Home Theater Systems » Home Theater Speaker

Home Theater Speaker Systems

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:02:55 +0000

Home theater speaker systems comprise front stereo speakers, a center channel speaker, surround speakers, and a powered subwoofer.

Working together, these speakers create the surround sound experience of a professional movie theater in your living room. You will find several brands and models of good speakers; you have to ensure that they work as a cohesive unit. One very important aspect is voice matching. The best way to achieve this is choosing speakers from the same ‘family,’ by the same brand. Voice matching ensures a smooth flow of sound around you, creating a seamless surround effect.

The front left and right speakers offer a wide soundstage that combines with the video, creating a realistic movie experience. Apart from reproducing the musical score, front speakers also handle most of the special effects. You can find floor-standing speakers, bookshelf speakers, and satellite/subwoofer systems as front left and right speakers.

The center channel is a vital component of the home theater speaker system, delivering over 50% of the soundtrack, including almost all the dialogue of the film. Ideally, it should be located directly above or below your screen, because placing it elsewhere will disrupt the surround experience considerably. Choose its size in accordance with the sizes of the other speakers and the television set.

The surround speakers, apart from producing sounds like raindrops, or the rustling of leaves, also provides directional effects, such as a locomotive rushing by, a bullet whistling past, or the rumble of a spaceship. If the system includes a subwoofer, then most users prefer either bookshelf or satellite speakers requiring stand placement or wall mounting.

As most speakers can’t deliver that level of bass on their own, you need a subwoofer so that your home theater system delivers crucial low-frequency impact. A subwoofer can also enrich music listening; it is capable of rounding out all types of music, from classical to jazz to rock.

By: Marcus Peterson

Best Home Theater Speaker and Sub Woofer Types

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:27:41 +0000

Now lets decide on the the best home theater speaker and sub woofer that suits your needs and style. The speakers can be bought separately or as a unit. There are a number of complete systems available for sale now but it is best to stick to name brands. You can buy an Audio Receiver and hook your speakers into it, then run the output from the DVD player to the Receiver.. Be sure to read the directions carefully and take it step by step installing the system. You don’t have to buy the monster package with the quality cables and power protection but it does improve sound quality and protects against power surges and spikes.

Seperates are the way to go here, not those “All in one packages” sold everywhere. The larger the room, the more power in RMS Watt Output you will need. Most of the sales people that you will talk to, or the units that have the specs on them for you to read, normally give the power output in Peak Wattage. IGNORE THE PEAK WATTAGE NUMBER! It is a meaningless numeral in the industry. Find out the RMS(Root Mean Squared) Wattage, as this is the number you need to know. You may have a peak rating of 300 watts, but your RMS could be as low as 65 watts, or even lower! A good rule to keep in mind is 100 watts RMS.

Speakers are another matter. 5.1 is 5 speakers Left Main, Center, Right Main, Right Surround, Left Surround, and Subwoofer. 6.1 moves the rear surrounds to the side walls, and places a center surround in the rear. This system also requires a receiver built for 6.1 and these are not widely avalible. The speaker selection gives the system its voice. High Quality speakers are needed to correctly reproduce the signals fed to them. In typical setups there are the satellite speakers (5 in the case of a 5.1 surround system) and the subwoofer (which stands for the .1 in a 5.1 system).

Now for the Subwoofer. Subs sould have at least 200 watts RMS. Note that there is only one subwoofer because it produces the bass frequencies (anyway from 15Hz to 300Hz). This is because frequencies below about 250Hz are omni directional which means that your ears can hardly tell where the sound is coming from unlike the mid and high frequencies which are very directional. A good subwoofer usually has a response done to around 25Hz and is self-powered which means it has the amplifier built-in.

For the basic system get a receiver that is DTS ONBOARD not the “DTS Ready” garbage. DTS Ready means you will have to purchase an outboard DTS decoder, or a dvd player that has one built in. Many manufacturers are in this business, so take your time, shop around, and get the best home theater speaker and sub woofer that suits your need, style and budget.

By: Gasen Redeye

The Positioning The Home Theater Speakers

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:49:08 +0000

After the drag of buying a perfect home theater equipment is over, you can consider another important issue, so as to obtain the maximum from your newly acquired gadgets: how to position the speakers, because this is the main ingredient of a private realistic cinema. There is no specific location, marked with a big red cross, since your room might be rectangular, or round, your speakers may be five or nine etc. and your personal touch to the design of the room meant to become a home theater highlight preferences, and it counts whether you have children or not, pets and so on. However, you do have general essential guidelines to follow when choosing a most favourable placement of your home theater speakers.

The first thing when engaging in the positioning of the home theater speakers is deciding the place for the center channel speaker and of the television, because the center speaker is the major transmitter of the dialogue and sounds that occur during the movie, and behaves like an anchor of your TV set. Consequently, it must be placed on the top of the television or below it, and in case you are mounting it on the wall, it should be lined with the TV below, with its front edge to be more exact. This way you get the minimum of distortion of sound that is caused by sound reflecting and diffracting phenomena.

