Home Cinema in a tiny room

Kid A

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Hi, I want an all in one surround system for my bed room as its the only place I can usualy get to watch any of my films. However the room is tiny and Im not really sure what kind of set up I should use. Ive looked at the Pioneer DCS313 and it looks to have everything that I want from a system what does every one else think? would this be suitable? bear in mind thats its only for a bed room and so doent nessacerilly need to be the best system ever just pretty good.

thanks for any help in advance! :)
 
Ideal system, worth considering the DCS515 if you can stump up the cash, as the wireless rear speaker would save you hiding cables from front to back and only needs a plug socket.
Pioneer claim that height (floor to ceiling) doesn't have much bearing on the quality and after testing this there really isn't to much bad effect!
Downside is retail of DCS313 £330 and DCS515 £500
Offers about are fairly good.
 
I'm not sure the DCS313 is the ideal system. Its main selling point is powerful 75w per channel output.

Here's the What Hifi review;

With a bulk reminiscent of an old school video recorder, the pioneer dV313 won't be saving any space beneath your television, but bigger doesn't necessarily mean better.

Its size gives the main unit a solid feel, but the staid design offers little in the way of style, with only a single blue standby light giving it any sort of aesthetic appeal. thankfully the slim, sloping satellite speakers and tall subwoofer look more attractive, and Pioneer claims its kit offers a relatively high 75w for each channel, making it supposedly the most powerful system on test.

As with the other models here there's digital decoding for a range of dolby surround formats including prologic II music, and its compatible with just about any disc you care to feed it, including cdr/cdrw, mp3 and picture encoded discs. There's also a standard RDS tuner with 30 presets.

Setting up the system is aided by colour coded cables and a sensible remote that devotes its space to primary functions. Two cursors guide you through the various advanced surround settings, which are easily calibrated by adjusting distance and channel levels from onscreen displays, while less used functions are hidden by a sliding hood. The unit itself has a single RGB scart connection, as well as an optical-digital input and both stereo analogue inputs and outputs.

Although performance levels at this price point are never going to be amazing, we were disappointed by the overall standard of picture quality in this group and the Pioneer is especially guilty. Images appear as if the screen's been smeared with a thin coat of vasaline, leaving the sort of soft focus edges usually associated with artistic photography. Watch any fast motion sequence - we tried a number of fight scenes from the remastered 'Way of the dragon' and there's noticable fizz and undefined lines that are more a product of video imaging than Bruce Lee's legendary dexterity. Theres also a problem with digital noise, which creates a grainy resolution, particularly in shadowy scenes.

Otherwise the colour balance isn't bad, but on the whole the DV313's picture is distinctly average and the sound isn't much better. Although the amplification provides enough power, the system lacks dynamics which, combined with hollow sounding bass leaves even energetic scores sounding dull and indifferent. Similarly, the steering is less than seamless and during the effects laden Behind Enemy Lines we noticed speakers firing in sequence without the smooth integration we normally expect.

But this is an entry level product and it would be harsh to over analyse the specifics considering the minimal cost involved. however even among its contemporaries the pioneer is no more than mediocre.

For.
***

simple setup, powerful sound

Against.
*******

Cumbersome design, soft edges, poor surround sound steering.

Verdict

A beast whose bark is worse than its bite.

3/5
 
Hi, Kid A.

If it helps, I run a Pioneer DCS-303 in a three by three metre room and find it more than enough. There appear to have been some changes to the 313; but, particularly if you are in a room of a similar size, the 313 should at least be adequate - as should almost any other all-in-one of a similar spec and price.

Incidentally, the worst prices that I have seen on the 313 and 515 were £280 and £420 (for multi-region boxes).

Finally, if the number of mentions within recent forum postings can be used as a guide to quality and satisfaction, you may also like to consider the three Panasonic systems of a similar price (SC-HT500, SC-DT310, SC-HT900).

Whatever your eventual purchase, enjoy! :smashin:
 
Kid A,

I just want to add a couple of systems that you may not consider because of the lack of imgage. Andy572 are correct about that most systems even cheaper ones, will be well enough in your tiny bedroom.

