Some things are worth the wait, especially when it comes to designing the home theater of your dreams. Such is the case with 42-year-old homeowner Brian Hill of Coto de Caza, Calif. Hill is the owner of Discount Dance Supply, one of the largest dancewear retailers in the world, but the gear junkie admits that audio and video are his passions. And even though he spent all of his newspaper delivery route earnings on a turntable at age 12, his first "adult" A/V system installation was rudimentary at best, and involved filling in the master bedroom windows of his bachelor-pad condo with drywall to create a makeshift media room. "It didn't scare away my future wife," says the married man of 19 years. His second installation was a family-room-turned-movie-room, which he had to shut down at 9 p.m. because the sound would rob his daughter of her beauty sleep. "I discovered Linn in system number two," Hill says, "with a little Linn Katan [bookshelf speaker] for my office. I couldn't believe the quality and detail coming out of this tiny speaker."

Hill's third audiovisual project involved a lot of Runco and Linn gear that he stuffed into a small outbuilding behind his home. "That room had so much equipment in it that I glowed from radiation each night when I left. It looked like what you would expect a mad scientist's room to look like when he was in college." The fourth time around, Hill got it right with his first full-blown screening room.

For all four A/V systems, Hill hired Genesis Home Audio & Video in Irvine, Calif. "I've known Genesis for 20 years and I've always been very happy with their work. And they've been more than happy to nurture my unhealthy quest for audiovisual nirvana," says the Linn addict, adding that he also adores Runco products. "This time, I wanted to see what we could do to surround the room around these two manufacturers' products."

Of course, there was a catch: Hill's interior designer of choice, Lezlie Trujillo, was working on another project. So he patiently waited about four months for her schedule to clear. "Lezlie wanted to interview the family to see if she wanted the job," Hill says. "She doesn't do that many jobs, so she wanted to be sure she felt good about who she was working for."

The carriage house—home of Hill's new private screening room—is nestled on the back side of his 5-acre property. To reach "Hilltop Heaven," one must ascend 93 steps from the home's back door, or take the golf cart up the driveway as Hill often does. The two-bedroom structure gave the team about 1,200 square feet to work with. Hill's requirements included a comfortable look that was attractive for the family, including the kids. But the interior design could not sacrifice sound quality. "I gave Lezlie a lot of leeway," Hill says, "but I was clear about not having a stuffy design or a box theater."

While meeting with Hill at the 2005 CES show in Las Vegas, Trujillo found her design inspiration: the sculptural, cherry-wood-wrapped Linn speakers that Hill was in love with. "They have a beautiful teardrop shape—a geometry of their own," says Trujillo. That brief tête-à-tête was the only conversation she had with Hill about materials or colors. "I knew the speakers would be front and foremost in my design," she says. "I made the room's materials play off those geometric shapes."

After filling in the carriage house's windows with drywall to darken the space, Trujillo was confronted with how to treat two huge sidewalls—long, blank canvases that screamed for detail. She decided to cover the walls in Shedua wood veneers, a rich wood that boats a tight, vertical grain and lends a touch of movement to the flat plane. Next she reproduced the speaker's main geometric shapes—ovals and marquises—into cutouts along the sidewalls, and backlit each one for visual interest. "The shapes are very interactive," Trujillo says. "Those walls come to life with the dimming of the theater lights." Each cutout is backed with acoustical material. When the movie starts to play, light dances around the perimeter of the geometric piece. The result is a warm, glowing effect. "Instead of sticking sconces on the wall, I made the wall work as its own source of light," Trujillo says.

Soft hues of butterscotch and chocolate sweeten the space. The front row of reclining Fortress Matinee chairs, customized with wide arms so candy and the Crestron touchscreen can be tucked into the storage space below, is bathed in a golden leather. The carpeting, theater curtain and draperies are a smooth dark brown. The rear row of seating, slightly elevated on a platform, is the "cuddle up" row with a custom 124-inch-long and 39-inch-deep sofa in a multicolor chenille. The bar accommodates several guests at its smoked-glass and brushed-chrome table with coffee-colored leather bar stools. Glass amber lighting elements with oil-rubbed bronze hardware add a touch of sculpture to the space. The dropped, radiused ceiling soffit buffed in a bronze-gold finish adds further continuity.

While the interior elements came together smoothly, the custom installation side of the project hit a few speed bumps: The carriage house wasn't wired with enough power to accommodate the Linn and Runco products, and the audiovisual system required 120 extra amps of power and 5,500 feet of juiced-up cables, which required a lot of ditchdigging.

The audio selection, though, was a no-brainer: It was Linn all the way. "When Brian sold his previous residence, the buyer heard his Linn Komri speaker system and wanted to buy it with the house," says Tom Liebich, Genesis' project manager. "So when the electronics went away, he bought the new Linn system (the Artikulat System 350A for the front and the rear speakers, an Artikulat 340A center speaker and four Artikulat 345 subs)." Using the same powered speakers—at $43,000 each—for the front and rear speakers is a little unusual, Liebich continues. "He's a true performance guy and wanted a balanced system all around. This room is set up for performance."

In a perfect audio world, Liebich adds, a room should have five speakers positioned in a circular layout. "We created the perfect scenario here," he says, adding that they didn't use side speakers in this installation in order to maintain the room's open feel. The amps are tucked within the speakers—a move toward better sound and more efficient design by Linn.

As a result, the equipment rack is modest. Tucked into a bank of custom cabinetry topped with a granite niche, the equipment is allowed to shine—from Linn's Sondek CD12 high-end CD player to the Klimax Kontrol preamplifier. "We wanted to put those two jewels out," Liebich says.

"This is arguably one of the best-ever Linn installations," says Rikke Ravenborg, vice president of marketing for Linn. "The owner wanted an absolute 'no compromise' solution for two-channel audio and multichannel audio/video, and he wanted the front and rear Linn Artikulat 350A integrated and the Aktiv loudspeakers to be front and foremost. The result is a high-performance A/V system with a warm environment."

And Hill's feelings about the theater? "It's the most used room in the house," he says, adding that Sunday nights are family movie night, Tuesday night is girls' TV night, and Wednesday night is boys' movie night. "It's the best-looking room I've ever had. Plus the system is super-easy to use. My daughter is better at using it than I am. And the kids negotiate their way up there whenever they can. So I use it as a tool to make them behave!"