I’ll start with something obvious. Building (or buying) a fantastic home cinema setup (like the one pictured above) is out of the question in Mauritius because excellent audio and video components (1) are difficult to find and (2) are very expensive.
Nevertheless, it is possible to have a nice entry-level home cinema setup for a relatively modest price if you know what and where to shop. My personal system, while relatively cheap, has given me lots of satisfaction. Here’s a rundown of the equipment I have and the price I bought them:
- a Kenwood home cinema amplifier (Rs. 9500 in Hong-Kong)
- a set of 5 Pioneer speakers (Rs. 5000 in a sale)
- a Samsung 29″ TV (Rs. 8500 second-hand)
- a Philips DVD player (Rs. 3000)
- a Parabole Maurice satellite subscription (Rs. 1350 montly)
- trunking and cabling (say Rs. 1000)
Today, I’ll talk of my home cinema amplifier, the mighty Kenwood KRF-7030D. My sister-in-law bought mine in Hong-Kong 2-3 years ago at Rs. 9500. The amplifier was reviewed in August 2000 by Home Cinema Choice and won a Best-Buy award.
I like the fact that the Kenwood is powerful (5 x 100W power output). This is important if you want to have a realistic soundstage with explosions, gun-shots and F-16 fighters passing over you. I also like the fact that it handles DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 with equal ease. For the uninitiated, these are the two competing technologies used to store audio on normal DVDs. Both are equally good even though, personally, I tend to choose DTS over Dolby Digital. Finally, it also features an FM radio which I don’t use as I listen to the radio only in my kitchen and in my car.
Now, for the crucial aspect : when buying a home cinema amplifier, you must always buy one with the most connections around the back. The reason being to prepare for the future. In this area, the Kenwood, even though it is budget-priced, is impressive:
There are lots of inputs and outputs:
- DVD (S-Video and Composite video; Digital and 6 channels audio inputs)
- Video-1 (S-Video and Composite video; inputs and outputs for analog audio)
- Video-2 (S-Video and Composite video; Digital and analog audio)
- Video-3 (S-Video and Composite video; Digital and analog audio)
- CD (Digital and analog audio)
- Tape (inputs and outputs for analog audio)
- Phono (analog audio)
- Auxillary (S-Video and Composite video; analog audio on front-panel)
As you can see, the sky is the limit… In my personal setup, my DVD is, predictably, hooked up to the DVD connections, my VHS VCR (which, conceptually, is not part of my home cinema setup…) is connected to Video-1 and my satellite decoder connects to Video-2. So there are lots of inputs left for my future DVD recorder or Digital TV :-)
In the next article, I’ll talk about the set of 5 Pioneers speakers I use and the way to correctly set them to have the nicest sound.
I can get a P3 1 Ghz for less than Rs. 5000, get any Linux distro deployed (live), add some memory (512 MB is acceptable), 2 DVD readers (no region specified), NO HDD, oh, add MythTV to the live distro, buy any Plasma huge screen and it costs way less. Oh, and any good soundcard and speaker system from creative will do.
It all comes to software for modifying the wave.
how the hell do u rewire one thats got bout a million different inputs n out puts? plz find me a diagram of sum sort ill be really happy if u do.
cheers emz xx
Hi Emma,
Tell me what you have as equipment and I’ll try to find out the optimal way to connect them…
I have the same amplifier and agree with you. This thing flat out rocks! I have had multiple different setups as far as how I wired it. I currently have my DVD, VCR, matching 200 disk CD player, HD TV, HD cable box, PS3, and use the auxillary output for my PC sound. Whether I use it with my stereo surround for movies or hook up my DJ/PA speakers with 15″ subs and 1000 watt drivers, it keeps pushing! I still have my original fuses in it from when I purchased it back in April of 1997. Only downside is the fact that it IS dated and doesn’t have all the current input options like HDMI, but does have 2 digital inputs that i use for my TV and DVD. If you can find one out there, I definitely recommend scooping it up.
I’ve trying to buy a hd multimedia player box from amazon..but it can’t be shipped to mauritius.
