An awesome Home Theatre at an affordable budget

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An awesome Home Theatre at an affordable budget, with the wet weather we had over the weekend, we were very lucky to keep it dry (We hope you did too!) and we got to spend some quality time huddled up in our home theatre.

What does it take to have an awesome 5.1 set-up at a medium budget? Say we have $8,000. How would we use it? It’s a lot of money, for sure. But for many of us not unachievable and just imagine how much pleasure you will get out of that for years to come if you get it right.

Here’s how we think it should be tackled: The key is making smart choices; going for products that punch well above their weight and excel in smart high quality design without whistles and bel and fancy designs you can easily do without. Make it perform like $25,000 set-up (including projector) at half that budget.

Simply put, we’re out to build an excellent system for you that delivers big on sound, while remaining acceptable both within budget and in aesthetics for your other half. Yes, it is possible to have it all. We’ll prove it.

Loudspeakers

ELAC 243.3 bookshelf speakers, ELAC 241.3 centre speaker and SVS Prime Elevation speakers (or alternatively SVS Prime Satellite speakers or Definitive Technology DI 6.5 round in ceiling speakers; depending on your personal situation)

The fact that we at Rapallo decided to import ELAC to New Zealand is no coincidence. Every ELAC product combines brilliant German engineering, superior parts and dedicated skill in manufacturing.

The Debut range may have caused a bit of a craze lately, but ELAC is one of those brands that are utterly committed quality and innovation well beyond their famous babies. The Debut range offers superb bang for buck, leaving the competition to stare in envy. The Germany manufactured range is in a different league all together.

The entire ELAC 240 series sits bang in the mid-range of what ELAC offers and shares driver technologies with their amazing and lust-worthy world-class speakers like the ELAC Concentro’s.

The ELAC JET tweeter is one of the most legendary tweeters in the industry and has won international praise with its transparent and effortless sound image.

Don’t be fooled by the size of the ELAC 243.3’s. We find, that the 2-way, bass-reflex bookshelfs are an incredibly accomplished performer and a superb all-rounder, suitable to a lot of different uses.

To quote the guys from What Hifi: ‘They are pacey, hefty and texturally varied at the bottom end, with space and attitude to spare in the midrange and whippet-like levels of speed and substance at the top.’

The fact that they look incredibly elegant and refined made it incredibly easy for us to settle on these speakers for our home theatre 5.1 set-up.

When it comes to surrounds, a lot depends on your individual room lay-out and possible limitations you may have to work around (Many of us do!). The SVS Prime elevation speakers not only deliver, they are also offer incredibly versatile in a wide variety of situations, whether it be a window, a door or furniture that prevents you from using the SVS prime satellites.

If even that is not an option because your home theatre is part of a multi-use space, you can’t go past the Definitive Technology in ceilings. It really is quite incredible that an in ceiling speaker is capable of producing such a balanced sound.

Subwoofer

SVS SB1000 or PB1000

If you use the Internet to do research on subwoofers, you will unavoidably run into SVS. The company is the darling of nearly every audio and home theatre-related publication in existence, and for good reason: SVS makes rocking, high-performance subs (and speakers too for that matter) at shockingly reasonable prices.

SVS scales back on unnecessary features and aesthetic niceties, but stubbornly avoids compromising performance. Often, that puts SVS’ entry-level subs on par with or better than most of its competition’s mid-level to premium offerings. Our kind of sub!

The SVS PB1000 offers deep bass that doesn’t require deep pockets. We recon it is the most forceful, detailed bass you can get for this amount of money.

Whether it is movies or music, the PB-1000 develops a clean, tight low end. It is never boomy or muddy: your HDTV and DVDs are more like the movie theatre than you could imagine. Streamed music and CD’s are fuller and richer; fast, deep lows bring more life to the party. And gaming sound effects blow you away.

Once again, high quality components, skilful engineering and years of hands-on research and design come together in what we at Rapallo have come to know as true SVS-style. The PB-1000 is the epitome of your money wisely spent.

You want something that is even easier to conceal? The SB 1000 is easily tucked into a corner but has a very tight, highly-articulated bass that makes the room rumble evenly and smoothly from top to bottom.

AV receiver

Yamaha RX-V483

Last year we recommended the Yamaha RX-V479. The model has received an upgrade since then and the new model is still our favorite AVR on a modest budget. No need to say we often recommend it to our customers because of its excellent performance and reliability. We know it works and not just according to the reviews.

The 5.1-channel AV receiver offers surround sound and wireless connectivity with your favorite speaker system. It has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Apple AirPlay built-in for wireless connection to your compatible smart devices. The receiver outputs up to 80W per channel at 8 Ohms and features YPAO multipoint sound optimization to tailor the sound to your environment.

Blu-ray

Oppo UDP-203

Right, we’ll just say this: The Oppo UDP-203 is by no means a cheap blu-ray player. What’s frustrating for your bank account though, is that its performance more than justifies that price tag. There.

Oppo’s intention with the UDP-203 was always to set a new gold standard for Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback, and this is exactly what it’s achieved. With now more and more UHD blu-ray discs becoming available apart from simply being the best blu-ray player around, the Oppo future proofs your set-up.

Yes, we very much like the Panasonic UB900 too, but the pictures produced by the Oppo are even punchier, colours are even richer and bolder and it manages to do that without looking unnatural. What’s more, the amount of detail is just mind boggling.

The fact that we can make your Oppo region-free only adds to the appeal.

Do you want a projector and a projector screen with that?

There is some fierce competition around the $5000 home theatre projector price mark. One could make an argument for one over the other quite easily.

As far as bang for buck goes, the Epson TW8300 hits the jackpot. The TW8300 offers stunning 4K Enhancement, allowing you to discover a whole new way to watch movies exactly the way filmmakers intended. Like the JVC e-shift, the Epson 4K Enhancement Technology delivers an astonishing picture quality and even allows you to upscale 1080P content.

Add to that a stunning 2,500 Lumens, a striking contrast ratio and incredible black levels and you have a winner in our books.

Obviously, this set-up is not a one size fits all solution and it might need some tweaking to suit your specific requirements. Which is why we would like to invite you to give us a call for what would work for you: different set-up, different budget, different favorites, a little demo… It’s only a phone call away. In the end: what you don’t ask for, you are not going to get. Right?

Happy dreaming, planning, building and… enjoying!

The Rapallo Team