Thread: Home Theatre for every budget

When people mention a Home Theatre, the personal listening in automatically thinks about a monster costing the hand and a leg. While it is fair to say that true joy will come from a dedicated well-planned, decently setup/organized and costly quality components, there is a place for all budgets.

Before I proceed further let me define the home theatre for a uniform reference. The home theatre, at the minimum, must consist of:

• source device that includes a DVD player
• a device that can display video - at the minimum this is a 29" CRT
• a sound system that can drive and play true 5.1 channels having capability to decode Dolby Digital and DTS

Depending upon budget and likes/dislikes, one can add:

• a stand-alone Blu-ray (BD) player
• a stand-alone media player
• a Home Theatre PC (HTPC)
• a flat screen LCD/LED/Plasma TV
• a projector with a screen (manual or motorized)
• a 7.1/2 or 9.1/2 channel system with dedicated separates

Note: The permutations and combinations get numerous and complex, especially when we raise the budget bar. But I am assuming that a person will not couple a 40" LED TV costing 80K+ with an HTIB costing 20K or less.

Secondly, all prices that I am mentioning here are MRPs. Expect the real price to be 10% lower at least. You must bargain a lot. Never pay MRP.

Having said that, let me outline the options.

Home Theatre for under Rs. 40,000/-
You can get a pretty decent Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB) from Sony or Samsung or LG for about 18K. The HTIB consists of a DVD player, a built in DD/DTS decoder, an amplifier and 5.1 speaker set. The player/amplifier also has an HDMI out and manufacturers claim that the player upscales the DVD to 1080p nicely for the HD-TV.

Add a 29" CRT for another 18-20k and you have a complete HT at your end. The HTIB has a total power output of 1000W RMS that I will take with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless for a small room and people on a tight budget this is not a bad option. The built-in DVD player will also play CD-A/MP3/WMA and other music formats.

Home Theatre for under Rs. 100,000/-
In this budget, a person can combine an 40-42" flat panel TV coupled with a BD player and a powerful HTIB from Denon or Onkyo or Yamaha. The TV could be LCD or plasma. I will doubt whether an LED TV can be fit in the budget but then prices are moving south all the time. So here is a sample combination:

• 40-42" LCD or Plasma TV (HD-Ready) from any reputed brand: 50-55K
• Onkyo HTIB HTS-5300 7.1 system: 32K
• BD Player from any reputed brand: 10K

Home Theatre for around Rs. 150,000/-
As we have more money to "fool around" with, we can take a step above. Now we can opt for separate components. The TV could be bigger and better. So here are some choices:

• 40-46" LED or Plasma TV (full HD) from any reputed brand: 85K max. Can even get a 50" full-HD plasma in this price with 10K or more to spare.
• Denon AVR 1311 or any equivalent: 25 K. For 7K more you can get the better/bigger model Denon AVR 1611.
• Complete 5.1 Speaker set such as Energy Take Classic 5.1 for 36K or Polk Audio Blackstone Tl 1600 for 32K
• BD Player from any reputed brand: 10K

Home Theatre for around Rs. 200,000 to 225,000/-
At this price point one can aim for a better AVR and speakers set (preferable choice) or look for a larger TV or projector keeping the rest of the components from the 150k budget.

Option 1

• 40-46" LED or Plasma TV (full HD) from any reputed brand: 85K max. Can even get a 50" full-HD plasma in this price with 10K or more to spare.
• Denon AVR 1911 or any equivalent: 46K.
• A really good awe inspiring speaker system from Wharfedale Diamond 10 series or Polk Audio RTi series. Here is a Wharfedale 5.1 speaker system (total 79k):
  - Wharfedale Diamond 10.5 Tower Speakers (Front Left/Right): 36k
  - Wharfedale Diamond 10 CS Centre Speaker: 13k
  - Wharfedale Diamond 10 SX Subwoofer: 19k
  - Wharfedale Diamond 9 DFS Surround (L+R): 11K
• BD Player from any reputed brand: 10K

Option 2

• 1080p projector: 130k
• Manual Pull-down screen: 8-9k
• Denon AVR 1311 or any equivalent: 25 K. For 7K more you can get the better/bigger model Denon AVR 1611.
• Complete 5.1 Speaker set such as Energy Take Classic 5.1 for 36K or Polk Audio Blackstone Tl 1600 for 32K
• BD Player from any reputed brand: 10K

Beyond this budget, the discussion will be fairly academic and skewed. Basically, it means that you have a lot of money to indulge your fancies. Do read some of the articles listed here:

1. Home Theatre Blues - Part 1
2. Home Theatre Blues - Part 2: Things to consider while buying an AV Receiver
3. Home Theatre Blues - Part 3: The right speaker system
4. Home Theatre Blues - Part 4: Choosing the Blu-Ray Player
5. Home Theatre Blues - Part 5: Connections for getting the maximum out of your AV
6. Home Theatre Blues - Part 6 (a): Choosing the TV
7. Home Theatre Blues - Part 6 (b): Choosing the Projector

very informative thread j4k..

those who were thinking building a home theatre, will be greatly helped by this thread..

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Excellent writeup Thanks for taking the time to write this for us all. I was searching for this on Google and guess what it brought me back to our site and its all here what I was searching here and there

I am looking to build a setup for my gym! I am gonna have a lot of questions on this in days to come! Now I know where to ask. Reps added!

Originally Posted by Admin

Excellent writeup Thanks for taking the time to write this for us all. I was searching for this on Google and guess what it brought me back to our site and its all here what I was searching here and there

I am looking to build a setup for my gym! I am gonna have a lot of questions on this in days to come! Now I know where to ask. Reps added!

Home Gym or you are setting up a Gym as a business. Iam curious beacuse we dont do usually anything at home unless we go to a professional Gym atmosphere.

Originally Posted by Admin

Excellent writeup Thanks for taking the time to write this for us all. I was searching for this on Google and guess what it brought me back to our site and its all here what I was searching here and there

I am looking to build a setup for my gym! I am gonna have a lot of questions on this in days to come! Now I know where to ask. Reps added!

Fire away, Sir.

Nice information. Very much descriptive. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Admin

Excellent writeup Thanks for taking the time to write this for us all. I was searching for this on Google and guess what it brought me back to our site and its all here what I was searching here and there

I am looking to build a setup for my gym! I am gonna have a lot of questions on this in days to come! Now I know where to ask. Reps added!

For a gym, you will be looking at a music setup, won't you?