-)-Joey
Submitted by caemron cage on December 22, 2008 - 8:09am.
i hate when people who know nothing about audio video make stupid comments like the 1st on on this page were the person says this guys wasted all his money on entertainment rather than give it to chariry well i say FUCK charity this is the way to go everyone charity get a job like everyone else. i love high end audio video thats my hobby and i dont care about price if you do get another hobby like stamp collecting.i wish i could get what this guy has, plus he's an older guy with his wife i think thats cool that hes young at heart props for this sick setup
Submitted by Ben on February 8, 2010 - 12:36pm.
This is an incredible setup no matter how you look at it. Keep the jealous negativity for yourselves. You can see that this rig is all about the equipment. Everything is exposed, no fancy flush mount panels or rose-wood enclosures. When its time for a wiring change he walks to the back of the rack and makes the change. When its time to make a change with the speakers/amps they are right there exposed to do it. It's clear that he's pushing the limits of performance. He's not doing this to wow people that are staring at home theatre. He could spend another huge sum of money on finish work if that were the goal. So, in my opinion based on how he is working with his components, this guy is a gear-head that loves what he does in his HT. He's not a rich dude that hired some over-priced botique store to come in and do all the work so he could look cool to his buddies. I'm feeling the joy right along with him because I identify with his goal. It's impressive, justified, and plain a
Submitted by Jason on February 10, 2008 - 10:14pm.
why is everyone saying he isnt spending his money right or why not give it to charity?doesnt a person have the right to buy what he wants. especially when he worked so hard to save up for it?even i be pissed is i bought a new tv from bestbuy and have an idiot come up and say, you should of given money to charity instead.its like taking the right to feel good.
Submitted by Kyle on February 11, 2008 - 12:07am.
(drooling) Love It! I Love cinema and sound. I love picture quality.I'm a poor college student, and I save my dimes and nickels for high end equipment. My car has thousands invested just for sound and I just recently bought a 3000 projector and a HD flat panel and 5.1. This is my passion my hobby. And i'm pretty sure this guy knows what he's doing being this engineer and all that jazz i think he knows what he's buying and he knows how to place it. For those who say you can't tell the difference in qualities or hear certain frequencies...IT DOESN'T MATTER! You want the best, weather you can hear it or not, weather you can see it or not, just to know it's there. For those of you who don't understand, you never will. Relate it to the "jeep" saying..."It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand" Respect Kipnis, respect!
Submitted by PonyX on February 11, 2008 - 2:38am.
This thing should have been built back in the 80's during the "Age of Excess". I could easily see Robin Leach coming out from behind one of those subs saying: "...and he spent $6 million dollars on the home theater alone!" I just feel that something this costly and wasteful is inappropiate today. It is selfish for us to suck up the planet's resources leaving nothing for the children, not to mention the current Bozo in the White House who is sending us to the poor house! I think we should re-establish the "Debtor's Prison" just for him. The inflated egos that would buy this uber-theater are the same ones that will still be steering Hummers around town when gasoline becomes a boutique fuel at $20 a gallon! Thank God only the Superrich can afford these esoteric energy holes. If the common man were able to do this, we'd all be creating carbon footprints the size of Texas. I agree with one of the posters above that this energy sponge better be powered by photovol
Submitted by Tommy on February 11, 2008 - 10:23am.
awesome, I hope he gets to sell some systems, just for the fun of it. Ambition and a will to follow thru is what makes mankind move forward, for all you naysayers out there, I got one thing to say; why are u wasting your time reading, if it don't intreague you?
Submitted by Humberto on February 11, 2008 - 11:24am.
I don't think we should judge anybody for the way he or she spends their own money, after all, we all live the "American Dream" any way we like. But I do agree that if one is to spend all that cash in their "dream" home theatre, the screen should be set-up for projection of PANAVISION films as they were intended to be seen in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and not crop the sides to be seen within the 16x9 aspect ratio at 1.85. This is very "non-cinematic", and you might as well have a static huge flat panel TV, rather than front projection.However, if this is the way you prefer to view your films, then enjoy and disregard all these comments!!
Submitted by pr on February 11, 2008 - 11:51am.
Everyone who ass-umes that he just spent all his money on this, talk out of the darkness of their own heart. for all I know, he may have donated many million$ for all sort of charity, And this is his personal dream. I mean, Bill Gates lives in a 60,0,000$ house. Does this diminish the billions he is giving away? I don't think so. That house is a technological showcase, and so is this system.Anyone that assumes this is not the case, is just saying "this is what I would have done it it were my money, just spend it all on myself". tis how they are able to "see" this behavior in others.
Submitted by Nathan on February 11, 2008 - 1:20pm.
Capitalism isn't about excess.I don't applaud him for his excess, but it's not my place to tell someone who's rightfully earned their money what to do with it. He's entitled to build a $6 million home theatre, even if I think it's a bad decision.That's the heart of capitalism.If you really want to get technical, capitalism is about maximizing marginal utility... and he is most certainly NOT doing that with this rig. I'd be willing to bet something in the $10,000 range provides far better marginal utility than this.
Submitted by macmvn on February 11, 2008 - 3:15pm.
The design of this system is stupid.#1 Three center channels. We use a single center channel for a reason, it works. #2 Acoustics - The placement of speakers and the apperant acoustics of this room would give you a high SPL but no imaging or sense of space.#3 Microphonics - What do you think those SPL levels are doing to the tubes in the tube amps?#4 Fuglyness - No need to say any more on this.#5 What is done with the heat that this system gives off? What kind of sound are the fans needed to cool all this equipment?#6 Compensation - You know what Freud would say!#7 Field of vision - There is a reason we stay away from the front row at the theater.#8 What is the hydrocarbon footprint of the monstrosity? #9 Even the most wealthy mentally challenged denizon of the left coast would find this an abomination. #10 How many children are going to bed hungry while you watch and listen to this monstrocity? Looks like you haven't missed any meals lately.
Submitted by Lost on February 11, 2008 - 5:00pm.
$5M of it was probably what it cost for him to get the utility to run a 13.8KV line to a residence. Plus all the upgrades he would have had to make to his entire house to be code compliant with a service entrance voltage of 13.8KV.I call BS, I see no wires, not even a hint of one in the equipment rack, let alone any way for those amps on the floor to be hooked up, even if they are wired straight into the floor.
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