Five Tips For Buying a Home Entertainment System

By Ross MacIver

Looking for a new home entertainment system? Here are five tips for choosing the best model for your home environment.

1. Choose a system that can be expanded. Most of your music collection may be on CDs, but with the growing popularity of DVD audio you don't want to be left behind. Even if you are only interested in stereo sound make sure you buy a system that can be adapted to new technologies. This includes video as well as audio mediums. Buy a stereo system for now, but make sure it has surround sound capabilities.

Also consider whether you want your home entertainment system accessible in different parts of the house. An expandable system allows you to place speaker systems and playback modules in different rooms so that you can enjoy home entertainment throughout the house.

2. Buy a system with enough power. This goes hand-in-hand with the previous tip. Don't buy a unit which has just enough power for your current needs, but rather, think about how you will be expand it in the future. Surround sound speaker systems require more power than stereo, and satellite speakers systems installed in other rooms also require extra power.

Dedicated power amps for different parts of your home entertainment system can make a vast difference in the quality of sound. For example, a subwoofer amp can take the load off the rest of your system will providing massively deep bass sounds.

3. Choose a system that matches your entertainment preferences. If you are mainly interested in DVD video a surround sound speaker system can add amazing authenticity to your viewing experience. On the other hand, if you mostly listen to classical music, divide your budget so that you can get a good set of stereo speakers. If you like rap or hip-hop you should choose speakers designed for bass heavy music -- a subwoofer is a necessity.

4. Make it backwards compatible. Many people still have a sizable collection of VHS tapes and vinyl records. Rather than throwing out these valuable sources of entertainment, make sure your new entertainment system can handle them. 5. Buy the best you can afford. It's a waste of money to buy inferior components for your home entertainment system. You will quickly become dissatisfied with them and end up ditching them. If you have a limited budget, divide it up wisely. Rather than starting with a full-featured audio and video home entertainment system, concentrate on a few components. As long as your system is expandable, you can continue adding new features as your budget allows.

About the Author
Ross MacIver is an audio enthusiast and author of the Audio How To Section of the http://www.selected-audio-reviews.com/.

Bang & Olufsen: BeoCenter 2

BeoCenter 2 is a complete entertainment centre for the living room and, with BeoLink, for the whole house. It adds DVD playback to CD and radio sources, including optional DAB radio (where available). Combined with a Bang & Olufsen television and any BeoLab loudspeaker, you are guaranteed a sensational picture and sound experience. One light touch to the smooth button-less surface of BeoCenter 2, and its polished aluminium wings glide aside to reveal a unique, integrated audio and video system.

Craftsmanship at your fingertips
Elliptical in form with gentle curves, the polished aluminium surface of BeoCenter 2 issues an invitation to approach the unique soft-touch control pad. The ultra-thin polished aluminium is designed to discern a human touch. Just glide your finger along the surface and BeoCenter 2 responds. There are no buttons. The surface is reduced to a wafer-thin 0.5 mm around the operation panel and has been anodised five times to protect it from any signs of wear. The highly readable white text on the large, four-line display guides interaction, and displays additional information from music files, CDs, DVDs, and the RDS radio system. Contrast is adjusted automatically to light conditions, ensuring that the display text can always be read easily.

Hide away the nitty-gritty
The dual design is both innovative and practical: The majority of the processors and all external connections are in a separate socket unit that you can hide from view several meters away. A slim cable connects the socket unit to the control panel with its built-in CD and DVD player. BeoCenter 2 is as attractive on the wall, as it is on its stand or placed at a slight angle on a table.

Plays your favorite formats
BeoCenter 2 activates all your speakers in a surround sound setup when you are watching a movie. When you insert an audio CD, it will engage your left and right speakers, plus your BeoLab 2 subwoofer. BeoCenter 2 is particularly well suited for linking up with the all-digital BeoLab 5 loudspeaker. These come with their own bass drivers, making a separate woofer unnecessary. The multitalented drive will play MP3 and WMA music files from CDs, as well as show DivX movies and JPEG photos.

Let the experience follow you
Connect BeoCenter 2 with any BeoVision television and BeoLab loudspeaker system to produce a sound and picture experience that is truly sensational. Using BeoLink, BeoCenter 2 can deliver different signals to different parts of the house at the same time. You can watch a DVD from the comfort of your bedroom, piped from your BeoCenter 2 downstairs, while someone else is listening to MP3-music or the radio elsewhere in your home.