Secrets To Building Your Own Multi-Media Home
Theater System.
By
Nicholas Sheffo
Despite
all the portable audio, video and computer devices making the enjoyment of
media easier than ever, all that progress in one direction is regress in
another. That includes a loss of
quality, which people say they don’t mind, yet their action often contradict
that and prove otherwise. When it comes
to big ticket items, I have never seen so many people be in denial of wanting
their own home theater system, especially since MP3s, Digital Downloads and
various PC-based wireless devices arrived.
People said the same thing in the analog era when they would make their
own CDs and cassette tapes to their liking and little has changed. Then there is the excuse of price, size or
simply not known the benefits of having a nice set-up and the proof the desire
is there to have bigger and better was more than confirmed when the earliest
big screen HDTVs sold in huge numbers.
Despite
their high prices, no high definition format or even much high definition
programming (if you were even in an area to get it), people were buying them as
a status symbol, as “the new thing” and many of them were HDTVs without the
final inputs and outputs that finally became standardized today. So people still want to see the big screen in
their home and this recent phenomenon proves it. Now that the basics have been standardized,
it was time for us to do an article on how to put together a home theater
system.
For
years, we have been aiming to do such an article (or series thereof) and with
the various high quality products of the Inakustik Company from Germany (also
spelled and pronounced in-akustik), we will now offer our first such article as
well as first review of hardware in the same text. If the Inakustik name looks familiar, it is
because the German manufacturer has been sponsoring and supplying their
equipment for a very long running series of TV concerts we have been covering
on the site since we launched and even have their own record label. The Ohne
Filter and New Morning Paris
series are as significant as the Montreux
releases and classic series like Midnight
Special, Music Laden, Shindig, Soul Train and American
Bandstand in offering a wide range of music and classic performances on DVD
and now Blu-ray.
They offer
the only series that prominently features a manufacturer supporting the
production and that happens to be using their product. I expected the chords to be good, but was
pleasantly surprised to hear how rich, warm and articulate the audio chords we
initially received to review within this article are and more than competitive
with most on the market and I have experienced more than most. The prices are very reasonable considering
the quality. Their HDMI chords are also especially
top rate and state of the art.
Like many
manufacturers, they offer a range of chords and other equipment to build a home
theater, but more on that as we move along.
These days, you can have Blu-ray players with Ethernet, Internet access,
MP3 capacities, Blu-ray (BD)-ROM and other bells and whistles if you want to be
a technically overboard, but this article is devoted to simply building a basic
home theater set-up with high-end options.
Though you could always get a theater “in a box” which includes small
speakers and some basic bits, 99% of those packages cut corners. When you know and understand what each does,
you can put together a set-up much better than the “in a box” throw-together.
What I
wanted to do with this article (and I thank our staff for additional ideas and
suggestions) is make the idea of having such a set-up accessible and easy so it
did not feel like brain surgery. The
secrets will work too. Needless to say
you could write a book on the subject and new items always surface to create
the theater that would best suit you.
This is just a starter article and we’ll see where this one leads us.
To have a
serious home theater system, you must have the following:
1)
HDTV
(or HD Video Projector) that can produce a 1080p (1,080 line progressive scan)
image, versus older and cheaper (including many currently made models) that can
only do 1080i (1,080 interlaced lines, which is not as good) or 720p (which has
even less lines, of course, progressive or not) picture quality at best. It must have several HDMI inputs and at least
one output, preferably for the 1.4a level HDMI chords.
2)
A
Blu-ray player. Plenty of older used
models are out there you could buy new or used, but we actually recommend at
least a Blu-ray 3D player even if you are not going to have a 3D HDTV because
they tend to play discs better and faster, plus new models are surprisingly
affordable and all machines also play DVDs and CDs, so your current collection
will not be affected. Of course, there
are always expensive high end models, but there are few for the money that will
play discs better. It is always a plus
if a machine (even a second, alternate Blu-ray player if you want to go crazy)
can play import Blu-rays and the high-definition audio-only Super Audio CD
format which we still review on the site.
3)
A
receiver that serves as the heart of the system where all the chords go in and
out of. HDMI capacity is preferable,
though you can also deal directly with hooking the HDMI from the Blu-ray player
to the HDTV, but you can loose some features, especially if you want Internet,
Ethernet and other interactivity. We’ll
cover the latter in a later article. It
should also be able to have analog 7.1 inputs (the more the better) and outputs
if possible and DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD capacity.
