Who should buy a home theater system?

If you've had enough of driving to a local multiplex and paying $8 for a movie where the auditorium is cramped, the audience noisy and the popcorn $5, consider popping for a home theater setup.

Your options are wide, but as they say in the electronics industry, you get what you pay for. And you can pay from $1,000 to $60,000 for a home theater setup -- less if you have your own quality TV.

If you've just won a Nugget jackpot and feel flush you might want to drop in on ABCO at 910 E. William St. If you're serious you might want to make an appointment with Kevin Carney, vice president and professional home-theater installer. The appointment is probably necessary because he's out installing home theaters most of the time.

"Who should buy a home theater?" he asks."Just about anyone who loves entertainment. With the high-definition TV sets and projection sets coming on the market the picture quality is excellent and the sound enough to drown out the kids' rock music."

And if the setups at ABCO store are any example, the quality is astounding. There, three home-theater rooms demonstrate the levels of installations easily available for different-size pocketbooks.

The first theater comes complete with popcorn maker and beverage dispenser. The room is about 12 by 18 feet and the high-definition projection screen is a Stewart 65-inch set. A comfortable lounge and chairs are scattered about and the TV screen blends nicely into the decor.

"This setup is about $15,000, all installed and tuned," Carney says. "We always make a free consultation before we recommend any equipment. We arrange for placement of speakers so that viewers get the movie theater sound quality and we shuffle equipment suggestions around so that the customer winds up in the right price range."

The second home theater there is a handsome room with a 73-inch rear-projection screen. Speakers are buried in walls and the sub woofer is in a corner. Above the main speaker is a built-in second TV set, this one a 36-inch standard set.

"The big screen here can fold up and reveal a functioning fireplace," explained Carney. "You may note that the small screen looks better now than the projection screen. That's because we have the room lights on."

He flicked a switch and at once the projection screen matched the stunning quality of the smaller set.

"Ambient light affects projection quality," he said.

The third room is the $60,000 Taj Mahal of home theaters. A 6-foot-tall equipment tower is outside the room with enough controls to set off a fireworks show. Inside are several comfortable overstuffed chairs. Speakers are buried in the walls and the screen is oversize and it all looks very theater-like.

"One plus factor in home theaters is that with hi-def TV we can actually show black. You can't do that in a movie theater because the projector light bulb is always on so the best you can get is a dusky gray. You'd be surprised at the quality black adds to the picture."

While the prices listed may sound high, Carney says they can easily be adjusted downward, depending on equipment.

"We always discuss budget with clients because the sky could be the limit. We could do a room for $2,000 or less, and depending on the facility it would be more than adequate. But obviously, the more you pay the better the picture and the clearer the sound."

For the do-it-yourself crowd almost any major department store can supply the basic equipment. At Wal-Mart for instance, a 52-inch RCA hi-def set goes for $1,688; a Philips 50-incher for $1,554. Of course, you can use an existing TV but without the hi-def you won't get the multiplex quality that you can expect from the newer box.

You then have to add a receiver, DVD and speaker system (a VCR will work but the quality will be less and besides, VCRs are gradually being phased out). Sony puts out two sets of associated equipment at Wal-Mart, one for $499 and another for $299. So for about $2,000 you could set up a home theater. Of course, speaker placement is important for the kind of surround sounds you get in a multiplex. But if you're handy with wires and connections, you can work out speaker placement by trial and error.

But whatever you do before you embark on the aisle to a home theater, you might want to drop in a ABCO and look things over. Carney might even crank up the popcorn machine for you.