May always marks the Electronic House annual Home of the Year Awards unveiling. But before we get to that next week, we wanted to give you a look back at some of our favorites from last year, so we’re rounding them up for the end of April.

Today we’re taking a look at the Best Home Theaters in the $25,000 and under category. As you can see in the slideshow, these are some pretty worthy winners and good examples of what can be done on a relatively small budget (and if you’re thinking $25K is still a lot, remember that all of those pieces of equipment, speakers, projector and screen can add up in a hurry).

We’re also including some runners-up, because we could only award three theaters but plenty of others deserve recognition.

Click here to view the Best Home Theaters $25,000 and under from Home of the Year 2009. Slides also contain links back to the original story posting, in case you missed it the first time around.

Arlen Schweiger - Editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen writes about home technology installations and product news and reviews for electronichouse.com and Electronic House magazine.