10 May Perry’s Man Cave
Perry has a wide range of tastes in movies; high-action blockbusters, old-school westerns, thrillers and sci-fi all the way through to musicals. His choice in music is just as varied… you’ll even find him firing up the Xbox for a game or two.
So, when it came time to purchase an AV system for his spacious “man cave”, Perry needed a sound system that could bring out the best in these soundtracks – eventually deciding on the Neuphonix Mk2, Epicentrix Mk2, a pair of Acoustix Mk2 and dual Volcanix subwoofers. As a bonus, the blackwood real timber veneer perfectly matched the existing panelling in the room.
The initial 5.2 system with 79″ TV.
To make the most of the latest immersive sound formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, Perry then added another pair of Acoustix Mk2 and three pairs of Phonix Flat for overhead effects. He also heavily updated the ‘visual’ side of the system, but more on that soon.
We caught up with Perry recently to chat about what inspired his love of audio and gather more detail on his impressive 7.2.6 home theatre system.
When did you first notice your passion for audio/home theatre?
My passion for music started at a very young age. My dad loves music and is also very good singer. His love of Perry Como even inspired my name! This love of hi-fi eventually led to his sound system being published in a Sound and Vision Magazine back in Malaysia.
I developed the same passion for music at a very early age and in the mid 70’s I purchased my first Luxman amp, Tandberg Cassette player, Torens turntable and Kef speakers. Around 1998, I setup my first home theatre system comprising of a Denon AVR AC1 with Jamo and Bose speakers.
18 years on, in May 2016 I set up my current home theatre system with the purchase of a Denon AVR-X7200W, Krix speakers and a 79” LG 4k TV. I later upgraded to a 138″ cinemascope screen, Sony laser projector, Denon AVR-X8500 and added another eight Krix speakers to bring my system in line with the latest sound formats.
Final 7.2.6 configuration with 138″ cinemascope screen.
What dimensions are your home theatre room? What challenges did you encounter when designing/outfitting it?
My man cave is 9.5m by 5.4m, which is quite large. The only challenge was the height of the ceiling at 2.18m. With the height restriction, I could only fit a 138” cinemascope screen. Without this limitation, I would have preferred a 150” screen.
A generous Blu-ray and UHD collection lines the side wall.
Being a multipurpose room, what else do you use it for?
The room gets used a lot! Apart from movies and music we often use the pool table towards the back of the room, play Xbox games and I also use the home theatre screen for teaching my photographic friends how to use Photoshop and Lightroom.
Various LED lighting schemes can be chosen to set the mood of the room.
What are your favourite music and movies to play and demo to friends?
My favourite music is Abba and movie is Mamma Mia. For demos… I keep changing my mind each time a new Dolby Atmos movie is released. The ones I love to demonstrate are Spectre (the opening scene), The Greatest Showman (the opening scene with strong bass), Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom (when the T-Rex are fighting), Mission Impossible Fallout (helicopter scene), Ready Player One (the car race scene), Equalizer 2 (the train scene at the start) and finally the musical movies like My fair Lady, Sound of music, Mamma Mia 1 and 2.
The side and rear surrounds on the right hand side are cleverly suspended with movie and car memorabilia.
With a lot of time invested in creating his man cave, we asked Perry what his thoughts were on the finished room.
“It is an awesome system! It took a while to tune 15 speakers but now everything sounds so good and watching movies I feel that I am in the movie scene. I watch parts of John Wick, Star Trek Beyond etc and I just love them all. Even watching AFL football now makes me feel so immersed.”
Full equipment list:
Krix Neuphonix Mk2
Krix Epicentrix Mk2
Krix Acoustix Mk2 x 4
Krix Phonix Flat x 6
Krix Volcanix x 2
Denon AVR-X8500H
SONY VPLVW-760ES 4K Laser
138” Elite Screen 2.35 aspect ratio
Oppo UDP-205
OSMC Vero 4K
Apple TV 4K
Foxtel IQ4
Xbox One