Team-BHP > Shifting gears > Gadgets, Computers & Software


Reply
  Search this Thread
1,649,689 views
Old 17th January 2017, 11:46   #2896
Newbie
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Navi Mumbai
Posts: 14
Thanked: 7 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandeepmohan View Post
...AV receivers too have suffered from failing HDMI boards...
Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
My Yamaha receiver's hdmi board has gone kaput for the output ...
Guess it's the season when AVR are going kaput.

I'm having to deal with a similar on my Onkyo THX SR-608. The unit is 6+ years old, and I got it from the US, and am using it with a step down transformer. I powered it on after a long period (was away), to find that I have no sound output, whatsoever. It switches between the inputs without any issues, but absolutely no audio output. Some light googling indicates that this is an issue with the HDMI boards on Onkyo AVRs from that era.

Any tips on technicians/engineers who will be able to help fix this? I'm in Navi Mumbai, BTW. Thanks!
rajneeshmakhija is offline  
Old 22nd January 2017, 12:38   #2897
BHPian
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Chennai
Posts: 38
Thanked: 30 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Hi Friends,

Considering the space and TV i have, I am looking to buy a soundbar, specifically Yamaha YAS 306. I reaslly loved the sound from it.
It costs 36K from authorised dealer. Yesterday in amazon sale, I found it for 34k with 1750 additional cash back. So effectively 3750 saving from authorised dealer.
Is it ok to go ahead and buy from amazon (seller is amazon fullfiled)?
Also, I see a bose cinemate 15 soundbar in snapdeal for 50.5k with 2k discount thrown in. Also it has option of interest free EMI.
The advantage bose has over Yamaha is
1. Smaller than Yamaha
2. Universal remote
3. Dedicated sub woofer

I haven't had a chance to get demo of the cinemate 15. But during review of Yamaha, i felt that dedicated sub in not necessary for Yamaha (sub can be added if required). The bass it produces is sufficient for the use I have.

Give your inputs on which one to consider.

Barath
barathvajan is offline  
Old 22nd January 2017, 19:56   #2898
Senior - BHPian
 
deathwalkr's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Trivandrum
Posts: 1,277
Thanked: 4,081 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

do check out the philips fidelio b5 as well
deathwalkr is offline  
Old 22nd January 2017, 23:15   #2899
BHPian
 
diyguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Chennai
Posts: 517
Thanked: 578 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by barathvajan View Post
I am looking to buy a soundbar, specifically Yamaha YAS 306.
Also, I see a bose cinemate 15 soundbar in snapdeal for 50.5k with 2k discount thrown in.
i have two bose cinemate series II at home, not soundbars but stereo speakers as well as a Yamaha receiver setup in 5.1 config in my bedroom. Both brands are good but I favor the bose for the simplicity and quality of sound. Am not an audiophile and I do not have a fine discerning ear but am very happy with the bose.
diyguy is offline  
Old 23rd January 2017, 10:03   #2900
Team-BHP Support
 
vb-saan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: S'pore/Thrissur
Posts: 7,249
Thanked: 12,317 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by barathvajan View Post
Give your inputs on which one to consider.
I recently got a Pioneer SBX-N700 soundbar, and found it quite nice for its price. Not sure if it’s available in India.
vb-saan is offline  
Old 23rd January 2017, 10:31   #2901
Senior - BHPian
 
sandeepmohan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Wellington
Posts: 3,129
Thanked: 5,426 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by rajneeshmakhija View Post
It switches between the inputs without any issues, but absolutely no audio output.
Yupp; that does sound like the series that suffered from problems.

Can you check if the analogue inputs work? Like AUX/Video RCA inputs, etc (TV/CD, PC, GAME, CBL/SAT). My guess is they won't considering they are all governed by digital input switching.
sandeepmohan is offline  
Old 23rd January 2017, 21:05   #2902
BHPian
 
JMaruru's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BLR/EWR
Posts: 778
Thanked: 364 Times
Re: Dual Voltage AVR's in US?

Are there any good HT AVR's sold in US, which support dual voltage? As there is significant price difference between India and US prices would like to carry back one.

Please advise.
JMaruru is offline  
Old 23rd January 2017, 22:29   #2903
BHPian
 
diyguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Chennai
Posts: 517
Thanked: 578 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by JMaruru View Post
Are there any good HT AVR's sold in US, which support dual voltage?
Bose will work. My Yamaha is single voltage. I purchased both bose and Yamaha from the US.
diyguy is offline  
Old 23rd January 2017, 23:16   #2904
BHPian
 
JMaruru's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: BLR/EWR
Posts: 778
Thanked: 364 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Bose will work. My Yamaha is single voltage. I purchased both bose and Yamaha from the US.
Any particular models you have in mind?
JMaruru is offline  
Old 23rd January 2017, 23:31   #2905
BHPian
 
diyguy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Chennai
Posts: 517
Thanked: 578 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by JMaruru View Post
Any particular models you have in mind?
i imagine every bose HT will satisfy your dual voltage requirement. A 110v unit is good too as my Yamaha avr RX-A810 works just fine with a 1kv step down.
diyguy is offline  
Old 25th January 2017, 17:55   #2906
Senior - BHPian
 
S_U_N's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Oslo
Posts: 1,809
Thanked: 417 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

I had trouble finding a dealer for demo of Philips Fidelio B5. So, I tweeted Philips and I got a very quick response (that too on Sunday evening). The next morning, a manager called me and offered to arrange for a demo.
On Tuesday, I had a demo lasting more than 90 minutes at my home with the manager and a technician. It was a very positive experience in interacting with the team. Full marks to Gibson - the company handling the audio division for Philips.

