Home Movie Theaters

It's the last day of AXPONA 2025. Late on Sunday afternoon, somewhere between exhaustion and curiosity, I was camped on the Renaissance Convention Center carpet when a father‑and‑daughter team approached. Tom Adamczyk and his daughter Monica weren’t exhibiting; but they were sponsors. They urged me to leave the show and audition a “world‑class” private cinema they’d built under their design/build outfit, VIP Home Theaters. Their pitch: We don’t just design the room—we build the speakers, too.

---

A Detour to an Industrial Park
I agreed to take the trip when the show ended. Later, YouTuber Techno Dad Channa De Silva—who bravely agreed without knowing what he is getting into—and I were navigating Schaumburg’s maze of six‑lane arteries toward an anonymous warehouse bay. Inside, the industrial vibe evaporated: luxe millwork, carbon‑fiber trim, and three iterations of Cymatix loudspeakers—Tom’s in‑house brand—greeted us. Two towering “flagship” stacks flanked a smaller pair of KEF‑cloaked in‑walls meant to fool visitors into thinking all the sound came from the floorstanders. Clever stagecraft, if a little on‑the‑nose.

Originally, the room was to be branded “The Krell Lounge.” That plan collapsed when Krell’s owner, Rondi D’Agostino, died unexpectedly in June 2024, throwing the company’s future into limbo.

---

The Speaker That Isn’t (Yet) a Product
Cymatix’s two-channel pièce de résistance is an aluminum‑skinned, automotive‑painted modular tower. The mid/treble section is a fused pair of planar‑magnetic ribbons mounted concentrically in a 3D‑printed waveguide—novel, ambitious, and, to my ears, promising. Imaging was sharp, tone largely neutral, bass abundant.

But concept cars can lap a track long before there’s a factory to build them, and best I can tell, that’s where Cymatix sits today. I pressed for warranty terms, service strategy, and distribution; answers were thin. Best I can tell, if you place an order, they will build you some speakers using their in-house wood shop (that is also responsible for the floor you see in the pics). The craftsmanship is excellent. However, have these speakers ever seen the inside of an anechoic chamber? According to the company, "no."

VIP’s artisanal ambitions rest largely on chief speaker designer Nick Santorineos, a DIY heavyweight whose builds have dominated the Parts Express / Midwest Audiofest speaker‑design circuit: his three‑way “Stink Eyes” won the 2016 Open‑Unlimited division, “Peanuts” topped the 2017 Under‑$200 class, and the compact “Moon Drops” repeated that feat in 2019.

Santorineos openly publishes full measurement logs, crossover schematics, and CNC cabinetry guides in the Parts‑Express Project Gallery—proof of serious engineering chops and a willingness to be judged by peers. But those accolades all live in the enthusiast realm; there’s no public record of him holding an R & D post at an established loudspeaker firm or shepherding a design into mass production. Cymatix would therefore be his first attempt to translate award‑winning prototypes into a commercially supported product line—an exciting leap, but one that still has to clear the hurdles of warranty, scaling, and long‑term service.

And the narrative here, best I can tell, is the company needs more business to stay in business. That's not a guess, as Channa and I chatted with them, it became clear that they did not have a lot of funds for self-promotion.

Pro tip: If you want to be fully in control of your message, you will likely need to pay a professional to handle your PR.

---

Inside the Big Room
• The main theater is VIP’s calling card:

• 32 processed channels via a Trinnov Altitude‑32 in a 9.13.10 Atmos configuration.

• Three custom line arrays up front, a halo of in‑walls along the sides and ceiling

• Twelve conventional subwoofers plus a 30‑inch linear‑induction infrasonic subwoofer in a custom cabinet

• Kaleidescape source, Trinnov processing, Krell amplification, LED accent lighting, and seats positioned for a Seymour Screen Excellence screen that is truly cinematic in scope

VIP’s own copy touts a Discover‑Design‑Select‑Create‑Perfect workflow “where sound behaves exactly as intended.” The room nails the first half: dimensions, acoustics, and lighting are smartly executed, although the room treatments remained hidden from inquisitive journalist eyes (some home theater demo rooms backlight the false walls and ceiling to show off the speakers and treatments). Still, dialogue locked dead‑center with clarity; atmospherics hovered convincingly overhead. Trinnov’s room correction wrangled the array into a coherent bubble of sound and initially, the bass came acroos as strong, tight, tactile.

---

When the Bass Mask Slips
Things unraveled during a torture test. De Silva queued a low‑frequency sweep from his Atmos calibration disc. Instead of the clean, sub‑20 Hz pressure wave I expect from reference rooms, the infrasonic sub wheezed: turbulence, port chuffing, mechanical rattle—whatever it was, the tell‑tale signature of distortion accompanied it. If this was, as claimed, “just a fraction” of available headroom, more volume would only magnify the flaws. That said, with movie content, masking hid most sins. But a world‑class theater shouldn’t rely on psychoacoustic camouflage.

---

Racks? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Racks
VIP rejects traditional equipment racks—too hot, too resonant, argues Tom—so the amplifiers lie in neat stacks on the floor, flanked by wall‑mounted plate amps plugged into audiophile power cords.

It's fine to be against racks, and the power cords have aesthetic appeal, but stacks of gear on the floor, at least to my eyes, is amateurish.

---

Passion vs. Proof‑of‑Concept
None of this dismisses VIP’s passion or skill. The Adamczyks fabricate aluminum enclosures, machine carbon‑fiber ports, spray automotive finishes, and CNC their own waveguides—serious chops for a family shop. Their theater is genuinely fun, their speakers genuinely promising. But the gulf between an inspired prototype and a commercial product is vast:

• Productization: published specs, warranty, parts pipeline

• Certification: safety and performance testing, UL/CE, etc.

• Distribution & Support: dealers, installers, long‑term service

• Objective Validation: measurements and evaluation beyond in‑house optimism

Until those boxes are ticked, Cymatix remains a concept—no matter how impressive its demo. No matter how many compliments it gets from industry folks who visit.

You can see the Cymatix website for yourself. It's just that no matter where you click, you won't find the depth of information normally associated with commercial products. It's all slick photos and marketing speak.

---

The Road Ahead
VIP Home Theaters has ingredients many integrators lack: vertical manufacturing, design flair, and a show‑stopper demo room. What it needs now is the unglamorous infrastructure—supply chain, documentation, after‑sale support—that turns "Wow, that’s cool" into "Here’s my credit card." With Krell’s future uncertain and Barco projectors still on the wish‑list, their business model feels a bit precarious. But that's par for the course for entrepreneurs.

I sincerely hope they succeed; high‑risk passion projects sometimes become the next big thing. But the promise of “best movie‑going experience ever,” like infrasonic bass, only resonates if it remains distortion‑free under scrutiny.

If VIP and Cymatix can bring the same rigor to the back‑office as it does to design, it has a bright future. Until then, the verdict is the same: I’ll listen, I’ll report—but the story I tell won’t be the glossy brochure.

Check out Cymatix Audio by clicking here.