Let me start at the end...When you're a A/V enthusiast, you're never really done building a dedicated home theater room. The best you can strive for is, "this is where the room is as of today". Adding and replacing equipment goes hand in hand with the passion of the audiophile. Over the past 24 months, I've built a dedicated home theater/multimedia room in my house that includes a host of components from Sony.

When constructing a home theater, the first thing I recommend is cooperation from your spouse. She had (and still does) complete veto power over every single decision that went into the development of this theater. I first had to convince her to turn a spare bedroom in our brand new townhouse into a dedicated home theater. However, what probably took more persuasion was convincing her of the importance to paint the room an unusually dark color such as charcoal grey with black trim. Or painting the connecting hallway Hollywood red, or the third bathroom metallic gold. Of course, the idea of having "exit" signs all about and life size busts of pretty ugly Hollywood characters took some hard selling, too.

In 2008, I started to design and build the home theater my wife, Allison, and I always wanted. I spent months pouring over home theater magazines and DIY theater websites learning what to do, and more importantly, what not to do. Having toyed around with home and car stereo in the past, I decided that there was no need to hire someone to install and calibrate my system. Taking a “hands on” approach helped me understand every aspect of the project and in the long run it should be easier to integrate new components in the future.

I have been an avid reader and subscriber to Home Theater magazine over the years, when the new issue comes in I thoroughly enjoy reading it and always refer to past issues. My favorite part of the magazine is the home installs, reading about what other people put into their homes and to what lengths they go. Crazy stuff!

Her style, his performance—in a room they can both enjoy.

The Robelle: my labor of love.