I consider one of the most important aspects of a good home theater to be the seating. Unfortunately I have a huge problem with recliners. I am not sure it is the way most of them are built or a family that could possible (probably) be a little too rough on the furniture. All of the recliners in my house, except one (which is where I usually sit, leading to proof that it is in fact the roughness of my family on the furniture), are bent and do not recline right or take a lot of effort to get them to recline, or simply are just broken to the point they don't recline.

I am wondering if anyone on this forum has much experience in this area. I am looking for something that is really durable but comfortable as well. I do really like the couches with the individual arm-wrests/cup holders for everyone that is also semi-circular, so people aren't having to turn their heads to see the TV. Something like http://www.hometheaterseating.com/home-theater-loungers/leather/pavillionblackleatherhometheatergroup.cfm would be incredible, however I am not familiar at all with the brand of home theater seating in general as I've spent the majority of my last few weeks researching speakers, amps, and pre/pros.

So if anyone would like to share their experiences/problems in this area, anything you can lend would be great. I am sure there are quite a few others here interested as well.

I have two sets of theater seats from two different manufacturers.This has been my first and only experience with theater seats.

The front row are electric recline with very soft leather. I purchased them for $750 on Craigslist from a guy that was in Real Estate and had them in his vacation home.  He bought them new for $2300 from American Signature.  They are from the Aurora Collection and were in perfect condition.  Super comfortable, very nice and soft leather.  The motors have worked perfectly since I have had them.  Very smoothe and quiet recline.  The ONLY part I do not like about them is when I first got them, my 4 children wanted to climb out of them without letting the footrest down since it takes about 5 seconds to let the footrest down.  There isn't enough support for someone to put their weight on the footrest so that part could break if too much weight was applied to it.   I don't expect any of the electric recline to be any different as the footrest wasn't made to support the full body weight of anyone.  With that said, they have survived over the past few years that I have owned them.  

The back row are manual recline, with not as soft of leather (lower quality seats).  They have also held up extremely well. I bought them off of a builder that was going out of business.  They had the three seats in a Model Home so it did not get much use.  The plastic was still wrapped on the footrests.  I paid $600 for them.  They were in mint condition. 

We live in a small community with a LOT of small children.  It is not uncommon for us to have our 4 children and 4 or 5 neighborhood children in our home.  The seats have held up incredibly well so far and to me they are an incredible addition to our HT experience.

Best wishes on your search

Front Row Electric Recline

 

Back Row Manual Recline

Front and Back Row

Wow, what a wonderful find! I will have to start keeping an eye on craigslist for some of these. Thanks for showing the pic with the RC-64 as well, those have the perfect width. Beautiful pictures and theater room as well! And

tmassey:

Wow, what a wonderful find! I will have to start keeping an eye on craigslist for some of these.

I pretty much live on Craigslist. There are just way too many great deals out there that it's difficult for me to pay full retail for anything.

tmassey:

Thanks for showing the pic with the RC-64 as well, those have the perfect width. Beautiful pictures and theater room as well!

I appreciate the kind words.

Massey my plans are to have a curved row of four with black leather in the back. Then up front I am looking for something I seen in a magazine once. Basically imagine a sectional with the really wide chair and a half ottoman built into one end. Now cut that side off then find a mirrored side of it. So basically would have a large u shaped fixed seating up fronts. Adults in the backs. Tons of kids could be up front, or you and a lady could snuggle up on it as well. I'll see if I can find the picture somewhere

That would be a very good way of trying to sell the idea of having a home theater and justifying lots of speaker purchases to the Mrs. Un/fortunately I am Mrs-less or I probably wouldn't be here right now :) I would love to see it, but now my HT funds are running low. Have a car insurance and more student loans then usual this month to pay. Hopefully will be back in action by the end of next month. Maybe sooner if I can figure out a way to sell these Icons. I know they aren't great speakers, but I have been getting some crazy low-ball offers. Someone said he would give me 50$ for them, but didn't have a way to pick them up. By the time I got to where he lived, I would have spent more money in gas. I don't think these people really realize what they are asking sometimes :)

If you do find that picture, I would love to see!