Heading to the closest cinema hall for every blockbuster was never a viable option for most of us, even in the pre-pandemic era. You may not want to slip out of your comfortable pyjamas after a tiring week of work and commute, fix your hair on an especially bad hair day, or blow a mini-fortune on caramel popcorn, or fizzy drinks full of empty calorie. Sometimes, you would watch movies on TV at home, but settling for an awfully average AV experience, and giving a miss to that room-filling experience with ultra-realistic surround sound, is a total buzz-kill.
Now post-pandemic, as the situation is, most of us would like to have an amazing home theatre system, to temporarily escape from the sense of uncertainty, and transcend from the state of panic to an immersive world of splendour. But the idea of remodeling a living space to accommodate a bulky home theatre system sounds exhausting, and you decide to stall it, further.
But first, are you technically inclined to study individual components in detail?
It takes time and patience to examine every minutiae of a modern, high-end home cinema set-up, and design a system that caters to your needs. If you are serious about setting up a true surround-sound system with sonically matched components, you need to research everything from speakers, subwoofers, amplifiers, AV receivers, cables, impedance matching, and so on and so forth. Processing all this information can be exhausting. This is where a Home Theatre-in-A-Box (HTIB) can give you a dedicated, well matched, high-fidelity home theatre system, minus all the fuss, guesswork and expense.
Now let’s deep-dive into how a Home-Theatre-in-A-Box works, the ease and convenience it offers, and a few good recommendations to check out.
What is a Home-Theater-in-a-Box?
A Home-Theatre-in-A-Box, or HTIB, is a whole home theatre system that has most of the components provided in a single package. The unique selling point for the bundled HTIB is to deliver an out-of-box, plug and play experience, especially for the beginner home theater enthusiasts, in a budget set-up, with enough room for an upgrade or expansion in future.
An all-in-one Home-Theatre-in-a-Box incorporates an AV-receiver/amplifier, timbre-matched speakers, and a subwoofer. Usually this bundled package includes all the necessary cables and wires for a quick and easy set-up. HTIB is a sensible step-up to a cohesive and high-quality sound system without crossing your budget threshold.
What are the advantages of Home-Theater-in-a-Box systems?
Easy compatibility
A home-theatre-in-a-box eliminates the compatibility issues between the various components of your home theatre system. Every equipment bundled with your HTIB is from a single brand, so you are not busy spreeing, in picking and pairing components. The highly optimized components give you peace of mind, and you don’t have to break into a sweat about figuring out complexities centring around impedance and timbre matching.
Even with the complex surround setups such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, the package integrates all the equipment needed, optimally. For someone who is not too familiar with the tech-specs, it is a major respite.
Done-for-You solution
Leading brands also take care of meticulously designing, building and integrating surround sound technologies so you can indulge in an all-in-one, plug and play immersive home theatre experience. They are the best-fit for people who do not have prowess in electronics, and want to opt for user-friendly and easy to set up systems.
Cost-effectiveness
A home-theatre-in-a-box is a winning combination that comes at an attractive pricing and saves you a significant amount of money, as it eliminates the requirement of buying individual equipment or components separately. Also, the manufacturers save a reasonable amount in packaging, logistics and inventory management, and pass on this cost benefit to the customer.
Aesthetically appealing and compact design
HTIBs are usually compact enough to save you enough space to ensure a clutter-free home, and even keep scope for further expansion in future. They come with their unique aesthetic signature, blend with your interiors, and are ideal if you have space constraints in your house, eliminating the need to remodel your room to accommodate the bulky equipment.
Hassle-free installation
Along with the perfect aural experience, HTIB also offers the convenience of easy installation and use. They pack a punch with easier, less-technical user manuals, colour coded wiring, video guides, on screen instructions and much more. Alongside, calibration microphones and EQ plugins accentuate acoustic optimization for different rooms.
Top 5 parameters to decide if it is a good option for you
- If compact and easy-to-use system trumps other technical nuances for you
- If you are not very critical of the audio and video quality and can make peace with the pre-set modes.
- If you have a tight budget, HTIB will ease the burden on your wallet
- If you don’t have a very large space and your living room is relatively smaller
- If you don’t have the time and patience to scour for different equipments, deals and building a majestic home theatre system
Our top recommendations for you
First up is the Onkyo HT-S5915 - a 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X Home Theater in a box package. It integrates the HT-R495 7.1-Channel AV Receiver, a pair of SKF-596 2-Way Bass-Reflex Front Speakers with upward-firing Full-Range Acoustic-Suspension Height channel Speakers, a SKC-594 center channel speaker, a pair of the SKR-594 for the surround channels and a SKW-658 a down-firing 80W (RMS) powered subwoofer.
Onkyo HT-S5915 is one of the most affordable options for a 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X setup for smaller spaces.
Another one is the Onkyo HT-S7800 — a 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X Home Theater in a box package. It integrates the HT-R695 7.1-Channel 4K Network AV Receiver, a pair of SKF-693 2-Way Bass-Reflex Front Speakers with upward-firing Full-Range Acoustic-Suspension Height channel Speakers, a SKC-591N center channel speaker, a pair of the SKR-590 for the surround channels and a SKW-591 a down-firing 120W (RMS) powered subwoofer.
Onkyo HT-S7800 is a great option for a 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos and DTS:X setup for mid-sized spaces.
A final word on home-theatre-in-a-box systems
While it would be a good idea to check out our top recommendations, we suggest you also explore our meticulously curated collection of home-theater-in-a-box packages that offer great bang for your buck.
Don’t be fooled by their size, even if these “starter kits” don’t look anything close to their over-the-top counterparts. Consider your individual preferences, make a judicious choice, and you will be surprised to see how these sleek budget systems can outpace your expectations, whether you are a gamer, music enthusiast or a cinephile.
