some basic home theater queries!

[prasad]

Hi all,
I have some basic questions about home theater:

1. Should one invest in home theater only if one has a LCD/LED/Plasma TV? I agree that if you want to enjoy HDMI then this is required. But is there any other reason other than this?

2. Is it better to buy LCD/LED TV and home theater from the same brand? Does it offer any advantage?

3. There are HTiB systems like Onkyo that do not have rear floor standing speakers. Do they provide floor standing (tall boy) speakers if customer asks for it?

4. Anyone has any comparison data between:
    Sony- DAV DZ570, Panasonic – SC PT570 and Philips HTS 3578W

Thanks in advance,
-Prasad

[Vivek]

There's technological difference. LCD & Plasma tv's gives real theatrical effect compared to CRTs. But yes, a true flat CRT is not a reason for not investing on Home Theaters.

btw. nowadays, the trend is towards LED based LCD. Please pardon me, I really don't know more about this technology.

Brand really doesn't matter as long as all your pieces are choosen as per specs. In my opinion many people buy each component from the best brand for that component ! Like Denon AVR + Polk, Denon, Onkyo + JBL, KEF so and so.

Onkyo's HTiB series doesn't have any floorstanding speakers. Its a basic combo kinda series and works out well in budget. If you need floorstanding ones, you need to build : Pick your favorite receiver and onkyo speakers etc.. etc..

Among the  models listed by you, I find that all are almost similar except for power ratings. All are wireless ready. All have rear floorstanding speakers except for Philips, which has both both front and rear floorstanding. Power wise, Panasonic seems to be a good choice as the subwoofer is almost double powerful than the satelites and fronts, which is really good.

[anil]

@Vivek, I always wonder why bookshelf speakers are preferred by audiophiles than satellite speakers. According to me, the sound coming out of surround speakers is just very occasional and even if it is continuous its very feeble compared to front & center and mostly it is fill kinda sound. So, normal satellite speakers are fair I guess .... Why pay for those costly bookshelf speakers?

Any real advantages?

[Vivek]

@Anil, It is the fidelity the enclosure design that matters. The sound quality from Bookshelves is awesome. As you said satellites will be enough but bookshelf are best!

[prasad]

@Vivek,
Thanks for the inputs.

All Experts,
I have another set of queries:

My friend in Pune has questioned my decision to buy HTiB. He has bought a very good quality Philips speakers for about Rs 6000. The Sub has PA included so it can drive remaining speakers and it has even FM and comes with a remote! He has bought a good DVD player for Rs 3000 so both put together Rs 9K! He claims that this set- up gives same quality sound that any of the HTiBs in 25K Rupees range gives. Of course he is only talking about sound (i.e. Audio part) here and not video. He still has CRT TV without any HDMI features etc so his argument was why to spend almost double money when you get same performance in half money? I too am in same category i.e. I want HT for enjoying music/surround sound on DVD but not interested in HD at this point of time.

Now, what I want to know:

1.   How realistic / unrealistic my friend’s claim sounds taking into account performance / quality? Do we get such good 5.1 speakers that give same quality as speakers in HTiB? I can not experience the set up at my friends place since he is in Pune and I am in Bangalore.
2.   Has anyone here done/come across such set-up? If yes then what is your opinion?
3.   Any idea from where one can buy Philips DSP 6500 or DSP 7500 (or similar) speakers? Do you have any other speaker recommendations?

Thanks in advance,
Prasad

[Raghu]

Prasad,

 Yes.. I have a similar system with NXT flat speakers by philips. Good only for movies..NOT good for music. well, I have seen creative 5.1 setup.. sound so good for a small room. Just a thought.