The home theatre deal breaker?
Sound Components
There's a lot more to your ultimate home theater than having a nice big screen in your living room. A good sound system makes more difference than you might think, especially with today's 3D audio systems that put you right inside the action.
In the old days, high fidelity home theater meant having your VCR output its audio through a stereo and played through a pair of speakers -- the magic of stereo! (Back then, telephones had dials, and the dodo bird still walked the shores of Mauritius.)
Most musical recordings are still in stereo today, but movies and various kinds of programming -- and hence home theater systems -- now support 5, 6, even 7 speakers that put you in the center of a 3D soundscape that makes home-movie watching a significantly richer experience.
And although your video screen is very important, your sound system makes just as much difference in how you perceive your watching experience. The video provides the picture, but the audio goes a long way toward how much you feel connected to the picture and the action happening on the screen -- that special in- theater feeling.
Let's take a look at the audio components that you might consider including in your setup. These are the pieces that you'll investigate on the subsequent pages. Don't let this list scare you at the outset -- you don't need all these pieces to have a fine home theater system.
- Audio and video receiver
- Front speakers (left, right, and center)
- Side speakers (left and right)
- Here's what you might add for a souped-up version:
- Power amplifier
- Subwoofer speaker
- Rear speakers (left and right, both playing the same signal)
Before you go building your ultimate 3D audio experience, the next section takes a quick look into what kinds of movies support surround sound and whether it's worth your while.
What's Playing?
Before you empty your wallet at the surround sound store, make sure that the kinds of movies and programming you like to watch will be particularly enhanced by surround sound.
If you buy a multispeaker setup, you'll be able to hear any movie or other source through all the speakers, but not all movies or shows are mixed in separate channels. You only get the special 3D effect if the audio of the program itself is split into the full complement of channels that your system can support. (Each channel being a different audio mix that goes to a different speaker.)
Recent movies typically support surround sound, but flicks from the 1970s and 1980s do not. And classics such as Breakfast at Tiffany's or Hud were recorded in mono, meaning the audio isn't even split into stereo.
This isn't to say you shouldn't get surround sound if you're an old-movie buff, just that you'll shake in your boots a lot more to The Matrix than Forbidden Planet from the 1950s.
Speakers
All this talk about audio leads to one thing: the place where the signal meets the air and sound is made -- your speakers.
Surround sound speaker setups can have as few as three or as many as seven speakers. Let's take a look at the possibilities.
These are the basic speaker types:
Front stereo - left and right: These two are the ones you're used to; a left and a right speaker in front of you. Just like on your stereo.
Front center: The front center speaker is sort of like MSG for your stereo picture, it pulls together the sound from the left and right front stereo speakers and makes it all sound better. In 5.1 and up systems, it is usually the main output for voice audio.
Subwoofer: - puts the boogie in the bottom. It reinforces the deep bass sounds and usually sits on the floor, primarily used for those explosive sound effects which you want to shake the room. It's not really for listening to, more for "feeling".
Surround speakers - left and right: The left and right surround speakers point toward the viewers from the sides and bring the sound out and around you, having the effect of placing you inside the action on the screen, thereby, providing 3D sound effects.
Rear surround speaker(s): - brings up the rear, and are similar in effect to the front center speaker in pulling together the sound from the sides. They also enhance the feeling that you're "inside" the action.
These are the basic surround sound options (not showing subwoofers).
Which Speakers and How Many to Get?
Okay, so you get the whole notion about speakers being all around you, but how do you decide how powerful a speaker system to get, and how many speakers to get? This depends on two factors:
- Your room
- What kind of receiver you get and which surround sound formats it will play
Your Room
You might not think of your home theater room itself as an acoustical member of your theater -- but it is! Your room itself has as much bearing on the sound you'll get as your speakers. Here are rules to follow about how to match a sound system to your room:
Small room:
You don't need a lot of power in a small room, so you can often get away with a home theater in a box, which is a prepackaged audio setup with five small speakers, an A/V (audio/video) tuner, and a DVD player. Home theaters in a box are discussed at the end of this lesson.
Medium-sized room: You need more power in a medium-sized room, which can come from a higher-end home theater in a box with bigger speakers, or a decent set of five surround speakers and a subwoofer.
Big room:
In a big room, you can really get that big-theater sound. Of course, it costs you a little more. Big rooms not only show off full surround sound, but also require more power from your speakers. You want a good strong subwoofer, and if you're committed and serious, a six or seven speaker set up and an A/V receiver that supports that many channels and Dolby Digital EX or DTS-ES formats.
Receivers
Your A/V receiver is the brains of your system. It's the box that takes the video and audio source and splits it into as many channels as you need for your particular speaker and video setup.
Here's where things get confusing: there are many different formats for surround sound, depending on the source, such as a DVD or an HDTV broadcast, and depending on your receiver. However, a single A/V receiver can play more than one standard, so just make sure you cover the bases you think you need to cover. There's one standard that is nearly ubiquitous, however, and that's Dolby Digital.
TIP - Most A/V receivers these days play the basic surround formats of up to five speakers. However, if you want to expand to six or seven speakers, look into receivers that support Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES formats.
