Get the right Home theatre system for the best experience

What are the essential things one must keep in mind while setting up their home theatre system?

The first thing that one must check is what they’d mostly be listening to. If they’re audiophiles and love music, they need a good music system. But, if it is movies that are mainly on their minds, then they should invest in a 5.1 channel system.

But, nothing would be good if their listening environment isn’t right. This is an equally big factor to consider while investing in a music system.

What do you mean by that?

If you are to invest in a good system and the acoustics of your room are bad, even a speaker system costing you many lakhs would be useless. I’d say the listening experience is 80% dependant on the room and only 20% on the system you choose to buy.

So a big brand doesn’t make a difference?

Big brands are more or less useless if you have a room that’s not able to do justice to it. Ideally, any music or home theatre system that’s over `5 lakh means they’re ripping you off your money.

The sound on most Indian movies are recorded and mixed on systems that cost around `4-5 lakh. So, when you’re playing it on a system that costs much higher, it doesn’t make a difference.

Does this logic work with music too?

Of course it does. Most of the recording studios work on systems that costs about `1 lakh. This is where the music is recorded before being mixed. Even big international artistes like Timbaland or Madonna or composers in India like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy use a similar system for their mixing.

Also, if you’re the sort who ends up listening to mp3s and not original audio CDs, investing in a big system is a complete waste of money, because the quality of the audio depends on the music CD being played rather than the system it is played on.