Tempe Room 5

Room 5 is the argument for a cinema that does not require a dedicated, blacked-out room. A Sony 100-inch BRAVIA replaces the projector and screen, which means the space stays usable in daylight and the picture holds up without the room being built around it. The audio is not scaled down to match.

The room itself

Most people who want a serious cinema do not have a room they can give over to it entirely. Room 5 was configured with that in mind. It is lit like a living room, furnished like one, and the display is a television rather than a projection system — which removes the need for light control, a screen wall, and a ceiling-mounted projector. What it does not remove is the surround array, the amplification, or the ability to sit down afterwards and listen to a record properly.

The display

The Sony 100-inch BRAVIA is the reason the room works without blackout. A television of this size gives up very little to a projector in image scale for a normal seating distance, and it gives up nothing in daylight, where a projected image simply washes out. For a family room or a great room that has to do several jobs, that trade is usually the right one, and Room 5 is set up so it can be judged with the lights on rather than described.

The audio system

Wilson Sabrina V handle the mains with the Wilson WASAE centre channel, four Wilson Alida surrounds, and a pair of JL Audio twelve-inch subwoofers. That is a Wilson loudspeaker at every position that matters, voice-matched across the front stage, with the surrounds from the same designer rather than from whichever brand happened to make an in-wall.

McIntosh amplification runs throughout. An MC462 drives the mains, an MC8207 seven-channel amplifier and an MI254 cover the remaining channels, and an MX100 A/V processor handles decoding and bass management. Transparent cabling connects it all.

Why the two-channel preamplifier matters

For two-channel listening, the system routes through a McIntosh C2800 vacuum tube preamplifier. That last detail is the point of the room: it is a full surround system that does not stop being a serious two-channel system when the film ends. The Sabrina V and the MC462 are a reference stereo pairing in their own right, and putting a tube preamplifier in front of them means music is not an afterthought to the cinema — it is the same system, heard the other way round.

Many rooms that try to do both end up doing neither well, because the processor becomes the preamplifier for everything and the music suffers for it. Room 5 keeps the two paths separate where it counts and shares the loudspeakers and power amplification where it makes sense.

The system in this room

• Sony 100-inch BRAVIA television
• Wilson Audio Sabrina V loudspeakers
• Wilson Audio WASAE centre channel
• Wilson Audio Alida surround loudspeakers × 4
• JL Audio 12-inch subwoofers × 2
• McIntosh MC462 stereo amplifier
• McIntosh MC8207 seven-channel amplifier and MI254 amplifier
• McIntosh MX100 A/V processor
• McIntosh C2800 vacuum tube preamplifier
• Transparent cabling

Hearing it

Room 5 is the room for anyone planning a cinema in a space that has to stay a living space, and for anyone who wants one system that does films and music without compromising either. It is the practical counterpart to the dedicated cinema rooms in Scottsdale, and worth hearing alongside them if a visit can take in both showrooms.

Tempe Room 5 is in the Tempe showroom. Walk in during business hours and ask to see it with the lights on, or book ahead if you would like time set aside for both a film and a listening session.