Home Theatre Experience
Andrew Petrozzi Bigger is not better when it comes to home theatres in condominiums. Just because you sacrificed on square footage it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on sound and picture quality, thanks to today’s flat-panel TVs, compact speaker systems and
miniaturized audiovideo components. Condo owners can have the same high-fidelity sound and crisp images as homeowners without giving up floor space or making enemies of the neighbours. Cabinet-makers are delighted with flat screens, because oncebulky TVs can now disappear into 24-inch wall units. “It really opens the design options,” said Michael Clark of Whistler’s High End Renovations. Greg Colombo, of Hi Fi Centre’s custom systems division, prefers to mount the flat screens right on the wall. “You need very little depth. You can get away with having it only four or five inches off a wall, and it takes up zero floor space.” Marilyn Sanford, president of Vancouver customer installer La Scala Home Cinema + Integrated Media, has several recommendations for those in the market for a new flat-panel display for their condominium. Make sure the positioning of your television takes into consideration light sources, or you may find yourself investing in blackout blinds. Plasma screens are typically the best off-axis and direct viewing choice but can suffer from glare and burn-in, said Sanford. Placing a flat-panel display over a fireplace is not wise. It can cause heating problems and physical discomfort from staring up at the screen. It is best to keep the screen near eye level. Sanford also recommends that a professional come in and calibrate the video so that it reproduces the colour spectrum properly. The advantage: your TV will last longer and use less power, because typically it is set too bright. She also recommends professional installation of the unit itself. If one has to compromise on budget, compromise on video, not sound, according to Sanford. “You get so much more out of that audio when it is set up correctly. There is nuance, movement and transitioning.
That’s what really creates the spatial perspective.” Determine if a 5.1 surround system – a centre channel and left and right channels in the front and rear, along with a subwoofer – or a 7.1 surround system, which has two additional rear channels, is able to fit in your space. Engineers have scaled down big loudspeakers and applied them to compact designs, according to Hi Fi Centre’s Colombo. “You can get very clean, very articulate, well-reproduced sound from a small loudspeaker, because the tweeter and a small mid-range driver produce most of what you hear,” said Colombo. “But what you give up at that point is the ability to play the really deep notes. But you can overcome this with a good quality subwoofer.” While small systems tend to feature lower wattages than larger home theatre amplifiers, Colombo contends it is simply marketing hype. Small watts can deliver big sound, he claims. “I’ve got a little machine that’s 50 watts per channel, and it will out-pound the 700-watt beast,” he said. “In addition, the sound is very well reproduced and very high fidelity. Don’t get hung up on numbers. Give it a listen.” And, sorry, but MP3 devices and iPods are no substitute for CDs in a home theatre system, according to Sanford. “[iPods] are not going to give you the range, the bass and all the detailing you are going to get from that CD or DVD.” As for keeping the neighbours awake, small wall speakers will not typically cause problems because they reproduce mid- to high-range frequencies that do not travel easily through walls. It is the low frequencies from subwoofers that can generate vibrations and cause problems, said Colombo. “And the only solution for that is the volume knob.