I have been enthusiastic about tech and gadgets since my childhood. A couple of years ago, for the first time I thought about getting a home theater. However, I soon had to move from Chennai to Mumbai and I dropped the idea for a while. Earlier in August this year, I once again started thinking about it. Initially I didn't want to spend too much, hence set my budget at 20-25k. I thought of getting an active 2.1 speaker system like an Edifier R1855DB or M-Audio AV32.1. But over the course of my research, my attention turned toward a 5.1 system instead.
Like many others on a tight budget, I too started loooking at HTiBs, Yamaha YHT-1840 being the first choice. I thought there would be other options in this range as well, hence I set my budget at 30-35k. However, I soon found that the availability was pretty poor and the HTiB itself wasn't a great choice either, especially from a long term perspective. Then I moved on to the thought of getting a proper HT, an AVR and a 5.1 package.
I thought about getting an AVR for 25k and speakers for 20k. Hence I increased my budget to 45-50k. Then I started looking around and saw that there were hardly any AVRs below 30k, cheapest being Denon X250BT, available at some places for 28-30k. I also failed to find any speaker packages below 30k, most of them were also out of stock. Meanwhile I kept reading that offline prices might be lower. Hence I started looking for stores to check out.
This is where things started to get frustrating. When I contacted stores and told them my budget, they immediately told me to get something for Rs. 80k and that nothing was available below that price. Most of them didn't show any interest after hearing my budget. A couple of them said they'd call back with options, but then didn't bother responding later. At this point I realised 50k might not be enough after all and increased my budget to 60k, deciding that this is the max I am going to spend on the audio experience. I also decided that if at all it is entirely not possible to get full HT in this budget, then I'll just build it part by part, starting with AVR+FCR.
I contacted one person with whom I had spoken to 2 years ago. He'd said he has some contacts for speaker & AVR sellers. He gave me the number of Mr. Jignesh Nishar who has a demo room in Jogeshwari. Mr. Nishar was more candid compared to other sellers, told me that while it's difficult to get full HT at 60k, he'll try his best to give me whatever options he can, including open box options if available. He then gave me a demo of Taga Azure B-40 and Cambridge Audio Minx Min22. I really liked the Taga and found the CA one to be unnecessarily expensive. I was leaning towards the Taga, which would cost me 18k for a total of 45k along with VSX-330 which costs 27k. This would leave me 15k for center and surrounds, postponing the sub for later. He also offered a Tannoy center+surrounds for 13k. He also had a Mission M-cube 5.1 set for 28k, of which he told me he would give a demo next week. This option really excited me as I would get a full HT for 55k. So I waited for next week.
Meanwhile, I looked at local options and found DNM Audio 5.1 set for around 22k. While these sounded pretty decent, they did not compare well to the Taga. The other problem with this set was the lack of any sort of warranty. So last Saturday I finally returned to Mr. Nishar's demo room to audition the Mission speakers. While I liked the set overall, the bass seemed considerably low especially in comparison to the DNM Audio set. The sound also didn't impress me much. I also evaluated a Tannoy opened box set (HTS 201) for 43k. Wasn't impressed with this either, and it was out of my budget as well. So I just let it go.
In the end, I realised one thing. While it is highly advisable to audition speakers to get a taste of what they sound like, it's really difficult for an inexperienced listener to judge the differences in sound. Taga Harmody Azure B-40 was the first pair I listened to, and I just fell in love with it so much that I couldn't like any other speaker set. I finally ended up buying a pair of the B-40s and went with Azure C-40 for the center channel.
I've been listening to this setup for a couple of days. The sound is just mesmerizing. And it will only improve as the speakers burn-in. I don't miss a sub-woofer very much as the B-40 has 6.5" woofers. I still do have a plan to add a sub later, as soon as I figure out how to setup my furniture for it. I have also got the DNM Tango 1 satellite speakers for surrounds, yet to plug it in though. These were cheap and helped me complete my setup without creating another major hole in my pocket. Along with the wires and the installation, it's likely to cost somewhere around 5.5k overall.