Formats
So are you ready to delve into the audio formats that your receiver may or may not play? Someday the field will be narrowed down, but because this is all emerging technology, for the time being, it's a big field. The following are some of the audio formats you may encounter:
Dolby Pro Logic II: This standard supports up to five speakers (plus subwoofer) and is well regarded. It does a good job of splitting regular stereo audio, such as radio and CDs.
Dolby Digital EX: This one can give you the full tricked-out seven-speaker (plus subwoofer) sound. However, not many DVDs support EX, nor do many receivers, so although this standard sounds good, it's probably not worth it.
Dolby Headphone: In case your viewing needs require you to watch with headphones on, this simulates a 3D sound environment through stereo headphones.
Dolby Digital: You may recognize the name Dolby, which has been in the business of professional and consumer sound for many years and has been behind major developments in the movie theater and in the home. Much the way VHS wasn't the best video format but became the dominant home-video standard, Dolby Digital isn't the best-sounding surround sound format, but nevertheless it's the winning standard in the 3D audio race. Nearly every DVD is encoded for Dolby Digital, and the emerging programming for HDTV also favors this standard. Just about any A/V receiver supports the Dolby Digital format.
DTS (Digital Theater Sound): You've read a lot about Dolby, but there's another player in the surround sound field: DTS, sort of the Pepsi to Dolby's Coke. The basic format by this company is called -- surprise -- DTS. This one plays up to five speakers (plus subwoofer), and the sound quality is very good. Most A/V receivers play DTS, but not as many DVDs are encoded to play DTS as Dolby Digital.
DTS Neo: 6: This is DTS' bigger standard, playing through up to seven speakers (plus subwoofer), although DTS' ETS standard -- the next one listed -- is more advanced.
DTS ES: DTS's heavy-hitter presents a better 3D audio picture than most, but A/V receivers do not universally support the format, and few DVDs are encoded to play it. These detractors render this format generally not worth the trouble.
THX: Although it's not quite a format, it's another three-letter audio buzzword that you should know. You may recognize the name and logo from movie posters. THX is a company started by George Lucas in the 1980s to take movie-house audio to new heights, and has moved into the home theater realm. The company not only develops audio technologies, but also oversees certification of systems that meet its high standards. What does that mean to you? Basically, that any home theater gear that is THX certified meets very high standards for audio reproduction. THX-certified components are generally higher-end systems, and THX certifies all parts of the system, from receivers to speakers. THX is not a surround sound format; rather it's a certification rating for high-quality systems.
Power Amps
There's one final aspect to your audio system that you should consider, especially if your theater is in a large room: a power amplifier.
Power amps are never a required component, but if you build your system and it's lacking in oomph (and your A/V receiver has the right ports), a power amplifier gives your audio system more juice.
Music, Sweet Music
There's now another option for music-lovers: new 3D audio formats which generally play from special audio DVDs:
DVD-Audio: You think your CDs sound good? DVD-Audio plays music at a much higher resolution (meaning way better sound quality) and plays in surround sound (5.1). What's more, it has room for some video and interaction as well as a version of the audio that plays on regular DVD players.
Not all that many albums are available in DVD-Audio, and you need a special DVD-Audio receiver to play these CDs.
SACD (Super-Audio CD): Similar in ways to DVD-Audio, SACDs play much-higher-than-CD-quality audio; they also sometimes play surround sound and sometimes include versions of the audio for play in regular CD and DVD players. As with DVD-Audio, not very many albums are available on SACD.
DTS 96/24: This audio DVD standard is by DTS, and plays in regular DVD players, although your receiver needs to support it. It also plays video.
Home Theater in a Box
Now that you have unraveled the multitude of home theater components, standards, and funky acronyms, you can forget all you've learned and consider buying it all at once with a home theater in a box. Such systems provide every part of your home theater except for the TV -- typically including a DVD player, an A/V receiver, and usually a 5.1 speaker setup.
Are these systems worth pursuing? Well, that depends. At the lower end, they tend to be dinky and tinny. (Do the math on a $200 system that gives you seven pieces, and you figure the manufacturer probably spent $15 on each piece -- not apt to rock your world). However, some of these systems give you a great value and are very convenient to buy and set up because the system is designed to work together.
The biggest downside to home theaters in a box is that they typically lack a rich bass sound. However, this matters less if your home theater is in a smaller room.
If appearances matter greatly to you, many makers of these setups offer quite a bit of style for the money.
WARNING - It's best to avoid home theaters in a box that use wireless transmission to the speakers. Seems like a good idea to do away with all those cables, but sound quality will suffer.
Stylish surround sound systems.
Cabling
Now that you've learned about the multichannel 3D high-fidelity whiz-bang audio technology that will make your sound system blow your mind, turn for a moment to the lowly cable.
At the end of your audio shopping spree, the last thing on your mind is cables, and they sometimes cost more than you think they should. But don't scrimp on cabling, especially if your system came with cheapo cables. Your high-quality audio system will not sound good if the quality signal doesn't make it all the way to your speakers. You want cabling that is 16-gauge or bigger (note that the smaller the number, the bigger the wire).
