Kipnis Studio Standard home theater shows what $6 million can buy
By Donald Melanson 
posted Feb 7th 2008 3:45PM
posted Feb 7th 2008 3:45PM
Just in case you missed it, Engadget HD caught sight of this doozy of a "home theater" yesterday, which shows you just how much $6 million can buy. While it's not clear exactly how all that money was allocated (we're guessing some must have went to the construction of the space itself), the so-called Kipnis Studio Standard certainly doesn't hide its excess, starting with a 18- x 10-foot Stewart screen that should have your visitors acting like they've just discovered the monolith from 2001 in no time. Filling out all that space is a Sony SRX-S110 4K projector that upscales Blu-ray and HD DVD movies from their measly 1080p native resolution, which gets paired with an audio system that we won't even begin to describe. Of course, the setup isn't entirely for personal pleasure, and the man behind it is hoping to use it as a showcase to sell similar home theaters to others looking to spare no expense. No takers just yet though, it seems.
[Via Engadget HD]
[Via Engadget HD]
As they say, if you've got it, flaunt it.
IS it just me, or does anyone else notice that this image is totally CG?
It's better that way so that when the tech becomes outdated you simply update the texture maps and alter models as needed.
were you expecting the company to drop 6 million on a showroom?
So they go all-out on this and then decide to watch Ratatouille?
Yeah, kinda gives it a "Neverland Ranch" kind of feel, doesn't it?
Rambo isn't on Blu-ray yet.
Actually Rambo First Blood 1982 just got released on HD-DVD so that would've been a good option. (it even has DTS)
The first movie actually isn't even called Rambo. Just "First Blood." Then "Rambo: First Blood Part II" and then "Rambo III."
I sort of wish they had called the new one "John Rambo" like they originally planned.
HD-what? I've got no idea what you're talking about is that something from the 60's, dad?
how do you get to the DVDs behind the speakers then?
Ha! These are the drivers - in the install you wouldn't see a thing.
you tell your man-servant to fetch them for you.
That is beyond over kill for that room.
I'll take 300$ headphones over that, kthxbai!
All that money must have gone to all those amps they have lining the floor! Why so many? Do they really need 50,000 watts for their subwoofers? Are they thinking they're in some car cruising the strip?
The real question is can it play my BetaMax and 8 Tracks??
My mouth is still open, I'd be happy if I had that room empty.
Actually - It upscales 1080i to QuadHD (the latest marketing term for 4kx2k).
I read this article before seeing it on Engadget, and it said that the extremely expensive projector is not HDCP compliant, so he uses component cables (which we all know are capable of 1080p, but without HDCP, the players won't transmit 1080p over component (they will downscale to 1080i (or worse, 720p).
You should read the scathing comments on the original site, the guy is an idiot who doesn't know what to do with his money, he thinks people will pay him for his overkill.
If there's one like him, there's likely another...
Upscales to what? 4k?
PS3 and separate Bluray player....Pointless!
The new High-End BD players are worth getting over a PS3 for BD playback.
Plus, with the round of new BD players coming out that are finally 2.0, the PS3 is looking less and less worth while buying to just use as a PS3. The PS3 luckily held the honor of best BD player for a little only due to its ability to be upgraded and being driven by essentially a computer, which allowed it a few more luxuries at the time. That time however has passed, with players like the Panasonic DMP-BD50, the PS3 will be an after thought and transition back to being a gaming system that just happens to play Blu-ray.
PS3 will be 2.0 capable with firmware revision download via it's wireless capabilities.
For me the PS3 is still the best most cost effective start to any home theater set up period.
Punchy
I still find the PS3 provides a better picture (DiVX/XViD/DVD/Blu-Ray) than any other dedicated device I own with the same output/cables/etc. If you want to buy a new Blu-Ray 2.x player that can do less than a possible soon to be 300 - 350$ PS3 be my guest, but the picture is looking fine to me.
- Tony R.
I'd rather buy myself, and everyone in my family, a house. This only shows how badly the income divide has become.
Ratatoullie FTW
(yeah i probably didn't spell that right)
Should've gotten a Bose sound system. :-)
Yeah, a Bose sound bar. Would have cut down on all those speakers!
All that and he's watching ratatouille
Did they tried to use Microsoft Media Center? There is no need to keep the DVD's that way anymore.
to whoever pointed out about the cost of all the speakers, then just imagine the electricity bill for running this monster of a setup
Can they install this in my Airbus A380?
I might have a card for you. I have some guys who did an install in the surplus Buran I picked up...next we're gonna rig up the Hubble as a projector.
