The Greatest Show on Earth!

By Steve Guttenberg • Posted: Feb 5, 2008

Kipnis' outer limits theater, or what $6 million will buy.

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)

Comments

Submitted by Kipnis Studios on August 30, 2008 - 6:55pm.

I think a person with a bit more intelligence and better upbringing might have said something nice - - - instead of the previous post! Please, if you have nothing positive to say, I beg you, stop bashing. It is counterproductive and completely off the point of my mission. At least read the article in full before posting - Is everyone just looking at the pictures? Jeremy R. Kipnis

Submitted by Kipnis Studios on December 18, 2010 - 10:47am.

If your goal is the best picture and sound fidelity possible in a home theater, then I encourage you to come to the Kipnis Studios website and imagine the possibilities in your future.Cheers - Jeremy Kipnis

Submitted by Bryan on February 8, 2008 - 10:12pm.

There's nothing that can't be achieved with egregious wealth, a lack of taste, and the willingness to step over dying bodies in the gutter on your way home from Blockbuster.

Submitted by Ugly American on February 8, 2008 - 10:45pm.

Is this the part where I point out that the Blu-ray player he's using down-reses the output when you don't use HDMI?Or that the projector that he's using is not an even multiple of the Blu-ray resolution?I mean, other people already pointed out that putting the amps in front of the speakers interferes with imaging.This is an example of just how poor studio execs are. As you can see, he's barely scraping by and for him to pay the actual songwriter 9 whole cents a song is clearly unreasonable, eh?

Submitted by Spelchock on February 8, 2008 - 11:08pm.

David,Wow... Someone needs to learn how to spell "ridiculous"!

Submitted by Henry on February 9, 2008 - 12:48am.

@ Michael. Stop quoting Bioshock. Maybe he should be donating some money to charity if he has so much of it. That's not Capitalism, it's called being a good person. I'm glad we don't all live by your video game ideals. "A man builds, a parasite asks; "Wheres my share?", yeah, okay. That kind of thinking worked out great for Rapture didn't it??

Submitted by JT on February 9, 2008 - 1:15am.

Wow, skimming through the commments there's a lot of jealousy here. I think the system is F awesome and if I had more than enough cash to see my right I would indulge in my hobby also. Stop all the whining and give they guy some credit for allowing us to view his system. I bit it sounds better than most could ever imagine.

Submitted by Aunty Thrax on February 9, 2008 - 1:39am.

I'm sorry, but as much as I love music and higher quality audio and video, I could not justify spending that much money on it. There's a case of diminishing returns here, where I'm sure he could have spent a lot less and noticed a nominal difference in sound quality.Whether I'm jealous or not is irrelevant though - this is just ridiculous.

Submitted by mocca on February 9, 2008 - 2:33am.

I would be interested in knowing how loud Mr Kipnis listens to his movies/music.I see the necessity of multiple subwoofers and of a good speaker array and good amps, but it sounds to me as though this theatre was based a bit too much on volume.I hate when I go to a theatre and the volume is too loud. I'd really be interested in a dB meassurement and sitting position.And is there really much video quality to be gained using a 4k projector with a LaserDisc-Player or a DVD-Player? Even for the cheap HD players the projector sounds slightly overkill.But I do envy Mr Kipnis for his astonishing theatre. I would just like to experience it myself and see whether all this is without the aforementioned issues.

Submitted by Charles Micks on February 9, 2008 - 2:41am.

Is the room climate controlled?

Submitted by SB on February 9, 2008 - 4:11am.

First thing, I think he has the right to spend his money on whatever he wants so stop whining. Second thing, the room is very well designed & for those people who know nothing about acoustics have a second look. He has acoustic foam around the whole room, but most importantly the book shelf. The book shelf is basically a huge diffuser, scattering the reflected sounds in all different directions thus removing room nodes and antinodes.

Submitted by Michael Klier on February 9, 2008 - 4:38am.

Hmmm ... I am an engineer/producer too. Can someone please tell me where to work to earn that much money (I know I should have been born 30 years earlier).From an audiophile point of view: I bet that system makes you literally shit your pants while watching Star Wars Clone Wars.From an engineer point of view: No one sitting in this room without above average knowledge about that stuff will ever appreciate the system in all its details the same way as the owner! This is a chapell, not a home theater, and it's fscking impressing but IMHO it's overkill. (I am wondering how close this setup follows the THX standards).From a earthling point of view: You should never expect every single person living on this planet to be as rational as yerself, especially when the person is very rich.PS: If you buy very expensive cables, be sure that they point to Mekka when you install them, otherwise they will not work!

Submitted by FunnyWorld on February 9, 2008 - 4:42am.

