Cincinnati Home Theaters

I made an appointment and the owner Chris came out. I had to follow up to get the quote. I was given the holidays as their excuse. Their quote(s) weren't written up as thorough as I would of liked and I had to clarify items. The installer, Ralph was nice and professional. I have a home office and use internet for multiple uses, on a daily basis. I had several problems after the system was installed, over and over again, where our internet became extremely slow and would not allow us onto our server. I had to have them out on multi occasions. I had paid them several thousands via credit card for the Control 4 equipment, TV Equipment and labor. I had discussed ordering a new projector. I paid them $6,500. I asked them to hold off cashing the check by voicemail on any further items until we got internet and control 4 working properly, the check for the projector & its install labor cleared my bank before receiving the work or item, after I requested them to hold it.. I finally had to hire an attorney to handle the matter to get a refund. Chris had charged a credit card and cashed a check. He told the credit card company one thing, the attorney, another. I ended up having to have the Control 4 system disconnected in order to use my internet. They had blamed the internet not working to our provider (Cincinnati Bell) during the whole ordeal we had had Cinci Bell out they said it was not them. Our internet has worked fine since disconnection of the Control 4 system. However, now we have purchased expensive equipment that we have not been able to use and now need to look for and pay for another installer. It seems by his own admissions, by back-tracking and changing his story and/or telling two different stories, that he and his company are not honest or trustworthy. I would not recommend Cincinnati Home Theater as a reputable company.

My review is very mixed. I had things that went well and some that did not. My pursuit of upgrading my entertainment center started by calling a different company and had a very poor interaction and recommends. Then I called Chris. He was very accommodating coming to my house at ~ 7:30 to assess and give estimate and appear much more knowledgeable the first interaction. Being very impressed, we penciled in a date for the install with the agreement that he was to email an official estimate with specific equipment in the next couple days. However, communications became poor after this. After several delays, I emailed and put the install on hold because of the lack of official estimate. I had to go to his shop to get an estimate and get it moving again. This should have for shadowed what was to come but I had a deadline. Install: Three people was present for the install. All three were well dressed and courteous. Because there was 3 existing in wall speaker, only one wire run had to be ran. This was a difficult run and they worked hard to not make an additional hole and make a clean install. For the other existing speakers, the wire in the wall is a 22 gauge by 6 wires. They were supposed to optimize the connect by wiring 3 wires for positive and 3 for negative to minimize the resistance(reduces the reduces resistance by 60%) but this did not happen. One of the existing speakers was to be moved from 7 feet high to 4 feet high and patch the wall. They did drop it but had to return a different day because they did not bring the correct equipment. They also did not have there own ladders but I was fine with them using mine. They installed the receiver in a cabinet and connect it to the other AV equipment (Blu-ray, Direct TV, TV) with a IR repeater. They briefly went through the calibration and demonstration. Experience: They they left, I start to watch a movie on Direct TV. First, I noted sounded very sub par for $4500. First, I noted the calibration was WAY off, I was not getting surround sound from my DirectTV, my internet connection did not work to the receiver, and the IR connect to the Blu-ray player did not work. First, I changed the setting the direct TV box to have it send Dolby surround to the receiver. Second, I had to calibrate the Receiver. Their calibration was: SW +2, FL +1.5, C +2, FR +1.5, RR 0,RL +2. I worked on it and got it closer but still was not happy. My receiver has self calibrating mic (which they told me did not work very well) but I was despite so I gave it a try. It was significantly better then their 2 second calibration and got it very close (I only had to make a slight change to the sub woofer to get it perfect). The final calibration was: SW -2, FL +2, C 0, FR +1.5, RR 10, RL 10 with the distance also calibrated (not attempted by CHT). They returned to patch the dry wall. I was not there at the time but is was a terrible job. They took a piece of dry wall and cut a rectangle to fill the spot. This was correct but they put mud over the entire rectangle to the extent the entire patch, not just the seams, had to be sanded down. It was a very armature job. At this return they were supposed to fix the IR to the Blu ray and they did not so I had to do this. After I was finished the system sounds great but I had to spend an additional 6 hours to get it correct and sounded great. I noted after having it on for multiple hours it became so hot I could not keep my hand on the top. I emailed Denon for the recommended air space. It was installed with 4" of air space and the MINIMUM is 8"! Sub optimal instillation is one thing, incorrect installation is another. This heat and lack of air flow would have damaged the receiver and shortened it lifespan. In my option, with a professional install company, this should never happen. In addition, there should be a complete system check and calibration prior to leaving.