Next time, please center the windows above the screen.
most of the money is tied up in speakers and the projector, but I have a better idea for all this:
Media Center PC. You get the LG Blu-Ray Writer/HD DVD Reader, an 8800GT, and a surround receiver, then just put all your movies on your 10 terabyte RAID 0 hard drive.
Add a PS3 and Xbox 360.
Done. No triple everything.
Allen, You can add two or even more video cards using SLI, and add Blu-ray or HD DVD movies on the hard drive and use it on the Media Center... It will be all there.. TV(cable card), movies, music, radio, photos..
I'd feel like the equipment was observing me rather than the other way around.
That's just wrong.
Kipnis spends $6 million home theater studio and about $2 on their web site. Rather pathetic, if you ask me.
$6M and it only seats 2 comfy? looks like the middle seat ain't that roomy! And where's the oh-so necessary recliner??
$6 million can get you more than a lifetime's worth of new releases at your friendly local $10 admission cinema.
Taken the considerable price, there isn't a whole lot of webpage to the deal
http://www.kipnis-studios.com/The_Kipnis_Studio_Standard/KSS.html
I couldn't help laughing, I thought these websites for since long dead...
This makes me hate people
Am I the only one who thinks the audio set up is terribly unattractive?
Absolutely not. The room looks cluttered and messy. It looks like you should bow to the speaker gods. Very unattractive and uninviting.
ok, so he blew a small fortune on equipment. he doesnt seem to have spent a penny on design and set-up. he needed to hire someone with knowledge of acoustics, someone who could tell the room need to be properly designed and built, and the equipment arranged just right to maximize the audio. no he's just got sound bouncing off of all that equipment, so much for accurate sound reproduction.
For $6 million I'll buy a small movie theater.
Are you implying that it is not already a theater? :)
Maybe i'm wrong... but I feel like for a small fraction of that cost, I could build something where the average (maybe above average) consumer wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two.
I'd totally have better furniture and a popcorn machine in there too.
I can Say I have a much better setup, and it only cost me little shy of 200k, and my projector is HDCP compliant. Sure I don't have 50k watts of power flowing through my floor, but I can seat 15 people. have access to 2000 of my favorite DVD's, and have 5Tb for the Misc video I find on the Internet.
Imagine playing Duck Hunt on that thing!
Personally I would have put Martin Logans all around and have the electrostatic goodness. Each speaker would have its own Descent subwoofer.
Personally I would have put Martin Logans all around and have the electrostatic goodness. Each speaker would have its own Descent subwoofer.
Wow, the sad thing is too, with all of this theater-grade hardware his audio setup includes Vacuum Tube Amplifiers! WTF?
- Tony R.
The sad thing is, you probably don't know what an amplifier is!
I in fact do and have built/repaired several myself. I don't know why people think my comment should be low ranked as vacuum tube technology has been around for more than a hundred years and don't provide the best quality for analog or digital quality. Not to mention they are very unreliable and prone to breakdown as anyone with a very old radio knows.
- Tony R.
Hmmm.... looking at my unopened, never repaired 1968 Ampeg tube amp that works perfectly, I'd have to disagree with you. Sounds better than any solid state I've played, and if it's still kickin' after 40 years problem-free, tubes are pretty reliable. I think your comparison of high-end audiophile gear to an old radio is way off base, and it seems that your only tube experience is that same broken old radio. Try out a nice tube-powered headphone amp and compare it to a solid-state one. The difference is clear.
You might not like the tonality or the synergistic qualities of a tube amp with your specific gear, but that's all you can say. Vintage tube gear is still around producing absolutely wonderful music in exceedingly high quality. And just because it's been around for a hundred years doesn't mean jack - the internal combustion engine has been around for quite a while, as with arc welding, the wheel, incandescent light bulbs, photographic film, hell Coca-Cola has been around longer than vacuum tubes. Don't even TRY to play the "old technology" game - it's just an excuse for not knowing what you're talking about.
All I've got to add is that the room will be hot enough to fry an egg on the model of Capt. Nemo's sub with all those tube amps.
BTW Tom, all the products you have mentioned have been updated/improved over the years. Yes I have had a limited experience with tube electronics, however every single one of those times it was to repair a blown tube (and good luck finding a new part for most classic vacuum tube products). Yes they make new specialty tubes, but this boils down to the old "what sounds better debate?", analog vs. digital.
Tubes may create a warmer sound, but I find with the right tweaking, you can get an all digital setup to sound great. This guy just bought that amp because it costs more than some of it's other digital counterparts, just like he did for most of his hardware. If anyone disagrees with what I say, I am perfectly find with them commenting on it, but I would prefer that it comes in a friendly, intelligent form rather than a "ah you don't know shit", esp. when you know nothing about my background. That's it for me.
- Tony R.
P.S. - With all I said, if someone gave me that amp I would throw my 5 year old Sony amp out of the nearest 10+ story building, not that I don't love it though =).