Mundokev and akarit1 already praising their heart out for the new Eltax Nova system (Eltax is Danish and very big in speakers, and as in Jamo, they are entering the all-in-one, and it seems that they will succeed big time) for only £120 at RS shops (£150 only a week ago) - [ulr=http://www.richersounds.com/index.php?f=itemdetl.php&p=301888]eltaxnova[/url] - They say it plays every discs so far (multi-reg) , including mp3's and jpegs, and the sound is excellent. Picture wise you have to ask them about.

Bonzobonanza recommends the Samsung HTDM-150 for only £150 at sky buy - his thread http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123364]samsunghtdm150[/url] - He and magazine reviews praises it very much both sound and picture, and that based on £300 price. The only omission is no DPLII.

If you do want to spend the extra cash, then Panasonic SCHT500 (£200), Pioneer DCS313 (£203) - all prices at RS shops and includes multi-reg, btw, RS are rarely beaten on prices on these all-in-ones. Both of them have quite many owners here, and vast majority are more than pleased with the performances.

Wasabi
 
The Samsung HTDM150 has full Dolby Prologic II including various DSP effects. Its optical input also allows any input to it to be played in Dolby Digital, DTS or Prologic II which isn't true of all home cinema systems.

The main failing of the Samsung is it converts ntsc dvds to PAL 50hz display output and it has no s-video output or component output just composite and RGB. However RGB picture quality is far superior to s-video and a lot of tvs don't do ntsc very well anyway so these factors won't be a problem to a lot of people.

However as skybuy seems to be the only source of the samsung and don't seem to know what they are doing at the moment I would suggest anyone buying one buys with a credit card only so they are fully protected.
 
I have to be honest, I have a 313 set and its smaller than a vcr! :|

Length ways its the same size as a normal hifi serperate, or slightly smaller, I don't see how that can mean its poor.

IMO, that review is very, very bad, the surround sound is better than my cinema, which normally is very good!
 
I have to be honest, I have a 313 set and its smaller than a vcr! :|

Er no its frigin big its depth especially although from left to right from the front its slightly bigger than a VCR, depth ways from viewing from side left to right is very long. As it houses some powerful amp power i believe.

The pio 313 i got from richer sounds for 189 with a free scart - 6audio lead as a price beat item, respectivly Richersounds adjusted there price to just under £200 notes.

I never saw the review there and frankly is crap picture is superb the only thing lacking is treble a bit but can be componsated easily by upping it a few notches. (not many all in ones do bass/treble adjustments i think)

The sound if at 30 is rather good and powerful and dvds playing is a delight in dolby digital 5.1 I havent been able to experiance DTS or Dolby Prologic2 yet but i will in the next month or so.

The WHAT - HIFI site (owner of these here forums i belive) has a good review of the pioneer dcs/dv313 and urge u to read it to understand its points.

The only thing i can fault is its blue led light on the front middle which is rather strong in brightness. All i do is if im in the dark watchin a film is put a bit of card over and its gone :)

I got it 2 weeks ago now and am loving it :)
 
To be honest i don't see why the pioneer 313 isn't suitable. Its reasonably cheap, it offers adequate quality of sound, and personally the more oomph it has in kicking out bass and volume the better (my neighbours don't mind that much)
 
The 313 was used downstairs when we had a lot of friends round last week, the room is about 4 meters wide and about 12 meters long.

Sounded fine there so there is no problem with it being in a room of any size, apart from the speaker wire! :D

EDIT: And I also don't see how it being the same size as a normal dvd player or slightly larger than most VCRs can be held against it!

It houses 6 amps, a dvd player, a processor, a tuner all in one unit...
 
mmm if the bedroom is your only choice,then go for it. i know grimleys has his in the bedroom, although i doubt his system has been really allowed to let rip. for an all in one system bedrooms are perfect, but for seperates..in my opinion forrget it. richer sounds do have some cracking all in one systems
 
The Eltax Nova is very slim and the rear speakers are small but decent sounding, and hang in the corners of the walls very discretely

Currently on offer at Richer Sounds for around £99

You could always trial it and if you are not happy get a refund, as their customer service is excellent

I have my system in the bedroom which is about 3x4 yds and have just bought a bigger videologic setup for the living room (can't get enough of surround sound at the mo)

Hope this helps
 
If chooseing between the DSC313 and the NSDV99 is the latter worth the extra
 

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