I bought this system for about Rs18k after going to hordes of home theater forums for reviews. Basically I wanted a home theater system which was better than brands like Sony, Philips which promote thier products like crazy. Let me assure you that this system is leagues ahead in terms of quality and is a great value for its price.
Typically, if you are first time buyer people generally look for the’boom’(bass) effect as the criteria in selecting Home theatre systems. Later they realize that thier Home theaters are making more noise than being a pleasure to watch and hear.
About the system:
The Onkyo HTS-3100 comes with a AV receiver(amplifier) two front speakers, two rear speakers, a center speaker and a sub-woofer.
Installation:
Installing the system is pretty easy - there are color coded wires ans easy instructions in the manual. Just make sure that you decide before-hand how you would like the wiring and placement in your room/hall before you purchase this system(or any other HT system).
The AV receiver is pretty bulky and large(compared to regular DVD players); so if you have a TV cabinet, just make some space for this to fit in.
Software Configuration:
After the hardware setup, the software setup / configuration of the AV receiver is also easy. It’s important to calibrate and test your speakers before you start playing DVDs.
What can you connect to the A/V receiver?
You can connect these devices to the AV receiver -
DVD player
Music System
CD player
Turntables
Ipod / USB player(if it has audio out)
FM receiver(inbuilt) and more.
For full specs - check Onkyo India’s website) - https://onkyoindia.com/
Results:
Movies - If your movie / music video DVDs are encoded in Dolby or DTs you’ll enjoy the variety of sounds that this system outputs. I was able to hear the tiniest spatter of rain drop from senes in the’Pirates of the Carribean’ movies to whoosh sound of the missile from’Enemy of the Gates’. The system comes with a variety of presents including Dolby Prologic II & DTS Neo 6 modes that convert 2 channel sounds into 5 or more channels. These also feature seperate listening modes for movies and music. There are probably 8-10 other presets you can enjoy in a variety of situations.
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HOT TIP: The demo at the retailer always sounds good and when you bring it home you’ll be slightly disappointed with the quality(with all HT systems).
This is because they use optical / co-axial cables b/w thier DVD players and AV Receivers. I suggest you buy an optical cable and connect that b/w your DVD player and AV receiver. I bought one and saw awesome improvement, especially with Dolby / DTS DVDs.
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Music: Many people elsewhere have commented that this system isn’t well suited for music. I’ll have to partially agree with them. You should not expect thundering bass from audio / mp3 cds but the clarity is still good. You can always connect an extra set of speakers to the A/V receiver and enjoy good music in stereo mode.
Note: The system has 2 modes - stereo and surround. The stereo mode outputs sound in 2.1 format while the surround outputs sounds in 5.1 format) I typically use stereo to listen to music while stick to 5.1 for movies.
Other uses: I don’t know if other users have tried this but you can also connect your TV to the A/V receiver. I use this while watching movie s / music shows on TV. The quality is good but you might get some unexpected bass rumble(not the fault of the system). You can also hook this up to your set -top box and the sound will even better because of the digital quality.
Should you buy it?
If you are looking to invest in a great value-for-money home theater system, better than’local’ brands like Sony, Philips etc, go for it! The home theatre experiece is great and you’ll enjoy movies.
It’s been more than month since I bought this piece and I’ve been renting movies almost daily. In Bangalore it cost me about 18K during the Diwali season. Plus you can always buy extra speakers or replace existing ones with advanced speakers.