Gadget of the Year 08 - Home Theaters

Home Theaters — the systems in charge of the audio visual experience. We have looked at all the releases this year, and as usual we have a overall winner, a runner up and last, but not least, a budget choice. In this market there dozens of systems, some costing more than a house in Mumbai. Tech 2.0 does not go to such deep ends of the market, thus our coverage is one those products that are accessible and affordable.

Home Theater Of The Year - Onkyo HT-S5105

This system is a new release by Onkyo, one of the most popular brands in the mid to high level Home theater segment in India. They have always belted out good systems, and most of all they have a variety that surpasses most. At Rs. 36,000 this system really delivers the goods, with 3 HDMI sources switching, 130 Watts RMS power per channel, and Onkyo’s plethora of proprietary features like Audyssey 2EQ room-correction technology. The latter is a great method of getting the best possible sound setting for the speakers, according to your room acoustics. The sub has a 20 cm driver, and a good 90 watts of power. The speakers have� 8 cm cone woofer and 2.5 cm balanced dome tweeter. The overall sound is quiet balanced and powerful, more suited to surround sound movie experience. But music does not sound bad too, thus the system is great overall, not to mention it fits in with contemporary interiors, due to it sleek black design.


Runner Up - Philips Soundbar HTS6100

Even though they cannot replace the real thing entirely, I really like the concept of soundbars since their inception, and this year our reputable electronics giant Philips released a couple of models. These handy units can double up as an HT system for those with space constraints, who simply cannot place surround speakers. We reviewed the higher model, though the HS6100 product has won the runner-up prize for a number of reasons, mainly due to its subtle and mature good looks, superb build and decent features. It costs about Rs.35000, so it’s within reach. Philips sound quality is one of the best in the consumer category, with heavy bass and impressively powerful sound. The unit has built in DVD player, thus it acts as a one stop solution for your full AV needs, plus it can play DivX, read off USB drives, and has inputs for connecting external media players. It also supports upscaling to 1080p.

Best Value – Yamaha YHT195

Whenever budget Home theaters are spoken about, yamaha really leads the way. The YHT195 costs about 25,000 bucks, and anything below these prices, like the ones below 10,000 bucks by more popular brands, sound like crap. This unit comes in black or grey, a very simple yet attractive design. The satellite speakers weigh a little less than a kilo each, and are neat little rectangular boxes. It has 500W of total RMS power, at 100W per channel, plus 50W for the subwoofer. Connections include 2 HDMI-ins, 1 HDMI-out, 3 component-ins, a 5.1 analog audio-out, and a host of composite-outs. There are 3 digital audio-ins: one coaxial and 2 optical-ins.. The speakers are rated at 6 ohms. There are regular Yamaha proprietary features like YPAO, CinemaDSP etc. The sound quality is quite nice, and offers the engulfing power that a decent Home theater needs to deliver.