Team-BHP - The Home Theater thread

@PPR now you are giving me a fright!

I bought the the basic AVR130 from FX 6 years back Walton Road in Bangalore) and till date it has not given me any issue. One lesson I learnt in between was when my DVD players stopped working. Further probing by the Sony person revealed that, the power management unit was gone. Thats when I realized, its very-very important to have a stabilizer and surge protector for all these high end equipment. I immediately bought one.

Check if you power module has gone off. Thats the first thing that can get effected.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ppr (Post 2135238)

Hi

I am sure all of us are aware of the huge difference in prices of home theatre (and other electronic equipment) between the gray market and that bought through the official dealers.
......
I have seen people telling us not to buy Pioneer and Marantz (even in this forum, for ICE also) as they do not have an official presence here. Does having an official presence matter? For Higher end HT equipment, the mark-ups are as much as 150% over buying something abroad. In the case of Denon, it is 100% over the gray market in India itself. Might as well take a chance on the gray market stuff, at least that dealer does not promise something he cannot do!

Just my 2c. Had to get it off my chest!

.....

I kind of tend to agree with that. I've my fare share of trouble when I bought my AVR. It's a Denon and bought officially with Bill and Warranty. But I didn't know that time that the warranty will almost be useless as the dealer doesn't have a service center in Bangalore. The dealer in question is KEI and not ProFx. I called/mailed them many times as my AVR needs an firmware upgrade and it was within warranty period but I never received any kind of help from them except some false assurances when I created a thread about it in an av forum. But that's all I get in the name of after sales service. I would've been better off buying from the grey market and atleast I would've known that I'm on my own. But I would've left some money to repair the system later if there was any issue(diff was around 15k+ between grey and with bill). After Sales Service
is something still many companies need to learn in India. Luckily my issue was not a grave one (and it's an intermittent issue) and there is a workaround which i found on my own by chance. But I shudder to think what will happen in case of a major issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaushik_s (Post 2136160)

Is it possible to get this stuff in the grey market?
As far as I know One gets these only thro authorized importers and distributers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fillmore (Post 2136038)

You can also checkout Jamo , Sonodyne (value for money) , Warfedale.
(DO NOT get sucked in by a Bose demo .. give it a skip ;-) )

thansk fillmore. I am not going in for Bose, as its too expensive. Let me check the other brands that you have given. Any idea where in chennai, i can check Waferdale.

Does Onkyo and Yamaha have a proper service support in chennai?

Quote:

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay (Post 2136098)

Do you have DTS demo DVD? You can audition such a system with DTS demo DVD and decide for yourself. This DVD has scenes from multiple movies that use 5.1 track.

Thanks Netfreak. So i would have to buy a 5.1 either as a package or as individual components.

I dont' have the DTS Demo DVD,where can i buy that. Does any torrent site have it? :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikoneer (Post 2136822)

Not sure about Chennai. I googled and found this

GRAND CINEMA (for Wharfedale, Vanguard, DAC)
No.118 (Old no.333), First Floor, Arcot Road,
Kodambakkam, Chennai - 600024.
Tel: (044) 43587565 / 75, 9841036657, 9884415122.

I am 100% sure Onkyo has support in chennai.

A Busy day it was, today. Been to Onkyo, Yamaha and Whaferdale dealers, had some back to back auditions and it was all very exciting.

Onkyo India:
Met with Mr. JaiGanesh, a very enthsiastic and friendly guy, showed me all the systems and was very good. office was quite shabby, not like a one that deals with international products.
Audition Room was ok, I had the Audition of Onkyo 5300 package and Amp+728 speakers combo, somehow Onkyo sound quality was not that great.

Yamaha Square:
A superb showroom with lots of musial equipments, a musical lover would fall head over heels in this showroom. just excellent. Everything was neat and orderly and very clean.
The Audition room was very good. We had two system that got played, A Piano Series (quite expensive) and a 7900 series on a RX-v467 receiver. I liked the 7900 series much better. Again, each part has to be purchased separately. Am considering this in my list.

Grand Cinema - Whaferdale Showroom:
This place is in Kodambakkam and i dd not have much hopes when i went here. It is run buy Mr. Mohideen, a very enthusiasitc co-operative man, who took me thru all the models.
This is the only place, where they got all the models auditioned for me without showing any signs of fatigue and irritation. I was never told that it is not setup or not possible etc. Whatever model i wanted to hear, they had auditioned. Kudos to mohideen and his team. I would recommend his shop to anyone who wants to consider whaferdale systems. He has lots of other brands as well (Energy, Mirage etc)
Whaferdale experience was mind blowing, it was too good and is on the top of my list.

I have the final list now. please provide me your inputs and ideas.

Onkyo HT-S9300 THX - Rs 75000. I did not audition this model, but i am might consider, since its certified by THX and the specs are much better and higher. wires: rs 50/metre
Yamaha - AV Receiver - RX-V467 Rs 26500, NS - 8900 Tower speakers - Rs 17000, NS-P8900 Center and Rear speakers - Rs 4000, Sub YST-SW315 Rs 15000(170W) or SW515 Rs 26000 (250W)
WhaferDale Diamond 9.5 - Tower Rs 28000, 9 CM - Center- Rs 103950, 10-DFS - Rear - Rs 11150, Sub-SW150 Rs 19500, or 10MX Rs 28000. Receiver - Denon - AVR 1611 - Rs 30000, AVR 1911 Rs 42500. 14 Gaude speaker wires at Rs 90/meter

Whaferdale is my first choice. Please let me know if this is worth the price and a good model. Also, has anyone dealt with the dealer. Are there any other whaferdale dealers in chennai. How is the after sale service for these, the guy said there are authorised dealers

Is Yamaha/Onkyo a good choice as well?

Please provide your inputs. just want to ensure that the products are worth the price. Should i negotiate further?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikoneer (Post 2139198)

A Busy day it was, today. Been to Onkyo,

WhaferDale Diamond 9.5 - Tower Rs 28000, 9 CM - Center- Rs 103950, 10-DFS - Rear - Rs 11150, Sub-SW150 Rs 19500, or 10MX Rs 28000. Receiver - Denon - AVR 1611 - Rs 30000, AVR 1911 Rs 42500. 14 Gaude speaker wires at Rs 90/meter

I too like the wharfedale 9.5 and SW150 combo. 9.2 and the sw150 will also be a great combination I feel. you can try to audition that too, if you are open to bookshelves. Coming to prices, I think you should bargain further. They have quoted you only 10% for Denon. You will get 15% with a little bargaining. Again for the spearkers, you will get between 10-15% from the initial price. In bangalore 9.5 goes for around 26K. Even for yamaha 667, I got a quote of 38K from the inital 45K...

Hope this helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kruzader (Post 2139376)

Hey Kruze.. Thanks. It surely helps.
The rates i have given are discounted rates from the list price. seems to be much higher at this place, will bargain further once i decide.

i listened to 9.5 also, and it was very good at least 85% to what 10.6 was.

Wharefdale rocks compared to other brands that i auditioned.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kruzader (Post 2139376)

Hi!
Kruzader, are the discounts with Bill +warranty?
In Pune I am quoted 45k for denon 1911 and 65k for JBL es 100,Jamo concert 607- 65k. All without discounts.
With a little bargaining Denon 1911 should be available for say 41k and the JBL ES 100 towers for 58k.

I will give it a shot.
Cheers,
Naj