Help me select a Home theater

vaibhavyagnik

Active Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2010
Messages
277
Points
43
Location
Jamnagar, Gujarat
Hello Folks,

I need advice for buying a Home theater for my living room. The Home theater will be connected to my computer and will be used 50% for movies and 50% for music. The connection will be like PC>Home theater>LED. My room is 12x10 feet. Here are my options
1. Yamaha YHT196 - 22K No freebies
2. Pioneer HTP 323 - 38K, Free Philips blu ray player BDP2180
3. Pioneer HTP RS33 - 48K, Free Philips blu ray player BDP2180

All these were auditioned at Reliance Digital and I will be getting additional 5% cash back on my card. I have checked online and as far as I have seen no one is able to beat these prices.

This were not available but might be able to order
1. Yamaha YHT 1810
2. Yamaha YHT 299
3. Onkyo HS3500

The Blu ray player also has a LAN port. The salesman was not able to exactly tell what it can be used for. I was thinking if the blu ray player can act like a network media player then I could shift my PC out of my living room.

Please advice on,
1. Value for money deals
2. Sound experience
3. Reliability
4. configurability and automatic calibration of AVR
 
Well let me reply to each of the points that you have mentioned.

1. VFM - if you can, get the YHT-299. Good AVR and decent speakers with an option to upgrade to better speakers later as the AVR can power more powerful speakers. It will also come with YPAO (Yamaha's auto calibration system).

2. Sound experience - this is personal choice as everyone has a different perspective to what sounds "good". I have the rs-33 and i find them good but not great. Auditioning would help you figure out the difference.

3. They have been complaints of Onkyo AVRs causing problems but a friend has been using the HS3300 with no issues. RD gives additional warranty for items purchased thorugh them. I got 3 year warranty for my rs-33 system for paying Rs 1500 extra. But more or less both Yamaha n Pioneer are reliable.

4. From the list you mentioned, only yht-299 has automatic calibration (HS3500 might have it as well, not sure). The level of configurability remains the same in all AVR mentioned above.

I wanted a system which could give good bass when watching movies(PC and DTH) and while playing games so i went for the RS-33. The center channel is a slight letdown is delivers a flat output. So what I am trying to say is that each HTiB has its own ups and downs and you need to decide what you want from your listening experience. If you have the money, go for the AJ series speaker set from Pioneer. It is great value for money.

Also be aware about the content you play off your PC to your HT as most content has stereo sound quality. So if you want a comprehensive setup, make sure you play 5.1 content from the PC
 
Should I prefer getting a blu ray player or should I just return it and take the discount that they offer instead? I searched the internet and could not find if the blu ray player can be used as a media player
 
Back
Top