This is idiotic. The room is an acoustic nightmare. And there is no reason to have a screen that big to seat 3 people from that close. Such a sad waste of some excellent equipment...
First of all, how the fiznuck people took PS3 out of the subject matter of this discussion is beyond me. Now that I got that outta my system I must say that in reality this is one of the most asinine uses of money I have never seen i.e. this is the first & worst time I have seen this kind of money wasted in such a way. I ain't no hater when it comes to the "big ballas" but this ain't gonna fall under the balla category at all! Look I like elect...no I LOVE electronics of all types on the high tech and low tech spectrum but this particular situation ain't on a spectrum but moreso out of a bovines rectum i.e. BullShiznit, if you ask me. Even if you don't ask I still stand by my statement, "This is bullshiznit fo-shizzy!" In layman's terms that means that this is a hoax, a bamboozal, a schemishly schaniving attempt to make people who don't know what to do with a helluva lotta money waste it even more than they do already. Come on, gimme a fracture a.k.a. "break"! Oh yeah btw, I would take all that if somebody gave it to sold it to me for say a hundredth of the price. For the less than mathmatical folk that comes to about 60 thow.
au ight I'm outta here like last year...holla back if you feel what I'm sayin if not that's au ight too.
Prize for the next Engadget giveaway perhaps?
there seems to be an absence of any kind of wiring... AT ALL... now imagine how cluttered it would look with wiring... good lord... maybe if he used some nordost... maybe odin for the speakers... talk about some money
OMG! The picture we saw above is nothing compared to what he really has in that room! You thought it was cluttered, unattractive and cramped before. Wait until you see this:
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9866428-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt
I want that model of the Nautilus in my living room. Does that come with it?
I can help sell these systems! i just need one in my home to demo.
Oh yea i will need a bigger house too.
That's no moon. That is a space station :) :)
Did anyone see any pictures of that guys wife?
Yeeeeeeeeeeeochhhhhhhh!!
That guy should of spent some money on a new wife.
Critiquing the aesthetics of his setup is one thing, but doing the same of his wife is shallow and dickheadish.
Waaaaaah!! Poor Jesus.
what a waste....wonder how much his electric bill will be and how soon he goes bankrupt....
Wow, what a monument to wealth without the slightest hint of taste or care for acoustics.
Most $20k setups take more care for acoustics than this.
So you bought a $50k amp. Where does it belong?
Millionaire: In front of the center channel speaker so everyone can see it.
Audiophile: In the equipment rack with all the other "equipment".
Who the hell spends $6 million on a home theatre system and not even buy recliners?
And that single couch says A LOT about his friends, or lack thereof.
Dude, TimeShift and Guitar Hero III would be tEh sh*t on there!
Oh yeah, and Rock Band!
i think i speak on the behalf of the guy that owns this when i..
cross my arms, turn my head and say 'totaly worth it.'
All that bloody money, and it (the Theta Casablanca processor) doesn't even decode Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD. Fool.
Well, without Pear Anjou Speaker Cables, the setup is crap!
The smile at the end was for sarcasm. Next time I lay it on a little thicker.
Just a small point, but wouldn't $6,000,000/£3,000,000 pretty much by you a real cinema?
What $6 million can't buy: taste.
6 million in a 1 million house.
Hooked up directly to the city's power grid
If you read home theater magazine you will see that this is a labratory type setup to see how close you can come to state of the art reproduction of film. he is a Dealer and this represents a product he can sell to Hollywood producesr and Very high net worth individuals.
As far as the bill for electricity, if he can afford to inest 6 million in the hardware im sure he has the financial werwithall to pay the electricity bill each month.
Ratatouille has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. That image is cropped. All that money spent and no respect for the artist's vision.
This is great news!
http://www.chasetheglow.com
Tacky! Really, really TACKY!
Kipnis Studios will be concluding formal public demonstrations on Saturday, September 6th, 2008. Anyone interested in a complete hand tailored tour should feel free to contact me through our website:
www.Kipnis-Studios.com
Cheers -
Jeremy
Kipnis Studios
Contributing Editor - www.HomeTheaterReview.com
Well, it's been 8 months to the day since I wrote the previous entry. And in the time:
The Kipnis Studio Standard has presented personalized demonstrations to over 1200 people, is now featured in 38 Feature Magazine Articles & 2 TV News Capsules, just became 2009 Guinness World Records Winner, can be found in 143 countries, is featured in 90,000+ blogs, and is currently seen by 350,000,000+ people around the world.
Wouldn't you like a demonstration of the very best Home Theater on the planet?
Cheers -
Jeremy
Kipnis Studios
www.Kipnis-Studios.com