Hit the right notes on any budget
Interested in buying high-end audio but scared of the jargon? Our handy guide should help
OTHERS :
For most of us, audio and video is something we spend an inordinate amount of time on every day, whether it’s watching movies or TV at home, spending time at our computers, or listening to music on the go.
People are spending more on video today, not thinking twice about spending a couple of lakhs of rupees for 50-inch-plus TVs and projection set-ups.
And these fantastic systems are often plugged into a small sound bar, or a dinky little 5.1 system. The benefits of a high-end audio system often appear less tangible, are not communicated well by salesmen and are mired in enough jargon to scare off anyone interested.
We’re going to demystify the jargon and explain the different elements of audio so that the benefits become more obvious.
But a word of caution on the purchase process—cost varies widely based on the city you’re in and the dealer you buy from, but the product will be more expensive than buying in the US, so buy online or on trips abroad if you can.
BUDGET: Under ₹ 25,000
BUDGET: Under ₹ 75,000
At this budget, you have options on both amplification and speakers. You can either buy two high-quality speakers for around 45,000-50,000, plus amps, or buy more of the speakers mentioned in the under ₹ 25,000 section to complete a surround set-up.
For amplification, a great option would be any of the lower-priced receivers by Denon, Yamaha or Onkyo. These provide an easy way to hook up all your gear and digital room correction (DRC), an automatic system that adjusts the audio to compensate for the effects introduced by the room layout.
Technically receivers get a “refresh" every year—but since it doesn’t change too much, you can buy last year’s, or even the 2011 model.
If the DRC doesn’t matter to you, buy an integrated amplifier—this will switch your audio inputs, power your speakers, and act as a volume controller. These also have allegedly more powerful amp sections, but the jury is out on this.
Coming to the speakers, go with bookshelf speakers and resist the temptation to buy floor-standing ones. You’re getting more bang for your buck by buying a higher-quality bookshelf at this price, and you can always upgrade later.
With a larger budget, you should also consider a quality audio player; our pick, on any budget, is the digital Oppo BDP-103. It plays every format—Blu-ray, DVD and CD, and even niche ones like SACD (Super Audio CD) and DVD-Audio, and it can also stream music wirelessly as a media server.
BUDGET: Under ₹ 1 Lakh
This is where the high-end truly starts, and where changes become incremental rather than obvious. Your listening preferences will start coming into play here—do you listen to rock or jazz, or are you just a movie buff? Auditioning will help, with music you like listening to. Again, spend most of your money on speakers, but amplification costs will rise, because some expensive speakers are difficult to drive with less powerful amplifiers.
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UNDERSTANDING AUDIO
A simple look at the different hardware in your set-up
Irrespective of all the terminology you’ll hear thrown around in this sphere, there are only three parts to any audio set-up:
u Source: This is your Blu-ray/DVD player, TV set-top box, computer for streaming movies or music, turntable, cassette player, etc. At the low-end, the source doesn’t make much of a difference, but from even the mid-range, the audio quality is directly affected by the source.
u Amplification: This has two steps— pre-amplification, which switches between all the things you have connected to your stereo and acts as a volume control; and power amplification, which amplifies the audio signal for your speakers. There are many different variants of these.
u Speakers: These are by far the most important piece of your system, at any price point, and also the one where people tend to skimp the most. For the same price, you can either buy two high-quality speakers or six (including the subwoofer) poor- to mid-quality ones. Most things you’re listening to or watching are usually not in surround sound in any case.
If you’re an avid movie fan, it might make sense to go surround, but even then, if you’re buying for the first time, buy two high-quality speakers—most of the sound is from the front. You can add the additional speakers and subwoofer later.
Also, speakers have unique “sounds", so before buying any set, always spend a good amount of time listening to how your favourite source and choice of music sounds with them.
Finally, the most important bit after all your gear is bought is actually setting up the speakers in your room—something most people ignore, or have to sacrifice due to room decor issues. Irrespective of price point, you will not get good sound if your speakers are sandwiched into a console or attached to the wall.
A great way to learn about this is to visit https://www.cardas.com/room_setup_main.php—the website has a lot of graphics that help you to learn about the basics of setting up the room and speakers. The simplest piece of advice on the page, which most people probably don’t realize: You’re probably too far from the speakers—it’s not enough to have them spaced evenly; your head and the speakers should form an equilateral triangle.
BUYING IN STORES
Want a demo before putting down your money?
If you’re not keen on spending a lot of money without listening to your new audio equipment first (and you should definitely try to do that), then you need to go to the right stores, because your average home theatre dealer in the local market won’t have the equipment that you’re looking for.
So you need to go to speciality retailers. We’ve listed our four favourites around the country; in case you’re in another city, then you should ask the one nearest to you for any local people to check with.
u Delhi: Sound of Music, Bass ‘n’ Treble, Lakozy
u Mumbai: AudioVision, Lakozy, Viola (Andheri West, near the Indian Oil building on New Link Road), Boomerang Audio (Juhu)
u Bangalore: ARN Systems, Absolute Phase, The Listening Room (in Electronics City)
u Chennai: The Audio People
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