Which Home theater system?

[RX135]

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

RX135, Hometheater is no good for listening to music.
It's better you decide before you buy whether your priority is music or movies.

Is it? I'm not too sure about that. I thought a 2 channel system is better when it comes to audio.

Ye to ekdam kahaani mein twist aa gaya. Help, help, help! SOS. Any reasons why Hi-Fi is better than HT?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by navin

Dont bother about 7.1. Few movies have 7.1 information. 5.1 or 6.1 is adequate.

Actually there is no 7.1 information, it simply doesn't exist. The 6.1 formats like DTS-DS Discrete or Dolby Digital Surround EX has a back surround channel which is matrix encoded to regular 5.1 channel tracks and is only extracted by A/V receivers that can read the 6th channel and only requires one back surround channel, hence the name 6.1 system. While THX (7.1) guidelines insists on playing this back-surround channel through two separate dipole surround speakers. The real difference between 6.1 and 7.1 is that 7.1 system plays the same back surround channel through two speakers.

[muni]

Thats what ppl say and i guess its true to an extent.

But in your home theater system..i mean in an AV reciever you have a 2 channel stereo mode ( am talking frm my listening experience frm my harman kardon avr5500 and denon AVR2808), it sounds pretty gud. in 2 channel mode you have a lot of power at ur disposal and in 5.1 channel mode the power gets distributed..thats what the spec says..

How are the 2 channel systems superior than the 5.1, 6.1 and the 7.1 channel ones.

2 channel stero amplifiers do sound better..have heard them but is the gap really that wide..


Navin or Sam or Vivek or.. if they are reading can answer it better i guess.


Hurry Home

[navin]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Is it? I'm not too sure about that. I thought a 2 channel system is better when it comes to audio. My mistake? Lack of knowledge? Audio gurus..please help this old man!!

From another old man...

Disclaimer: Every system is built to a price point and for a particualr target market. My comments below are very general and there are plenty of exceptions that defy this rule.

Given that almost every audio system is built to a price point prices are almost always a function of raw material. Better raw material in the hands of the same engineering will produce better results.

That said....

The demands for Home Theater and CRITICAL stereo listenting are very different. Manufacturers hence have treated this as 2 seperate marktets. Home Theater prefers (you can even say requires) an exciting sound that is a bit over the top. The footsteps of the Tyranosaurus in Jurrasic Park for example or the sound of rockets and helicopters in True Lies for example put special demands on the audio chain. Serious audio listening on the other hand puts demands that require excellent tonal and time-space accuracy over as large a portion on the audio spectrum as possible.

If a system was designed to do both it would be affordable by very few.

As a "consultant" to many of my friends the first thing i try to do is to empathise with THEIR needs, THEIR application, THEIR budget, and THEIR enviroment. This is easier said than done :-). I consider myself an an audio crazy nut capable of DIYing. My friends need not want to expend that effort, money, time, or energy or allocate the same space to an audio or home theater system.

Beside their phsyiological needs one has to take cognisance of their psychology as well. Some will swear by Bose or Sony or want lights and a busy facade. I have one friend who insists all his gadgets be branded "LG" (this includes fridge, washing machine, TV, and stereo system).

Obviously a $1000 2 channel system should/could sound better than a $1000 5.1 channel system. But will a $1000 2 channel system sound better than $3000 5 channel 5.1 system? I dont know about that either. The $1000 2 channel system could do a better job with music while the $3000 5.1 system might not produce music as well but do a better job with a movie.

This does not mean one system will be unlistenable when pressed into doing something it was not designed to do it only means that given the different demands of movies and music audio designers have to pick a set of compromises and work around that. What we as users have to do is find a system that is comporomised in areas we deem not so important for ourselves.

[navin]

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

RX135, Hometheater is no good for listening to music...

That is a strong statement. However one can generalise that a system at any particular price point designed to reproduce movies will sound a bit over blown when reproducing music.

[bigman]

If anyone is on a tight budget then they may want to check out the new Samsung all in one amp/dvd combos. They are feature packed including DivX playback. They have the ability to act as a USB host so you can hook your external USB HD to the system and view jpegs or listen to music (MP3 or WMA). It would have been good if they had included the ability to watch DivX from the HD.

[navin]

i too have heard good things about these samsung machines from audiophile nonetheless.

[RX135]

Small update! I checked out Sony HTiB at 16.5K and a Onkyo 5.1 setup at 40K without DVD player. Onkyo setup was 5.1 speakers (130x5 and 100x1 RMS) at 20K and 20K Amp.

From a my (a layman's) perspective, Onkyo setup was superior than Sony, but I am not sure how much and does that justify the cost. But it was really good. I am yet to checkout Samsung as someone mentioned. Cost wise it should be the cheapest one at ~13K. I travelled all the way to other part of city to JBL showroom in Koregaon park, but it was closed :( Anyway, I'll give it another shot. Incidently, I could see from outside, mainly Warfdale speakers in this JBL showroom. May be I hit the wrong place.

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by RX135

From a my (a layman's) perspective, Onkyo setup was superior than Sony, but I am not sure how much and does that justify the cost.

RX, you're getting there. Sony is a janta brand world wide and has only some sort of pole position in India. This comment is not from my hat but I've worked for the brand Sony for some time.

Onkyo, on the other hand, does deliver better quality BUT I do have some question about their QC.

[RX135]

Thanks! I checked out Samsung as someone suggested earlier. It was decent but not really as good as Sony. I also checked out Phillips and even with my prejudice against it, it sounded good. All are sub 20K.

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by RX135

Thanks! I checked out Samsung as someone suggested earlier. It was decent but not really as good as Sony. I also checked out Phillips and even with my prejudice against it, it sounded good. All are sub 20K.

Since you are in the evaluation mode, go check out the Sonodyne options too.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by shuvc

Since you are in the evaluation mode, go check out the Sonodyne options too.

I am not able to locate Sonodyne show room in Pune :-( I am almost decided on going for Wega 29" and Sony HTiB system. I checked out Phillips, Samsung, Onkyo and Sony so far. I checked with Yamaha authorised dealer but he didnt have any for demo.

[mohit]

How did I forget this link for Pune -Sound And Vision

Its on East Street near to the earstwhile Panasonic showroom.

[jkdas]

some companys provide wireless rear speakers. they use bluetooth for communication ( in case of samsung). i gues these samsung ones cost 35k.

so go wireless stuff if you dont want wires runnign around.

[2fast4u]

i dont know if this is available in India but seen one of friends audio setup where in both movies sound and audio music was simply exceptional.

He has his system connected to a Marantz Amp and connected to B&W speakers.

if u need more info i will get it details from him.