Moving on to the product itself.
The product B5 is an innovative and well designed wirefree solution. The main selling point is the detachable speakers which can act as surround sound speakers (and also as standalone bluetooth speakers).
After some initiate struggle in getting things running and a few reboots with the various gadgets, the audio started playing.

The soundbar is quite tall and obstructs the IR sensor on my TV and there is no IR blaster (or whatever technology that repeats the signal). So, this was going to be a problem.

Tested audio quality via Bluetooth with FLAC files and normal MP3
Tested DTS 5.1 channel sound (movie Captain America) for surround sound experience
Tested DTS 5.1 channel sound (Hindi movie) for surround sound experience
Tested YouTube directly from TV's inbuilt app (again to see if there is any surround sound experience).


Even at full volume 46, the sound does not crack - if you know what I mean.
However it starts sounding a bit unnatural at high volumes. It sounds better by reducing the Treble to around -1 or 0 on a scale from -6 to +6.
The bass is pretty OK and I found it was better to keep it around +2.

There are music, voice and movie modes where the product does some equilizer settings automatically in the background. There is no other equilizer setting available to end users other than the modes specified.

During music playback, I felt that the sound was good, but perhaps missing something. I am not an audiophile, but I had a feeling that something was missing.

During movie playback, I felt that the surround sound effect was a bit disappointing.
I have not tested with BluRays, since I do not have any, but I have high quality movie content (3.5 GB and above per movie) with high bitrate. My media center is my Raspberry Pi 3.

I really did not get the experience that I was looking for with the surround sound.

So, overall a tad disappointed.

At Rs. 49000 directly from the company, I believe I should get a better sound output.

Of course, for those who really want to see no wires hanging around, with a bit of a compromise on the sound quality, this might be a great option and perhaps the only option in Indian market?

Last edited by S_U_N : 25th January 2017 at 17:57.
S_U_N is offline  
Old 25th January 2017, 19:12   #2907
Senior - BHPian
 
deathwalkr's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Trivandrum
Posts: 1,277
Thanked: 4,081 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

@49k it never is a good buy considering the HT options you can set up at that sort of budget.

Hopefully the prices do come a bit so that more people can buy this amazing soundbar.

And i echo your opinion on music playback. Even FLACs don't sound all that good. But bluray concerts are amazing

Listening to fear of the dark by iron maiden and feeling the crowd sing along in surround mode makes you feel you are right there
deathwalkr is offline  
Old 27th January 2017, 14:08   #2908
Distinguished - BHPian
 
Rajeevraj's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Bangalore
Posts: 4,604
Thanked: 17,633 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by rajneeshmakhija View Post
I'm having to deal with a similar on my Onkyo THX SR-608. The unit is 6+ years old, and I got it from the US, and am using it with a step down transformer. I powered it on after a long period (was away), to find that I have no sound output, whatsoever. It switches between the inputs without any issues, but absolutely no audio output. Some light googling indicates that this is an issue with the HDMI boards on Onkyo AVRs from that era.

Any tips on technicians/engineers who will be able to help fix this? I'm in Navi Mumbai, BTW. Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandeepmohan View Post
Yupp; that does sound like the series that suffered from problems.

Can you check if the analogue inputs work? Like AUX/Video RCA inputs, etc (TV/CD, PC, GAME, CBL/SAT). My guess is they won't considering they are all governed by digital input switching.

I have the same problem with the Onkyo Receiver that my sister got from Dubai. I carried it from Kerala to Bangalore in the hope of fixing it. No sound output from any of the input modes.

Was planning to take it to the Onkyo Service Center. But they are not picking up the phone and I heard some not so nice reviews about them.

Any other recommendations in Bangalore for Receiver issues? Also, in this case, is the HDMI board replacement the only option? How much would such a replacement cost?
Rajeevraj is offline  
Old 27th January 2017, 15:31   #2909
NPV
Distinguished - BHPian
 
NPV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Namma Bengaluru
Posts: 7,206
Thanked: 10,232 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rajeevraj View Post
Any other recommendations in Bangalore for Receiver issues? Also, in this case, is the HDMI board replacement the only option? How much would such a replacement cost?
HDMI boards going kaput in Onkyo Receivers is quite common now and can cost about 10k rupees (If I remember correctly, this is the amount that a friend mentioned).

Why not try the Onkyo service center in Indiranagar ? I had a recent receiver service experience that was surprisingly good despite all the not-so-good feedback on various sites.
NPV is offline  
Old 28th January 2017, 13:02   #2910
BHPian
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Chennai
Posts: 38
Thanked: 30 Times
Re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by S_U_N View Post
I had trouble finding a dealer for demo of Philips Fidelio B5. So, I tweeted Philips and I got a very quick response (that too on Sunday evening). The next morning, a manager called me and offered to arrange for a demo.


At Rs. 49000 directly from the company, I believe I should get a better sound output.

Of course, for those who really want to see no wires hanging around, with a bit of a compromise on the sound quality, this might be a great option and perhaps the only option in Indian market?
Hi
I feel 49K is bit too much. I had auditioned the same soundbar in Viveks chennai and they are offering it to me for 43k (republic day offer). Still i felt the sound quality is not worth the money.
For the price you can try the Bose Cinemate 15 (50k). In my opinion, that should have better quality sound (haven't listened though).
You can alternatively try the Yamaha YAS 306. I liked the sound better. Costs 34 to 36k. You can throw in a sub later for extra punch.
Have nice listening.
Barath
barathvajan is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks