How to build a home theater?

Doharto J. Simatupang, Contributor/Jakarta

A friend of mine, a young executive, is adamant he is not interested in one of those "instant" home theaters, like an HTiB with six mini-sized satellite speakers or a Mini Compo DVD, which is equipped with six satellite speakers plus an AC3 decoder and the dts Surround and Dolby Surround Prologic II features.

What he wants is a home theater set consisting of one receiver, a pair of surround speakers, a pair of front speakers, one center speaker and one sub-woofer speaker. Of course, he will need a DVD player as the audio-visual source.

You need great patience and good product knowledge to build a home theater. Why so? First off, it can be expensive to build a home theater. If you have Rp 5 million (about US$485), you can right away buy a (relatively) good-quality Sony Mini Compo DVD with six large satellite speakers.

If you wish to have a real home theater, however, you may spend hundreds of millions of rupiah. You will also have to spend more money on the TV monitor, the DVD player, shelves and so forth. A good-quality A/V receiver, for example a Yamaha, an Onkyo, a NAD or a Harman Kardon costs over Rp 5 million. The speakers? A pair of them will cost dozens of millions of rupiah. Don't forget that you will need a good quality DVD player. A Marantz DVD player (DV8300), for example, costs Rp 7,500,000. At this juncture, what you need to know is the best way to choose speakers and an A/V receiver that are not only good quality but affordable.

For your front speaker, you may purchase the floor-standing type, either for your home theater or for listening to music. A bookshelf speaker (a standing/tower type or a type mounted on the wall) may be used as your surround speaker. If your home theater does not use a non-CRT monitor, it is advisable for you to choose the standing type for your center speaker. To ensure that the center speaker's cable will not get in the way, you can arrange for the cable to go through the ceiling of the house.

If you use a floor-standing speaker as the front speaker of your home theater system, you no longer need a sub-woofer because the bass not reproduced by the floor-standing speaker is sufficient. A bookshelf speaker is smaller than a floor-standing one and generally only has a two-way path but its sound reproduction is better. This type, used as a front or surround speaker, is usually suitable for (high-end) stereo music. If you use a pair of bookshelf speakers as the front speakers in your home theater, you will also need a sub-woofer. In addition, you will need a standing speaker. Generally a bookshelf speaker is 18 to 24 inches in size.

If you enjoy karaoke, you may wish to buy special speakers for karaoke, such as those made by BMB. You can put these speakers in the front part (a standing type or the type mounted on the wall) and thread the cable through the ceiling. Remember that you need a mixer if you use these speakers for karaoke.

The room where you set up your home theater should be arranged accordingly. Its best if its symmetrical and soundproof. Take the time to position the speakers so the sound quality is optimum. Then put up a shelf for your DVD player, microphone, AV receiver, film cases and so forth. A comfortable couch is also a good investment. There are numerous monitors on the market: Plasma TV, LCD TV, CRT, projection TV, LDP TV and projector. When putting together your home theater, its important to remember that you already have your speakers and AV receiver.

An A/V receiver set is needed for interaction between audio and video sets. An A/V receiver is the regulator, supplying power to ensure that all the speakers work together. Clearly, an A/V receiver plays a central role.

The terminal connection in an A/V receiver must be complete and must also be compatible with the HDTV (720p/108i). Yamaha is a leading brand in the A/V receiver category. Take, for example, the Yamaha RX-V750. It has a range of excellent features such as Digital ToP-ART, Cinema DSP (Digital Sound field Processing) and YPAO (Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer)

When you choose an A/V receiver, you need to pay attention to the sound system feature that this particular receiver provides. Superior A/V receiver sound system features available on the market include Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital EX, DTS/DTS-ES Matrix 6.1 decoder, Discrete 6.1, DTS Neo: 6, DTS 96/24, Dolby Surround Prologic II/ Dolby Prologic Iix, Virtual Cinema DSP and Silent Cinema.

You must not hesitate to ask for advice when selecting the components of your home theater. If you are on a budget you can buy the components of the home theater one at a time. You can, for example, first buy an A/V receiver and a pair of floor- standing speakers. Later you can buy a pair of bookshelf speakers and then a center speaker plus a sub woofer.