With a wholehouse Crestron automation system that controls everything from security to the dedicated theater, this home takes control to another level.

When this Long Island homeowner was planning his home theater, his main criteria was that he wanted big sound and a big picture to make him shake in his seat. So Electronics Design Group (EDG) began its theater design with just these broad strokes. Fortunately, the homeowner was game for whatever it took to achieve his home theater dream.

A kid who went from racing go-karts at age 7, to becoming the first Rookie of the Year to take home the Shootout victory at the 70-lap Budweiser Shootout, to scoring the highest-points finish ever for a NASCAR rookie in 2006, Denny Hamlin, age 27, is loving life. And with that success has come the means to enjoy his home in a way that suits his ultra-fast-paced lifestyle. For Hamlin, that means technology.

For a bold statement, the designer loudspeakers from NACSound will surely get noticed and compliment the most daring contemporary dcors. Direct from Italy, these handmade custom speakers are distributed in the US and Canada by Sonance, a leader in custom hidden solutions for loudspeakers. The NACSound for Sonance speakers are hardly meant to be hidden and in fact, should be prominently displayed.

How I got a great basement home theater—without breaking the bank.

How I did my homework and saved.

My interest in home theaters stems from my father. Like anyone brought up by a good father, I wish to be like him and take interest in things that he finds interesting. One hobby of his is audio/video stuff. Several years ago, he turned a little-used living room in the basement of his home into a home theater. He had professional installers do the work, and I was amazed at the results: a drop-down tensioned screen, an HDTV projector, and top-quality picture and sound. I wanted to have a home theater, too. In the middle of my Air Force service at Hill AFB, Utah, my family and I decided to build a home. I had plans to build a dedicated home theater under the garage. Financial issues, including medical-school loans, a family of seven to feed, and limited military income caused these plans to end up on the back burner. Two years later, I finished my military obligation, and we moved to rural Webster, South Dakota. We built a new home, and this time I was determined to make the home theater happen! We designed our own home, and the basement home theater fit right into the plans. I had the contractor lower the foundation 4 feet to give the room some depth. I had read that square rooms are poor choices for home theaters, but, with a degree of oppositional defiance, I set out to make a square 25-by-25-foot home theater.