The second thing you need to consider about your home theater system is the placement of the left and right front speakers, because they mainly give the superb surround sound experience and enables you to actually hear the soundtrack of the movie to way it’s suppose to be heard: their positioning should be in the form of a small arc, lined up with the central speaker and at even distance one from another, ear-orientated. The precise measuring of the distance can help a great deal because an inch or two beyond the limit of your requirements can affect the correct output.

Surround speakers come in next, since they allow your home theater speaker placement to render the atmospheric sounds, the bangs and crashes of the movie you are watching. This is where your imagination comes in and there is no limit to how you should have an ideal home theater speaker placement, besides the fact that the surround speakers should obviously surround your perimeter.

However, these speakers should be lined up with your seating area or slightly behind it, as high or as low that they do not play directly at your ears, during your viewing a movie, but still, maintain them at ear level, measured up when you are standing, to be optimal when you are seated: try them out and see how you can get the best possible sound.

By: David Faulkner

How Wireless Home Theater Speakers End Wire Snarls

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:59:53 +0000

One of the downsides of having your own home theater is the giant snarl of wire that tends to come with the array of devices that make it up. Now, wireless home theater speakers prevent this problem, allowing you to experience movie theater quality sound without the mess of wires and cables ruining the look of the room. Wireless home theater speakers are relatively inexpensive, and have come on the market at the best time to take advantage of advances in home theater technology.

Dolby Surround Sound came onto the scene in the 1970s, making the movie-going experience even more vivid. People who want this experience in their homes have often created their own theaters, but these have been very expensive up until now. Wireless home theater speakers can solve some of this problem.

Instead of creating the surround sound experience by interconnecting many speakers to an amplifier that is hooked to all the other devices in your home theater, the wireless type of home theater speaker works through transmitter/receiver systems. This is much like the method used to control RC cars. Each device is fitted with the appropriate transmitter and receiver, and the sound signal is sent across the room without the need for cluttering wires. This also reduces the expense of home theater sound.

This lower price is not connected to a reduction in quality. The biggest companies in the home audio visual field produce wireless home theater speakers. Kenwood recently released the HTB-S620DV system, which has just as many features as their wired models, including Dolby Digital EX support and DTS sound support. Despite the low cost of only $600 for the Kenwood DVD and amplifier model, these are not low-quality, budget products, but the next thing in home theater entertainment.

Many other big name manufacturers such as Yamaha and Denon are tapping into the wireless home speaker market with products of their own. The new technology makes them comparatively cheaper than conventional technology, while still providing competitive sound quality and performance.

They don’t quite match up to the very high end wired systems, which use gold and copper in their connector cables, but wireless home theater systems are far more economical.

The average consumer won’t know the difference between wireless home theater speakers and those $5000 plus wired models. The market is expanding and the quality of wireless home theater speakers is improving all the time.

These systems offer an inexpensive solution for people who want their own home theater but can’t afford the costly speakers and don’t want to deal with all the wires. Wireless home theater systems are sure to replace the conventional wired type as technology continues to improve, and you can be at the forefront of the wireless home speaker movement.

By: Tomaz Mencinger

All About Home Theatre Speakers

admin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:44:34 +0000

A home theater is a combination of two types of media, video and audio. On the video side a home theater usually includes a big screen or a high definition TV set and a DVD or high definition DVD player. On the audio side, this system has a special receiver that has the ability to decode formats like Dolby Digital, and THX, and special speakers each positioned carefully.

If the home theater should have the capability to recreate the magic of movie theater, several speakers are required. In a normal home audio set up we have one receiver and two speakers. But in home theater we shall have more speakers.

The most common configuration for the best home theater is the 5.1 setup with right front channel, left front channel, a center channel, one channel that covers the left surround speakers and the one for left front channel. There is another low frequency channel that supports a sub woofer.

The front left channel speaker is extremely important and works with stereo. Both front left and right channels are sold in pairs and are quite powerful. The sound that comes from these two speakers is even because of the same dynamic range. Like the front left channel, the right channel speaker is able to handle a large range of signals.

The center channel speaker is usually located either underneath or above the television. It consists of one single speaker whose function includes handling mid range sound, and keeping the dialog in front. It is usually rectangular in shape.

The surround sound channel speakers are a set of two speakers situated behind the viewer or attached to brackets on the wall. The purpose of this speaker is to give the viewers a feel of the environment of the video.

The sub woofers can be placed anywhere in the room. A sub woofer can add to the enjoyment more by creating very low frequencies since it plays a major part in explosions, car engine sound, etc.

Now there are four types of home theater speaker systems. Home theater box set is the most common type. It usually includes 5 speakers and a separate sub woofer. This kind of speakers are extremely easy to set up. They are configured similar to each other to make sure that the audio is balanced and clear.

The second type of home theater satellite speakers are generally small sized speakers that are ensured to produce accurate sound. These kinds of speakers are perfect for small rooms. Just like the home theater box they come mostly with DVD players.

Customized home theater speaker is very popular because of the high-end components. These kinds of speakers are quite expensive and you will have to spend thousands for one individual speaker.

Home theater speaker system for computers is one of the emerging areas that is gaining popularity because of the interest in watching movies or downloading videos on computers. The price of these speakers is quite affordable.

By: Victor Epand