Home Theater Speaker Systems

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My name is Michael Fallert. I am with the Sound Shop in Colorado Springs. And today we are going to talk about home theater speaker systems.

There are a lot of choices out there and they run the full range of steady choices if you will from an in wall like this. A steady click very pleasing but you are going to compromise a little bit on you sound quality. When you start talking about the physical speaker like a book shelf or a floor standing speaker, you are going to get richer mid base, you are going to get low end out of them. They are going to have a much more audio presence if you will but they are also going to take up some of the room, you are giving up some real estate forms so that is a choice you have to make.

Another good choice is on wall speakers there is quite a few of those available from a lot of manufactures and all sizes, shape and prices. In a theater speaker systems set up what is the most important is determining whether your room is large enough for 7.1 or 5.1. In a 5.1 system what you have is your left and right font main speakers, a center channel which is really critical. That is a very important choice because it is going to handle about 90% of the dialog you hear while watching a movie is going to come out of a combination from the center to left and right. Then, your two rears 5.1 or in a 7.1 you would have rears and rear surrounds. The important thing to realize on the rears is that they are not a directional or should not be a directional speaker like a front speaker.

The front speakers in the center are going to face right at you directionally and they are going to point right at your sound voice. The rears really are design to be more of a rear field so you will hear a surround image but not be able to identify exactly where it is coming from. That is why a lot of people choose on wall Dipolar which have multiple speaker facing different directions or they do in ceiling which gives you very good diffusion under the room. It is gives you a large sound area. But in the point one part that is another important key element to the entire surround system and that is your subwoofer. And most scenarios people go with the single subwoofer.

In reality a 5.2 if you will or a 7.2 is going to work better for you. You are much better to get two small subwoofers on the room than one large because it is going to help get away from the standing waves and the cancellation that a single subwoofer creates and the easiest way to find that out is if you are going to a room that has a single subwoofer you can close your eyes and listen and go on you the subwoofer right there but if you are going at same room that has a sub on each side in the front you cannot identify where it is at which helps eliminate the distraction when you are watching your movie. It is all about the video and you want to watch the screen or the display and enjoy it and you do not want the destructions of being able subconsciously you are going okay there is a subwoofer right over there in the corner. That is not the way it is suppose to be.

When you are picking all these things out just take care to do what is best for you room and THX tile theater a lot of people get hang up on that. THX is a system of checks and balances if you will. It is a certification program designed for our industry and everything from speaker wires to amplifiers can be THX certified. What that means is they pass a series of tests so that you are kind of guaranteed what you are buying is on good quality. What it does not mean is that if you buy a receiver and amplifier that THX rated and there is that real big pretty button that says THX, that does not mean pushing up button going to sound better in your room because THX is really designed for rooms that are 20 x 30 or larger. If you got a smaller room and you put it into THX listening mode the equalization that is going to go on when you push that button is really not going to enhance the listening experience in your room. Do not let that be your guiding light when you are looking at a receiver. Buy a receiver that has the power you need, the inputs and the price that you are looking for.

The only other major advancement in the audio in this pass year has been in the room of Blu-ray. That is one of the big things you hear about when you looking the Blu-rays and that is the fact that there are different levels of Blu-ray and when you get to the second level if you will they use the term called HD or True HD and what that really means is that it is uncompressed multi channel audio. If you buy a movie, a Blu-ray movie that has been embedded in that way. The listening experience should be fuller, it should be richer because the music is not being digitally compressed and then uncompressed. That is another choice. Any speaker however, that you pick is going to be HD or SD or True Audio or True HD, whatever marketing level they put out there that you listen too is irrelevant because every speaker you buy is going to be capable of doing that.

Well, that is about it for home theater speaker systems and the set up and the choices out there. Thanks a lot.