The box cost around 99 USD
It plays almost every file format including mkv.
Here is a link to the product http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572
DO any one know if someone sells this box in mauritius?
As the box is made by Western Digital, I think the best thing to do is to ask someone who sells WD products whether they have it or can bring one for you here in Mauritius. I did the same thing a few weeks ago for a D-Link device that is not sold in Mauritius.
Hello EveryOne,
Well, I wud like if anyone who cud help me.. Im searching for Real Cinema Theater as well as Like Cinema city,star,Novelty etc.. I want to buy some Equipment and wna know where i can look for them to purchase. Bt i wud like to have some quotation first..
1. Digital Projector
2. Surround sound Dolby
3. Sony Equipement
4. Light management & Aligment
5. Others
Hi Yashvin,
Personally, I tend to use Yahama amplifiers and speakers now. They sound great and the price is reasonable. My LCD TV is an affordable Sony Bravia but I properly calibrate it to make movies look great on it!
hello very nice blog here & very informative. Thanks for sharing. I’m thinking to buy a Pioneer home cinema – htp 072 & amplifier vsx324. The amplifier is 100watts at 6 ohms & 60 watts at 8 ohms. What is the difference please? it depends on the speakers? Will 100 watts at 6 ohms be ok for a home cinema? Where can i have brands like kenwood / denon or onkyo in mauritius. thanks. regards Soorej
Hi Soorej,
100 watts per channel is fine for home use except if you have an enormous room ;-)
There are a few things I have noticed over the years:
Have fun ;-)
Hi Avinash,
I have a 5.1 HTS setup from Harman Kardon. Everything is connected to the AVR.
For 1yr, I’ve had good surround (especially using a WD media player). But recently, my mac mini (which I bought a few months back to replace the media player) has stopped sending surround sound to the AVR (and my Sony Bravia around the same time). I’ve tried to solve this through the midi setup in Mac utilities, but I only succeeded in sending the main voice/sound to the rear left speaker, which makes things worse. I contacted Apple and Harman Kardon, but neither helped. Testing on the AVR shows that all speakers are giving out sound.
Please advise if you know where I can get help on this topic.
Thanks, and great work btw!
I suppose you are using the optical or coaxial digital out on your Mac Mini and playing 5.1 content? In that case, the Mac Mini sends the 5.1 audio as a stream of bits (a “bitstream”) i.e. without tampering with it in any way.
If your AVR is not playing the audio correctly, it is either a decoding issue on the AVR itself (but I doubt it) or that you are sending a bitstream to it which it does not understand.
Is the media file corrupted? Or are you trying to play a file which the Mac Mini doesn’t handle (e.g. something like a MKV with some exotic codec)?
Hi Avinash,
Thanks for the response. I’m not very technical, and therefore work by trial and error. But I think you are in the right, and that it has something to do with the stream.
In fact I’m using HDMI. After several months of trial, I made some progress this week, and now obtain surround sound. Not tested whether it’s perfect rendition, but the sound plays on all speakers with main voice from central speaker and bass from subwoofer.
For info, I installed some software (which I’m not sure achieved much), but I also reconfigured the audio midi again, this time selecting 48000 Hz/2ch-24bit integer. I’m not sure, but it seems to me that in the absence of a Multi Channel sound card, the sound must reach the AVR as stereo and the decoding is done by the AVR.
When I chose 6ch or 8ch channel before, the absence of a soundcard (??) seemed to send a stream to the AVR, which the latter could not decode again (???).
But now, instead of selecting PCM as was the case before, the AVR now enables all surround options and selects its proprietary surround tech by default.
P.S. I still get better sound when using the WDTV media player though.
Hi Youvan,
If you are / make sure that the Mac Mini is sending an unaltered audio bitstream to the receiver then, provided the receiver is compatible with the codec used, you should be able to enjoy glorious 5.1 audio.
Have fun troubleshooting everything. Enjoy when everything works perfectly ;-)
Great Experience
Pioneer house SIR WILLIAM STEET PORT LOUIS 2123450 ONKYO PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE
Thanks a lot.