Cinema Room Upgrades

The “upgraditis” bug has bitten me again! 

I started looking at upgrades for my cinema setup over the past 12-18 months. Initially managed to get a really decent BenQ 4K short throw projector (during the Pandemic). Best thing about the BenQ was its ability to literally slot into the old BenQ projector location. No changes were required, just plug and play! 

The picture quality showed a huge improvement specially with 4K capabilities and HDR10 as standard. The overall experience with the BenQ was so good that I recommended the same projector to my brother in Canada in his new cinema setup. 

BenQ W2700 is overall a great short throw projector with good 4K capabilities. 


Obviously it couldn’t end just with the Projector upgrade! 

I started looking at speaker upgrades for my front three speakers. I shortlisted two contenders for my specific price point - Focal or Bowers & Wilkins. After thorough research I decided on the B&W 603 S2 Anniversary Edition and B&W HTM6 S2 Anniversary Edition as I managed to secure an excellent deal through my local RicherSounds dealership. 

Subsequent to my speaker upgrade I soon realised that my current amp (Denon AVR-X2200) wont be sufficient to cope with the demands of my new B&W speakers. After some online searches I was able to source a decent second hand Denon AVR-X4500H which allowed me to configure my ATMOS setup whilst bi-wiring my much superior B&W Speakers. 

I did a recalibration of my setup using the Audessy configuration software and I am very pleased! 

Review of B&W Speakers -

The Bowers & Wilkins 603 S2 Anniversary is a 2.5 way floor-standing speaker and the flagship of the 600 Series range.  The Bowers & Wilkins 603s has been a notional benchmark creating a sort of ‘Golf GTI effect’  always mentioned as the key competition when compared to other speakers of similar price/performance range. 

In our setup in my cinema/family room, it sounds quite ‘wholesome” which we are all very pleased with. Whilst listening to some Jazz I am able to hear some low frequencies which I had never appreciated before. The HTM6 centre speaker complements it well when watching movies. I am really looking forward to further enhancement of the sound as the speakers age over time. 

Review of X4500H -

I am completely blown away with how big the upgrade has been between the X2200 and X4500! The most surprising element has been the upgrade in picture quality using the upscaling feature in the new Denon. We could clearly notice images being more clear whilst being broadcast on BBC 1 with much more depth in still imaging. 

Hoping to enjoy the setup for a good number of years until the next “upgraditis” bug bite ;)!



















#B&W 
#Bowers&Wilkins
#DenonAVR-X4500
#B&W603S2 




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