That "Playstation viral marketing" is part of the article, as it's used in the "Greatest Show on Earth"... :-) I don't know how it is playing GT5 with that screen, but that table doesn't seem rough enough to attach a steering wheel. Of course it should be a wireless Bugatti Veyron real one (including pedals) with circuitry developed in cooperation with VAG group and tested by Bourdais. If that includes some well-known centerfold "pit girls" then I would think about paying 10 $ a minute... LOL

Submitted by Steviebone on February 9, 2008 - 4:45am.

LMAO... a perfect demonstration of western ignorance and indulgence.. all that money and yet a total lack of acoustical design at all... and putting foam on the walls don't count friend... diffusing bookcases?: what a crock.. aesthetics? never seen such a COLD room for any amount of money... whoever he paid to consult is laughing all the way to the bank... a cost of 6 mil? I doubt it... acoustical coupling? look it up... putting the amps out front is just stupid.. has to destroy the spread... simple physics...my opinion: he HAD to make sure all the amps were out front so he could SEE where his money went...I'm sure it looks and sounds great... but 6 mil? he's an absolute moron with more money than brains and the fact that he wants us all to see it speaks volumes... I bet he drives a custom hummerand no, I have absolutely NO envy of this man... just stating to me what is painfully obvious... but then the world is full of stupid shit... we're an unevolved selfish species

Submitted by Uhhh on February 9, 2008 - 4:55am.

And then a big lightning bolt fries the whole thing. Cause God hates anyone having a better system than his.

Submitted by justin on February 9, 2008 - 8:02am.

he's ``...considering commissioning a custom-built scaler from Silicon Optix or Snell & Wilcox.'' That's cool!!! The converter alone could spawn a new market/business.With guys like this pushing the envelope of what's possible- the rest of us will benefit from the trickle down.Without having folks push and improve quality- our society would be left with only the low end stuff wal-mart and target are willing to sell at rock bottom prices.Even though I'm years away from having a mere 50k theater- I'm glad we have folks pushing the high end further. When I get my 50k theater- it will be better because of the passion from guys like Kipnis.Keep up the good work Kipnis!!! I wish you continues success in your business ventures as your passion pushes A/V to further heights.

Submitted by monte on February 9, 2008 - 9:17am.

Wow! Is that Bose? Sorry, couldn't resist;-) mk

Submitted by Carl on February 9, 2008 - 9:20am.

Curious...how do you people know the guy didn't give 12 million to charities the day before he started building this thing? He has 6 million for a system, I would bet that is not ALL of his money, and I would bet he has a LOT more. Maybe this is his one main extravagance, and the rest of his life is very unassuming to his being a millionaire (billionaire).

Submitted by avik saha on February 9, 2008 - 10:03am.

Big investment should give big returns. He can sell his idea and then donate the money to charity.PS: Can you donate me $300 so that I can buy a pair of desktop speakers.

Submitted by Dr bob on February 9, 2008 - 10:38am.

I would just love to hear that system with a good movie.

Submitted by Mr. on February 9, 2008 - 10:50am.

well... GOD DAMNIT!!

Submitted by Alan on February 9, 2008 - 11:08am.

It's his money - lesson to those who think he needs to "donate it" or do something else:Earn your own God Damn money and donate it and quit telling other people what to do with there's you fascist pigs.Maybe you'd feel better if the government controlled everybody's money including yours you ignorant and stupid morons saturated with your college professors liberal ideas of utopia where a very few get to control everybody's lives.Congratulations on building your dream system Mr. Kipnis - you have earned it - all of it. Good for you! I hope that it becomes a commercial success so others may enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Submitted by Jessie Sammler on February 9, 2008 - 11:32am.

Since when is a Theta Gen. VIII a surround sound processor? Why doesn't the equipment list mention the Theta Casablanca surround processor that's clearly visible in the photo of the projectors and equipment racks? What happened to his cables? Is is possible that they were all removed (either in reality or in PhotoShop) to make for cleaner-looking pictures?

Submitted by The Sallow Things on February 9, 2008 - 12:02pm.

He seems to have an excessive amount of equipment. My husband could do way better with way less, but that being said, if we were very wealthy I *KNOW* he'd put some crazy entertainment shit in some room.

Submitted by D. on February 9, 2008 - 12:15pm.

Where are the wires ???

Submitted by Robbie on February 9, 2008 - 12:21pm.

Damn man, can I come and play PlayStation3 on your set...?

Submitted by THISGUYISARETARD on February 9, 2008 - 1:03pm.

Where is his remote? I wonder if the jackass even has a decent remote. Maybe he's hiding the 30 remotes just to run his sound system.

Submitted by Scot on February 9, 2008 - 2:26pm.

Overkill? Just a tad, maybe. I'm reminded of the Flanders & Swann song:"All the highest notes, neither sharp nor flat.The ear can't hear as high as that!Still, I ought to please any passing batWith my high fidelity."Actually the Nautilus model is the coolest thing in the room. At least it was probably worth the money!