Making the best home theater system

Making the best home theater system

Agus Setiadi, Contributor, Jakarta

There are many interesting activities that you can do to take
your minds off your routine work during your free time at home.
For Aris, an assistant in a leading notary's office in the
Sudirman area, his favorite pastime is viewing films.

Aris gets enthusiastic support from his family, who also like
viewing films. That's why they have a special room measuring 12
meters long and 9 meters wide on the ground level of their house
in Pondok Indah for use as a home theater. The ceiling of this
room is about 3.5 meters high above the ground. Aris bought
the best home theater equipment and with the help of a consultant
provided acoustic treatments to the room. He wants to capture the
true atmosphere of a cinema in his own home.

The home theater equipment he bought includes the following:
INFOCUS 777 projector; Stewart (120 inch) screen; Marantz DV-8400
DVD player; Yamaha AVR DSP Z9 receiver; 7.2 channel Cabasse
speaker system, comprising two Cabasse SUMATERA 420R floor-
standing front speakers, one Cabasse FARO 420R center speaker,
two Cabasse iO in-ceiling rear speakers, two Cabasse iO on base
plinth surround speakers and two Cabasse JUPITER subwoofers; SIM2
HTR 01 universal remote control; and an AverMedia TV Box 9 TV
tuner.

This particular home theater system cost about Rp 400 million,
according to high-end boutique Home CinemaX in Kelapa Gading from
where Aris bought the equipment.

All this equipment was placed in standard positions with
account being taken of the design of the room and its acoustic
qualities as well as the performance level of the equipment
itself, particularly the speakers. The center speaker (Cabasse
FARO 420R), the front one (Cabasse SUMATERA 420R) and a Cabasse
JUPITER subwoofer are hidden behind the panel. They are placed in
the lower, right and left sides of the screen and on the right
wall. Meanwhile, for the surround speaker (Cabasse iO), and the
rear speaker (Cabasse iO), they are stuck to the ceiling, in the
left and right of the center of the room and on the rear wall. A
Cabasse JUPITER subwoofer is placed behind the sofa.

Aside from the equipment, the room is also provided with two
rows of sofas, each having four seats. The first row is made up
of four standard Flexteel Reno sofas, while the second row
consists of four motorized, reclined Flexteel Reno sofas. These
sofas are provided with supporting devices to ensure that the
cinema atmosphere is not compromised. These devices include a
Crowson TES 100 couch kit, a vibrator isolator, a stereo power
amplifier (200W) for TES 100, and a stereo mixer to give a stereo
effect to the couch kit.

All this completes an excellent home theater system. The
interior of the room is pleasant on the eye, especially given the
design and acoustic touch of the room, with the dominant dark
brown of the wood or the color of Zalacca edulis fruit and the
use of teak on the walls as a sound-proofing.

What about the performance of this equipment in this
acoustically excellent room? When an original DVD, I, Robot, a
film directed by Alex Proyas, starring Will Smith and presenting
a lot of visual and sound effects, was played, there was indeed
an atmosphere of a real cinema. The pictures that came through
the INFOCUS 777 projector, rather flat and curved like a turtle,
were clear and sharp. The colors presented were natural while the
blacks were solid. Details in the pictures were clear,
particularly when the subjects were shown in close-ups or in
medium shot.

Meanwhile the dialog and non-dialog sound, in a Dolby digital
format, was clear and aggressive. The voices in dialogs
reproduced by the Cabasse FARO 420 center speaker were expressive
and gave clear pronunciation, while the non-dialog sound,
particularly the sound effects, such as the sound of shooting and
metal clanging, were neatly reproduced by the surround and
subwoofer speakers. The front speaker provided excellent musical
illustration with a lot of dynamic rhythm.

We became more absorbed in watching a film in this particular
room when the non-dialog sound (the sound effects and musical
illustration) appeared. Thanks to the acoustic touch of the room,
the sound did not leave the room while the tactile effects helped
lend vibration to the sofas so that we would easily be carried
away by the story. Indeed, watching a film in this room is truly
an all-encompassing experience.