Team-BHP - The Home Theater thread

Without comment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankmehta (Post 1749169)

I am on the lookout for a Home theatre (in a box / custom made) within a budget of 30k for the bedroom in my new house. It's about 150 sq feet large. I have already wired the place up with the best possible wire (for a 5.1 system) and I like the Pioneer HTP RS40 but the trouble is, it comes with towers. There is no place for towers and I will have to do with satellites.
Can someone suggest me a good system with ATLEAST a 10 inch subwoofer. 12 inches would be perfect!

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankmehta (Post 2027682)

Didn't start off with 30 k.
Started off with 100k. :-(

Just legpulling. No offence meant.

I had a budget of 10K in mind; then revised it to 30-40 after following this thread; and was watching your "progress".

Guess I should stay away from here.

Edit - TV and CD player excluded; That was just for amp and speakers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankmehta (Post 2027667)

Akshay whats your budget???
PS: where in south mumbai? me too ;)

Im in Breach Candy, moving to Parel in a couple of months. Keeping a 10x12 room as the home theatre room. Its not too big im guessing 1lac give or take a few grand on the speakers and a/v receiver. Also cant decide whether a full hd projector makes sense or just to go for a lcd/plasma, thinking of 50" at least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankmehta (Post 2027852)

K. I went in for a 50" plasma, but that's with daily viewing factored in. If you have a room for a theatre, then get a Projector like the Panasonic AET4000 (something like that) and get a decent 5.1 setup from, say, Q Acoustics or Dali or Mordaunt Short.

Thanks but where should i go for all this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR (Post 2027688)

I had a budget of 10K in mind; then revised it to 30-40 after following this thread; and was watching your "progress".

Haha, the same is happening for me. I started off with a budget of around 15K, now it has been revised to end at around 30K - for speakers and a decent AVR/Amp. I am more interested in my stereo sound so hoping I can get a good deal. Some of the guys like Ampere have been helping me with ideas and info on where to buy the stuff.

But sad to say - I still have not been able to buy even the speakers. During yesterday's Independence day sales at E-Zone and Reliance Digital - came across the combination of the Harman/Kardon AVR133 and Jamo S-40HCS Home Theater speakers (Reliance) for 30K. Thought that was a sweet deal though I was a little hesitant on hearing the specs of the HK. The break up was 19K for the Jamo speakers and 10K for the HK!

In E-Zone, they had the Jamo S-40HCS Home Theater speakers for 15k! Somehow I put of the temptation to plonk down the money and pulled myself away. Thought I'd do some research on the net and then found that the HK receiver indeed does not have some good reviews. Couldn't even locate it on their site. Also, the Jamo speakers are discontinued. But these had great reviews and am sure that was a good deal.

So my search continues.....

lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveenroy (Post 2028145)

Thought that was a sweet deal though I was a little hesitant on hearing the specs of the HK. The break up was 19K for the Jamo speakers and 10K for the HK!

Wow! 10K for AVR 133? Is that not too low, Naveen?
I bought my AVR130 for 26K 6 years back! Has it come down so much?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampere (Post 2028270)

Wow! 10K for AVR 133? Is that not too low, Naveen?

Is that me? Arey baab I have no idea about model numbers and prices. Even less about home audio than car audio since when it come to home audio mine is fully DIY (from CD to amps to speakers) and that too 15 years old.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234 (Post 2027708)

Keeping a 10x12 room as the home theatre room.
thinking of 50" at least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234 (Post 2027875)

Thanks but where should i go for all this?

First stop visit Priyesh at Lakozy. It is a multi brands stop. Priyesh is the owner and a gentleman.

Amongst Mid-fi AVRs I like Rotel and Marantz and maybe Denon and Onkyo.

Entry level Speakers: PSB, KEF, Mordant Short (MS), Monitor Audio, Tannoy F1

Start with this.

There are some local speaker brands as well J&B, Norge, Lithos, etc.. are all based in Mumbai.

at the high end I'd recommend a AV Processor from say Anthem (50v), Rotel (1570) or Marantz (AV8003) and seperate amplifers for the front, center and rear. For the front say whre you want more resolution I'd biamp or triamp using dedicated bass, mid and hf amps (the mid and hf would be tube) for the center (whre vocal clarity is of prime importance) i'd consider a solid state class A and for the rears a stereo Class AB amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by navin (Post 2028348)

50" would mean a comforrtable viewing distance of about 4.5m in SD mode and 3m in HD mode. So i HD mode you'll be fine in SD mode you might find the screen a bit too large. A 40-46" LED might suit better.
I dont think it will be used for SD content too much since we have 2 other 40" Tvs and they will be in other rooms. Also im sure in a couple of months we will have many more HD channels and Bluerays are becoming popular now. Will a projector be too much for a small room like this? Ive heard full HD lcd projectors are around 1l and they give as good PQ as plasmas, is that true?

