Choosing The Best Home Theatre Audio System
April 25, 2008 | Audio Considerations
Since the early 1970’s when Dolby introduced the first surround sound theatre system, our expectations for the way we listen to music and movies has been ever evolving.
Nothing short of perfection is expected in our home theatre audio systems. Home theatre systems are becoming more and more popular in today’s society. We want all the features that a cinema has to offer, but with the creature comforts of home. With so many new people installing home theatres, home theatre audio systems have been brought to task, and are evolving at the speed of sound.
Setting Up Your Home theatre Audio System
When setting up a home theatre audio system, one of the most important things to take into consideration is the size of the room you will be installing it in. With a smaller room you may only need the bare minimum of speakers. Three, to be exact, is a good number of home theatre audio speakers to install if your room is quite small. Be sure that you have one subwoofer, and two side channels if you are only going to be using three speakers. The speaker on your television set will provide the center speaker home theatre audio sound that you would otherwise gain with more speakers.
With a larger room, I have found that a home theatre audio system sounds best when it includes: one center speaker, two front side speakers, two rear side speakers, and one subwoofer, for a total of six speakers. A good way to get the most out of your home theatre audio system’s subwoofer, is to either cover it with a wicker basket, or to turn it so that it is facing a wall. Turning it toward the wall will, in essence, turn the entire wall into a home theatre audio system subwoofer.
Quality And Value
When shopping for a home theatre audio system, it is easy to mistake high price for high quality. While many systems that are higher priced do have better sound than ones less expensive, such is not always the case. It is a good idea to ask your sales representative if there is a listening room, where you can hear the sound quality of several home theatre audio systems, before making a final choice. Most stores have one, and are happy to show off their various systems available.
My personal favorite is the Bose home theatre audio system, as it allows for the sound quality of a large system, while only utilizing a few speakers. Whichever system you choose, if you choose wisely, you will have many years of enjoyment from your home theatre audio system.
