Audio Video News

New home buyers with $20,000 to $40,000 to spare for home entertainment can turn to Sony's expandable, installation-ready NHS-3020 system. Sony says the system provides discrete control and support of audio and video content for a 7.1-channel home theater, with the resources to control up to 12 additional rooms of audio and video.

The NHS-3020 system comes with five sources; a 400-disc DVD changer, a 400-disc CD changer, a combo DVD recorder/VCR, a 5-disc DVD player, and an AM/FM tuner. The system has the ability to play each source independently, and if you have an enormous credit on a Best Buy gift card you can fill the components with a total of 406 DVDs and 400 CDs - any of which can be played back separately in any of the 12 connected rooms. (If you have 12 additional rooms to connect, that is. In my home, we'd have to include both bathrooms, the patio, the garage, the cat's bed, and the attic.)

Obviously, the system is designed for the "semi-custom and custom home markets." Although the system doesn't come cheap, there are some savings to be had by incorporating it into a new-construction home. Sony's new system comes programmed, pre-wired, and installed in a Middle Atlantic rack and is ready to be incorporated into the home. All the on-site integrator needs to do is pre-wire the home with standard wiring and plug the system in after it arrives.

Included in the system is the customer's choice of a Sony HDTV (flat-panel LCD, rear-projection, or front-projection). The system is controlled by a pre-programmed LCD touch-screen remote for the main theater and in-wall LCD keypads with separate remotes for the connected rooms. Sony provides a one-year limited warranty with in-home diagnostic service and advance exchange (when necessary). For $40,000, it would be nice if a Sony technician could move in for a few months just to be on hand to answer any questions...but that's not part of the package.