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Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Home Theatre in a Box
(ARA) – Trying to plan the perfect evening for Valentine’s Day? Reservations are
impossible to get, and prices are high. Why brave the elements and fight traffic
to sit in a crowded, stuffy restaurant or theatre? A much better idea would be
to prepare an intimate dinner for two and enjoy a movie in your own home
theatre.
The DVD player has been one of the most popular new products of the last year.
Following closely in its footsteps is another innovative product: the Home
Theatre in a Box or HTIB. According to the Consumer Electronics Association,
HTIB is fast becoming a craze, with sales reaching $794 million in 2001 alone.
So what is HTIB? “A box filled with everything a consumer would need to create a
movie-theatre experience in their home,” says Tom Hannaher, audio expert at
Cambridge SoundWorks.
Home Theatre in a Box packages usually include a DVD player, five matching
speakers for surround sound, a powered subwoofer, and accompanying wires for
hook-up. “These components, when attached to the TV, create a home theatre
system that delivers ‘movie-theater’ sound quality. With more consumers looking
to their homes as their entertainment havens, HTIB is catching on just like the
DVD player," says Hannaher.
For consumers shopping for an HTIB system, Hannaher offers the following advice:
* Buy a system that is matched to the room’s size and acoustics; smaller, less
powerful systems are going to get lost in a big room with high ceilings.
* Make sure that the speakers are acoustically matched. HTIB systems are
outfitted with five speakers -- all of which should be closely matched in size
and performance. For instance, huge left and right speakers with a tiny centre
speaker are apt to sound “off,” especially when the action pans across the
soundstage (as in a jet taking off -- the sound goes from right to centre to
left, and should sound consistent all the way across).
* Not all HTIB systems are equal. Look for high performance HTIB systems that
are outfitted with top of the line speakers and components. An example of the
type of features consumers should look for are found in the Cambridge SoundWorks
product called MegaTheater 505. It includes the Cambridge SoundWorks AVS500
DVD/tuner console. This all-in-one console plays DVDs, music CDs, has an AM/FM
tuner, and also provides inputs and outputs for a VCR and cable box, enabling
the user to replace the traditional stack of separate components with one unit.
This is matched with five high performance Newton Series MC50 speakers and a
high performance subwoofer to create the accurate bass found in many movie and
music soundtracks. Also included are all the wires required for hook-up. For
more information, go to www.hifi.com.
* Positioning of the speakers in an HTIB system is important. Where you place
them in a room depends mostly on furniture layout, walls, windows, etc. The
ideal placement would be to place the left and right main speakers at about ear
level off to either side of a television that measures 27 inches or more. Place
the centre speaker directly on top of the TV and the rear speakers on the side
walls, above the listener's head and directly across the room from one another.
A powered subwoofer performs at its best when it is placed on the floor in a
corner or against a wall. The subwoofer does not have to take up valuable floor
space; behind or under a piece of furniture is just fine, provided it isn't
placed in an enclosed cabinet.
* A DVD player is essential to HTIB. DVD provides superior picture quality,
offering crystal-clear images with incredible realism. If a TV has S-video or
component video inputs, the quality is even better. Higher quality units, like
the MegaTheater 505, are equipped with progressive scan outputs, which provide
the clearest, sharpest pictures possible on the new generation of High
Definition (HDTV) and Enhanced Definition (EDTV) TVs. Practically all DVDs are
encoded with Dolby Digital surround sound, providing consumers with a “movie
theatre” experience in the comfort of their own living rooms.
* Buy from a company that has a fairly liberal return policy. The only way to
truly test out an audio system is in a living environment. The system will sound
different in your living room as compared to the showroom.
For more information on Home Theatre in a Box or audio products, consumers can
visit Cambridge SoundWorks at www.hifi.com or call (800) FOR-HIFI to speak with
an audio expert.
Courtesy of ARA Content |