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COPYRIGHT 2004 Australian Consumers' Association
The predator creeping up from behind, the car ranging from left to right across the screen, the building that explodes on your right--cinema gives you a wealth of audio experiences that complement the action up onscreen. So with the growth of DVDs and games capable of providing those same effects, not to mention some TV movies now being broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1, it's no surprise home theatre systems--a set of speakers pumping out surround sound from movies or games in the couch-potato comfort of your lounge room--are becoming popular.
To complement our recent test of widescreen TVs (CHOICE, October 2004) we've taken a look at nine home theatre systems at the bargain end of the market. All are integrated systems that offer surround sound, provided by four satellite speakers, a centre speaker and a subwoofer for bass, a surround-sound receiver, a DVD/CD player and a radio tuner. Combine this with a decent screen and you'd hope they gave you an almost cinema-quality experience. But based on our tests, we found you have to choose your system very carefully.
IN THE PICTURE
Generally the picture quality from the DVI) players was very good. Any errors that were observed were minor and would only be noticeable on high-resolution display devices.
However, not all the players could cope with flaws on discs--which may be a problem if you hire a lot of DVDs. The exception here was the LG, which scored 100% in our disc error tests, followed by the SANTO, PIONEER and PANASONIC, which were all very good. The rest fared less well and had trouble with badly scratched discs.
SOUNDS DIFFERENT?
It was with sound, however, that things started to go downhill. Overall, while most of the systems are comparable to low to mid-range mini stereo systems in terms of their electronics and features, they generally have smaller speakers and rely on the subwoofer to provide bass. As such, they're unlikely to make a music lover happy.
The listening tests showed most of the systems provide limited, boxy sounds, making vocals sound nasal. And while they can make quite a lot of noise, it doesn't always sound authentic. Most subwoofers are also poorly integrated with the other speakers, either providing excess boom and a disjointed bass line or not reproducing a significant chunk of the upper bass. This isn't such a big deal if you're using your home theatre to watch movies --an explosion sounds like an explosion--but if you like playing music, particularly something like Wagner or techno, there's a high probability most will distort the mid bass to an irritating level. The best picks here are the PANASONIC and the LG, which both have very low levels of bass distortion.
If you can live with these limitations, the top three models in this test, the SONY, PIONEER and PANASONIC, can all provide a satisfying movie experience...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
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