OTHER TECH

With champagne metal faceplates highlighted by amber displays, these components stand out from the silver-and-blue crowd. So do the satellite speakers, which have a handsome woodgrain vinyl finish and are much larger than those in the other two systems. The front L/R speakers are actually minitowers, and at nearly 20 inches tall, the black finished subwoofer is substantial. Each of the front speakers has two 31/2-inch midrange drivers and a 1-inch tweeter; the surrounds have one of each. The sub has an 8-inch driver and a built-in 60-watt amplifier, and it's the only one of the three subs with its own level and crossover frequency controls - they're mounted on the front panel along with the port.

Setting up the Onkyo system required about the same effort as would be required for any system of conventional components. No color setup poster. The supplied, bare-ended wire connects to binding posts on all the satellite speakers. The receiver has binding posts for the front L/R outputs and spring-loaded terminals for the other channels. The onscreen setup menu lets you balance levels for each speaker, but time delay must be set in pairs for the L/R front and surround speakers.

A shielded RCA cable is provided to connect the subwoofer to the receiver. One unfortunate inconvenience: while the DVD player has component-video outputs, the receiver has no component-video switching. So to view the receiver's onscreen displays, you'll have to also run a separate cable to a composite- or S-video input on the TV. Both Onkyo remotes leave much to be desired, with barely differentiated keys - all small, either gray or black and round or oval shaped - and a cursor pad in the center. At least the receiver remote has two large volume up/down bars on the bottom.

The Onkyo components include a nearly full array of analog and digital inputs and outputs. The receiver lacks only a digital audio output, although the DVD player has one in both optical and coaxial flavors. A front-panel stereo button, duplicated on the remote, lets you jump directly between a surround mode and stereo - you don't have to cycle through the array of surround settings. Like the Kenwood/Boston Unity, the Onkyo receiver includes Dolby Pro Logic II decoding/processing.

In every respect, the Onkyo system delivered, from the grand to the subtle. Jungle noises, the patter of rain, metal against metal, and the crinkle of paper - all sounded real. The machine-gun fire and bombs burst with chest-punching power. Voices sounded natural, with a nice depth. The segment of the movie featuring The Ride of the Valkyries rekindled my memories of hearing it in the movie theater. Music fared equally well, with satisfying depth and natural color. The bass sounded tighter than on the other two systems. These components and speakers could be the primary music system in a small to medium-size room.

You'll pay more for the Onkyo HTS-L5 system, and setting it up will take longer. In contrast, even a novice could set up either the Sony or Kenwood/Boston system in less than an hour, and using either of them is more straightforward, too. But what you'd give up in exchange would be the Onkyo system's better sound quality. It's your call which is worth more to you.

Only a couple of years ago, it seemed as if you'd need a job with a rising dot-com to assemble a great-sounding DVD-based home theater system. These three systems show that captivating home theater has gotten more affordable. Admittedly, none of them has the huge dynamic range and ultra-low distortion of more expensive separates, nor all the flexibility and customizability that A/V perfectionists demand. But depending on your situation, any one of these three could enable you to transform a modest space into a convincing home theater at reasonable cost.