This post is just about recounting my journey of getting a home theater system. It's not about the listening experience. I'll be making another post with my impressions of the speakers once I have them fully setup and have listened to them for a while.
Like many others on a tight budget, I too started loooking at HTiBs, Yamaha YHT-1840 being the first choice. I thought there would be other options in this range as well, hence I set my budget at 30-35k. However, I soon found that the availability was pretty poor and the HTiB itself wasn't a great choice either, especially from a long term perspective. Then I moved on to the thought of getting a proper HT, an AVR and a 5.1 package.
I thought about getting an AVR for 25k and speakers for 20k. Hence I increased my budget to 45-50k. Then I started looking around and saw that there were hardly any AVRs below 30k, cheapest being Denon X250BT, available at some places for 28-30k. I also failed to find any speaker packages below 30k, most of them were also out of stock. Meanwhile I kept reading that offline prices might be lower. Hence I started looking for stores to check out.
This is where things started to get frustrating. When I contacted stores and told them my budget, they immediately told me to get something for Rs. 80k and that nothing was available below that price. Most of them didn't show any interest after hearing my budget. A couple of them said they'd call back with options, but then didn't bother responding later. At this point I realised 50k might not be enough after all and increased my budget to 60k, deciding that this is the max I am going to spend on the audio experience. I also decided that if at all it is entirely not possible to get full HT in this budget, then I'll just build it part by part, starting with AVR+FCR.
I contacted one person with whom I had spoken to 2 years ago. He'd said he has some contacts for speaker & AVR sellers. He gave me the number of Mr. Jignesh Nishar who has a demo room in Jogeshwari. Mr. Nishar was more candid compared to other sellers, told me that while it's difficult to get full HT at 60k, he'll try his best to give me whatever options he can, including open box options if available. He then gave me a demo of Taga Azure B-40 and Cambridge Audio Minx Min22. I really liked the Taga and found the CA one to be unnecessarily expensive. I was leaning towards the Taga, which would cost me 18k for a total of 45k along with VSX-330 which costs 27k. This would leave me 15k for center and surrounds, postponing the sub for later. He also offered a Tannoy center+surrounds for 13k. He also had a Mission M-cube 5.1 set for 28k, of which he told me he would give a demo next week. This option really excited me as I would get a full HT for 55k. So I waited for next week.
Meanwhile, I looked at local options and found DNM Audio 5.1 set for around 22k. While these sounded pretty decent, they did not compare well to the Taga. The other problem with this set was the lack of any sort of warranty. So last Saturday I finally returned to Mr. Nishar's demo room to audition the Mission speakers. While I liked the set overall, the bass seemed considerably low especially in comparison to the DNM Audio set. The sound also didn't impress me much. I also evaluated a Tannoy opened box set (HTS 201) for 43k. Wasn't impressed with this either, and it was out of my budget as well. So I just let it go.
In the end, I realised one thing. While it is highly advisable to audition speakers to get a taste of what they sound like, it's really difficult for an inexperienced listener to judge the differences in sound. Taga Harmody Azure B-40 was the first pair I listened to, and I just fell in love with it so much that I couldn't like any other speaker set. I finally ended up buying a pair of the B-40s and went with Azure C-40 for the center channel.
I've been listening to this setup for a couple of days. The sound is just mesmerizing. And it will only improve as the speakers burn-in. I don't miss a sub-woofer very much as the B-40 has 6.5" woofers. I still do have a plan to add a sub later, as soon as I figure out how to setup my furniture for it. I have also got the DNM Tango 1 satellite speakers for surrounds, yet to plug it in though. These were cheap and helped me complete my setup without creating another major hole in my pocket. Along with the wires and the installation, it's likely to cost somewhere around 5.5k overall.
This post is just about recounting my journey of getting a home theater system. It's not about the listening experience. I'll be making another post with my impressions of the speakers once I have them fully setup and have listened to them for a while.