4)
High
quality speakers help, better than what you will find at the various electronic
chains, so this is an item you can get at an upscale mom and pop home theater
store or on-line directly from the manufacturer. We hope to start covering some models soon to
recommend to you, but you need the following speakers for a proper surround
configuration: left, right, center, left surround, right surround, back center
(aka ES/EX track for which 6.1 is the designation) and a subwoofer for deep
bass sounds. Inspired by The capacity of
Rock Music (now in R&B, Electronica, etc.), this can make the difference
between just seeing an explosion and feeling it, though some filmmakers can
overly on this channel and…
5)
Cables
to make the proper hook-ups work. Don’t
wait for wireless home theaters... they’re never going to happen or work due to
lack of power and consistency. Don’t be
“afraid of spaghetti” as one of the most famous excuses goes for not having a
home theater system. They’ll be behind
the components and out of site anyhow, so it is another false argument. Not any cable will work, or you could use
“lamp chord’, which is longtime industry shorthand for bad cables. Yes, cables make a difference.
We also
recommend a calibration disc and there is not as better disc on the market than
Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics
Blu-ray, which we reviewed at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6745/DVE+%E2%80%93+Digital+Video+Ess
It gives
you all kinds of ways to adjust and re-adjust your system for the best picture
and sound, plus is as good as anything on the market to do so. Of course, some Blu-rays will come with
highly abbreviated versions of what this disc can do (think, of the THX and DTS
adjustment sections you might see in your movie menus) but a full-fledged disc
like this is best and cheaper than ever.
Note this disc does not cover Blu-ray 3D, but the results should give
you solid 3D as well. You can read
creator Joe Kane’s initial notes on the subject at this link:
http://www.videoessentials.com/3D.php
Also know
that you will not get perfection overnight, especially since you will want to
adjust the entire system to your specifications and preferences, so know you’ll
be tweaking whatever set-up you build and that this is part of enjoying having
a system no matter what the cost. The
more you watch what you like or listen to your favorite music in the completed
system, the more you will adjust to hear and see things more clearly or to what
you recall and/or thing they should sound like at their best.
Now onto
assembly. We will describe putting
together a system as if you were there.
Imagine you have opened up all the packages of all the pieces you
need. Now you need to start putting them
together. Of course, make sure you have
a nice stand to put your HDTV on, especially a stand with room for components
below or on either side of the HDTV. If
you are using a projector, you can get a good high quality screen that is
either built into your wall or one you can pull down yourself manually and/or
drop at the touch of a button electronically.
Now you
take a new HDMI chord and hook it from the HDTV to either an HDMI receiver
and/or (yes, you can do both) a Blu-ray player.
We got a chance to test two new state of the art HDMI chords that are so
amazing, they are also future-proof, meaning you speed a few more bucks and get
something that will hold up longer. The
Inakustik HDMI Reference Ethernet
(1 Meter) and HDMI Star Ethernet
(0.75 Meters) chords are so exceptional, they have features like Ethernet, Deep
Color on upcoming HDTV and HD Projectors and are even capable of 4K (4,000
lines progressive) HD images, so these are better than most chords on the
market. They are also 1.4a level HDMI
and are the ones you want if you get a 3D HDTV.
I liked how the ends on these HDMI chords seemed to stay in place better
than some other brands I have experienced and used.
Note that
thicker chord does not mean better, but a few companies (definitely including
Inakustik) have come up with ways to manufacturer their cables in more advanced
ways to improve performance. This was my
first experience with their line and the other advantage to buying higher grade
chords is that if something does not work initially, having the better chords
rules them out as the cause or source of any problem. Also, though professionals (like myself)
admittedly are more likely to see and notice flaws than many or most viewers,
but a better set-up makes you a better judge of video and audio performance, which
will lead to you seeing, hearing and enjoying everything that much more.
You can
also hook any other players (DVD, CD only if you have one, video game counsel,
vinyl record player, various camcorder sources (though plugs usually exist in
the front for temporary usage devices like camcorders or even video games) and
even defunct HD sources (D-VHS D Theater or HD-DVD) and old VHS and 12”
LaserDisc players with S-Video chords at best) to the HDTV, which next brings
us to hooking up those speakers. Except
for subwoofers, which can use RCA-type plus (round plug with a stubby center
versus older coax (known for local cable TV) with a needle in the middle), you
have to use speaker cable of quality and in this case, we tested two from the
Inakustik line: Reference LS-1002
Speaker Cable and Reference
LS-502 Speaker Cable.
Of
course, you should know that you MUST
ALWAYS HAVE THE POWER OFF AND RECEIVER UNPLUGGED before you hook up and
install any speaker cables or you will short out your receiver and worse!
I have
(like all serious fans) tried many such cables and I always listen for warmth,
fullness and musicality, the latter of which is important because if it can do
that, than it can handle dialogue, ambient sounds and sound effects. You can hook the cable raw by just putting
the wire tightly in the provided openings, or you can use hook-ups like Banana
Plugs and U-Shaped Spades depending on what your received can handle. Consult your booklet or contact the
manufacturer if you have any questions.
For the most upscale receivers and speakers, professional quality XLR
ended plus are made for those who really want to spend serious money and the
results can be amazing, but they are rare.
