At first I was impressed, then I thought to myself, this whole thing had better be powered by solar panels, otherwise watching a single movie would warm up the planet by 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
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 kodiakthejuggler on February 7, 2008 - 1:04pm.
Hey Naysayer,he's only using the component outputs of his HD DVD and Blu Ray players because that's the best he can do to connect to the projector at the moment, seeing as how there's no HDMI connections on that thing. Anyway, its native resolution is much higher than any home medium can spit out, so there's upgrade options still available.He'll probably do like he says: commission Snell & Wilcox to create an upscaler that will keep the signal in the digital domain. Besides, I'm sure it looks spectacular.
Submitted by Waldo on February 7, 2008 - 1:16pm.
Wow! Having read each of the previous comments I'm not sure what I can add. But I'll try:He chose the Snells 'cause Snell worked with Lucas on developing THX. I think they cost much too much for the sound you get (which is awesome!). The Murata's are incredible products. The Stewart Snowmatte is to die for. Amps and other components are truly interchangeable. You could probably get more for less, but specs on the room and the equipment on paper are mind blowing. The picture and sound must be incredible in person.After reading this guys bio, I understand the madness and why he spent the money; though that's not a choice I would make.
Submitted by Alien on February 7, 2008 - 1:30pm.
You are all dumb asses. There are acoustical treatments on the walls and you can see them in the pictures. You have not heard, nor can you say for sure, what this system sounds like. You are all jealous idiots. Go make 6 million + and you can do with it as you please. You have no idea if this dude contributes to charity, nor what amount.Get a life - stop judging others - make you own money - stop complaining.
Submitted by Richard on February 7, 2008 - 2:12pm.
Short sighted.How much does a formula 1 car cost? Building this helps everyone here who enjoys home theater. I applaud him for his dream. Also never judge a person regarding whether or not they are giving money to charity unless your first name is Bill and last name is Gates. For all your complaining he could have given 75 million dollars away and kept a few for himself.
Submitted by mike u on February 7, 2008 - 2:25pm.
Ah, the inevitable and annoying "gosh he shoulda donated to charity instead; what a waste" comments (read: I am a low income earner who is incredibly jealous OR I am an unnaturally pretentious person who judges other unreasonably). There are far worse crimes against humanity than building a killer home theater, why don't you all use your time to rail against those? Anyways, who says he doesn't donate to charity? I'd even bet the economic stimulation from that kind of cash outlay is more a efficient use of resources than less scrupulous charities, of which the cynic in me believes there are plenty. I admire this guy's dedication to fully pursue his passion, and as an audio enthusiast myself I certainly admire the beautiful system he's put together. Would love to experience/own something in my lifetime that even *begins* to approach what this must be like.
Submitted by Andy on February 7, 2008 - 2:41pm.
Concept and possibilities, indeed it might be a tad overkill but that was probably also the aim. The fact that someone actually put this together is extremely cool. About the money it looks like a concept car spend years and millions developing it and probably will never even drive, but putting it together will actually be the lesson. Not about the final product but about the journey to get there...
Submitted by UCrazyKid on February 7, 2008 - 2:51pm.
Sweet showroom, I hope he wrote it off in his taxes. If he doesn't sell a system to Lucas, et al. he can write it off again as a business loss! I'm surprised he didn't go custom for that much money rather than limit himself to off the shelf components, etc.
Submitted by jensen on February 7, 2008 - 3:20pm.
@Calvin Chan:that's the funny thing with lots of audiophiles - everyone knows everything better than the other one.one of my favourite things about audiophiles is:go to an audio forum, choose some audiophile cabling topic and laugh your ass off.i know some very nice text, but sadly it's in german. it's a physical approach to audiophile cabling and explaining in a very scientific way that all those super-expensive audio-cables are pure bullshit. really hilarious - you can silence lots of cabling threads with that article :)
Submitted by Moleman-Z on February 7, 2008 - 3:53pm.
Look at all the "haters" - Since he wants to sell this system, it's an investment. Like Waldo said, Snell is a good choice because George Lucas worked with them, and when has Lucas been wrong about anything? He probably will buy one from Kipnis because Lucas probably doesn't know many people in the home entertainment arena that could put together a system for him. Also, to whoever said it should have more seating: bad idea if these are in California, because that would just increase the odds of someone being crushed by a subwoofer should an earthquake hit. And yeah, f--- this charity stuff - poor people don't know good home theater! What are you liberals thinking???
Submitted by Scott Wallace on February 7, 2008 - 3:59pm.
While I applaud the effort to get maximum performance, I can't help but agree with another post that I hope this guy is using his extreme wealth to better the world in some way and not just on 3-seat 6 million dollar personal home theaters. Using the component output of a first generation Blu-Ray player? That's kinda gross. Why not get the $250,000 Runco SC-1 which does have HDCP compliant digital inputs, uses the professional DMD made exclusively for commercial cinema DLP projectors, and has enough lumens to light up a screen even much bigger than the one he's using. And why in the world would you do a theater of this scale and not do a Cinemascope set-up with variable masking for different aspect ratios? And while the visual layout of the speakers is interesting, there is no way that each speaker position has been optimized. And an add-on tweeter scares me a bit. The speaker is either up to the task or it isn't. Adding on drivers to get more of 'something' is a hack.
Submitted by Jim Fuller/AV Systems engineer on February 7, 2008 - 4:10pm.
I am both an audio systems engineer and have worked in high end audio and video for over 25 years. This guy's system is a statement. It was designed to knock socks off...the author even says it was designed as a 'total immersion' system. So to all the whiners who think high end cables are crap, or those who don't like the system or room look, or those who note the amp placement will alter the soundstage, or those who just want to criticize spelling...you're more entertaining than the article was. Yeah it sucks that some people have that much money and we don't, but in the context of all the systems I've seen and installed over the years, this wretched excess of a system is right up there with the best of them for sheer eye pop, and the bass will probably make little old ladies puke for blocks. (Do you think they removed the cables for the photo shoot?)
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