First stop visit Priyesh at Lakozy. It is a multi brands stop. Priyesh is the owner and a gentleman.
Will definitely go there soon.

Amongst Mid-fi AVRs I like Rotel and Marantz and maybe Denon and Onkyo.

Entry level Speakers: PSB, KEF, Mordant Short (MS), Monitor Audio, Tannoy F1

Start with this.

There are some local speaker brands as well J&B, Norge, Lithos, etc.. are all based in Mumbai.

at the high end I'd recommend a AV Processor from say Anthem (50v), Rotel (1570) or Marantz (AV8003) and seperate amplifers for the front, center and rear. For the front say whre you want more resolution I'd biamp or triamp using dedicated bass, mid and hf amps (the mid and hf would be tube) for the center (whre vocal clarity is of prime importance) i'd consider a solid state class A and for the rears a stereo Class AB amp.

Thanks for the reply.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampere (Post 2028270)

Wow! 10K for AVR 133? Is that not too low, Naveen?
I bought my AVR130 for 26K 6 years back! Has it come down so much?

Oh! well, think I might have made a mistake there. I assumed that was the breakup. So if E-Zone was offering the same speakers for 15K, the HK AVR-133 must have been around the same price - 15K.

Quote:

Originally Posted by navin (Post 2028348)

Is that me?

No, guess that was for me :)

But now me thinks that the deal was quite sweet. But will still wait a bit longer and then I can invest in an even better AV Receiver. Lets see....

:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by akshay1234 (Post 2028375)

Ive heard full HD lcd projectors are around 1l and they give as good PQ as plasmas, is that true?
Thanks for the reply.

Actually I have a Projector in a small room (22x12) too. But sitting too close gives those sittting close a lot of eye strain. A good HDMI 5000 lumes+ projector in India would run about 2.5L.

Look at the Epson 8050, Sony VPL40, Panasonic 7700, and others from that class.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveenroy (Post 2029065)

No, guess that was for me :)

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by navin (Post 2030336)

First things first, if a projector is properly setup it will look just like a huge LCD or plasma in terms of picture quality and experience.

well i have a panny pt ax200 projector, it is 720p, i think it is 2000 lumens, projecting approx 135 inches in a room of about 15x25 with the picture being viewed from a distance of about 19-20feet.

i can tell you one thing for sure that watching screen from even 15-16 feet is good experience with no strain on eyes or raw pixel visibility, i have set the brightness to around 45% for viewing in dark, it can go really bright if you want it to.

HD pictures do really bring the room to life, It was really awesome watching FIFA 2010 WC closing ceremony in HD.

by the way my system is:-
Proj: PT AX200 costing around 90k back in 08
AVR: Onkyo TXSR 705
LR: Klipsch RF82
C: RC52
Sur: RS52
Sub: RW12d.

Why should a video signal pass through an A/V receiver?

ALL a/v receivers mention video in and out.

Does this mean that we plugin the cable / DTH / STB to the A/V receiver, which takes the audio and routes to the speakers and sends the video to the TV?

Or does something else happen? Like cable / DTH going into the TV, and audio taken out from the TV and plugged in into the a/v receive?

Does it make any sense to buy an non-HDMI A/V receiver now?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR (Post 2051246)

Why should a video signal pass through an A/V receiver?

By passing the signal thru A/V Receiver you can can connect all your equipment (PS3, XBOX, DVD, DTH etc) to AVR and then connect your AVR to TV by only one wire.
This way you save yourself the hassles of connecting different equip. in different ways to TV then AVR.

Some AVR also have the added functionality of De-Interlacing the Video input and/or upconverting the video to HDMI and/or component signal which also means that if your TV has only 1 HDMI input you dont have to change HDMI sockets everytime for PS3, xbox etc.
It also facilitates viewing of OnScreenDisplay of AVR's Menu and settings on the Display.

ALL a/v receivers mention video in and out.

Does this mean that we plugin the cable / DTH / STB to the A/V receiver, which takes the audio and routes to the speakers and sends the video to the TV?

Yes

Or does something else happen? Like cable / DTH going into the TV, and audio taken out from the TV and plugged in into the a/v receive?

This can also be done, but as said before you will not be able to see the OnScreenDisplay of Menu/Settings of AVR on your Display, which can make things a little difficult if you want to make adjustments and changes in settings.

Does it make any sense to buy an non-HDMI A/V receiver now?

Well in my opinion you should by a 'plain jane' HDMI reciever now that there will be 3D HDMI enabled recievers in market.

Guys,

I was checking for a decent home theatre (5.1) to connect to an LCD and I found a Phillips 600rms.

The price was however, different in all stores.

E-zone - 11K
Chroma - 9K
Elec bazaar 10K

I think I will buy it from Chroma, but it is useful enough? or anyone could suggest me a better option in this budget?