Inakustik’s Reference LS-1302
Speaker Cable (untested at this time, but available for the most expensive
systems) is their highest level speaker cable and the only one to offer this
upscale hookup, but it is one you should know about.
The
Inakustik cables met all my expectations and then some. I immediately was impressed with the
musicality right off the bat, but the fun with great cables like this over time
is how they get better the more you use them and play material on them,
breaking them in. That is because the
construction is rich and advanced, not “lamp chord” which has nothing to offer
you. I could hear difference from other
chords I use and they are now at the top of my list for speaker chord recommendations.
They are
also what we would call analog chords and another kind go between components
(starting with vinyl record players and go all the way to Blu-ray players) so
you have a analog option (we like this to test the discs we review) and this
includes audio cables with RCA plugs at both ends. We tried out two sets of such chords from
Inakustik and they are Reference
NF-202 Cable and Reference
NF-102 Cable.
They work
for both two-channel stereo playback of stereo sources like CDs and such tracks
available on Blu-rays, DVDs, Super Audio CDs and even downloaded digital audio
files which are almost always stereophonic.
Newer Blu-ray players (including 3D players) tend to have options for
such digital data, but they can be converted back to PCM sound and analog
sound. Differences between hearing your
audio through analog sources include depth, harshness and compression versus
the various digital connections like HDMI, as good as HDMI can be. A good system should be multi-dimensional and
always have many options. The NF-202 and
NF-102 were musical, full, warm and smooth as the speaker cables, showing the
company’s experience in music for starters, and they too will get better as you
play them. I also tested them for
multi-channel Super Audio CD and even DVD-Audio format use (both were
competitors to replace CD, but neither widely succeeded, though a few
DVD-Audios are made each year (older hard-to-get ones are going for as much as
$400! and Super Audio CD became an audiophile favorite still being made more
often all the time, including discs we continue to review n this site) and I
could hear how we they handled the very high fidelity of those audio-only
formats (though DVD-Audio has video menus and occasionally interview and Music
Video materials).
Note that
higher end receivers can actually do the multi-channel audio from Super Audio
CD and DVD-Audio through higher HDMI cables, especially the 1.4a chords we are
using for this article.
But HDMI
is not the only digital cable hookup out there. While iLink 1394 IEEE Firewire was once a
contender to be the cable for HDTV use since it was (and still is) used on so
many camcorders (which is why some receivers have inputs and outputs for it and
Inakustik makes chords for it we hope to try out soon), its lack of copyright
protection, abuse by some in the PC community and other potential limits had it
loose out to HDMI. Two similar digital
audio chords have existed for years and have been an industry standard for many
years.
Created
by Sony and Philips, two types of S-PDIF (Sony Philips Digital InterFace)
chords exist and are still used because they are still in so many devices. One has RCA plugs on both ends and is called
Digital Coaxial and the other uses light pulses and is called Optical
Cable. The argument for Optical was it
had no radio interference since it used light, but against it was that the
light pulses made the audio choppy.
Inakustik makes both versions and once again, amazing ones with Reference Optical Digital Cable OP-102
and Reference Optical Coax Cable. I actually lean towards Coax because it can
sound smoother if you have a Coax cord that is exceptional and Inakustik has
one of the best I have heard and that again is after many. As for their Optical Cable, they are also top
rate and have the best plug endings I have ever encountered in the manufacturer
of Optical chords. They just don’t stick
in and plug lightly, they snap in with larger ends that keep them in and likely
keeps more light information from spilling out.
Blu-ray and
DVD players (plus some of the better defunct video format players) have either
or both, but if your player only has one and you are stuck with only one,
having a great chord can make a big difference.
Both chords do up to 20 Bits of digital sound and are the only way to do
multi-channel sound (regular DTS and Dolby) from most DVD players. This can also apply to some video game
consoles (even if they have their own specialty chords) and other odd devices
too long to go into here.
Once you
have all those chords hooked up and calibrated, you want to make sure the way
you arrange your speakers envelop you wherever you are in the room and that it
is as seamless as possible. Ask not what
you can do for your home theater system, ask and see what it can do for
you. The less you strain to see or hear
something, the more you can enjoy it.
This is not about have a loud system, though you can play it that way,
but to have visual and audio clarity to hear what the makers most
intended. That is why we are so hard on
discs so you know what a give release can and cannot deliver in picture and
sound. You can sit back (or the like),
relax and enjoy your favorite music, TV, movies and even videogames with a
system that can deliver the impact and fun you deserve. That is why having a system is so nice and
why more people want one than they want to admit.
We’ll do
follow-up articles soon and welcome your questions or feedback. In the meantime, you can see the entire line
of chords and accessories from Inakustik (which will give you an idea about
what is available for a home theater system) at this link:
http://www.inakustikcables.com/
or
http://www.in-akustik-cables.com/
We look
forward to any comments or questions on this article and hope this assists all
of our readers and hope you enjoyed this.
