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5 Tips for Getting the Best Home Theater Sound Possible

This short, but SWEET, article will give you some tips on how to make sure your home theater delivers the sonic goods, giving you the best home theater sound your equipment is capable of.

Tip 1: Use the right speakers

This one is absolutely critical. Many people are simply using the wrong speakers in their home theater. If you are an enthusiast, and like listening at high SPLs, then there are very few speaker topologies that will reliably deliver the goods.

Tip 2: Keep seats away from walls and speakers

Simply put any ears should be minimum 4ft away from any speaker. Do not put seats near walls, especially a back wall, or you’ll lose surround sound envelopment and get boomy bass as well. A seat too close to a surround speaker will result in excessive localization.

Tip 3: Make sure you have enough subwoofers

If you have one row of seats you need two subwoofers. If you have two rows of seats you need at least four subs and possibly more.

Having an horn loaded mega sub will not give you smooth bass.  It will certainly give you a lot of it but you’ll also get massive peaks and dips across your listening area from rampant room modes and speaker boundary interference cancellations.

Tip 4: Don’t forget the acoustic treatment

Your audio system is only one half of the sound you get. The other half is the room. Room acoustics are a minefield of conflicting opinion and armchair experts. Our advice is to make sure you do the basics.

See full Story on www.acousticfrontiers.com

Things You Should Remember When Setting Up An HDMI Home Theater System

High definition televisions seem to be getting complex because of the different features added to them from time to time. Despite that complexity, however, home theater systems have become better than ever before. This is all thanks to the introduction of a digital cable that can help carry both video and audio signals into the home theater system – the one we know as HDMI. When setting up an HDMI home theater system on your own, you simply have to remember the following:

The importance of choosing your cables

Choosing your cables would involve a couple of things including the fact that you should the exact length that is needed in setting things up. You can usually get cables in different lengths ranging from 3 feet up with the lengthier cables obviously sold at a higher price. When making measurements, you should be able to determine the distance of the TV or AV receiver with those of your components.

Take note that it is also important to measure the distance between that of the receiver and the TV. When you have established the length then it would be easier to get the right cable size. Alongside this, you should also consider selecting a high quality HDMI cable.

Know how you can make connections between one component and another

Before you can do this, you must be able to identify and locate portions where HDMI connections can be made on your home theater components. You will find an HDMI output both on your Blu-ray disc player and that of you satellite receiver. When you have done this, you are now ready to connect the HDMI cable with that of your components. Often, there are multiple HDMI inputs found in an AV or TV receiver. You simply have to check how these inputs are labeled and from there you can easily make the connections.

You must likewise pay attention on how you can connect the AV receiver with that of the satellite box. Always make sure that one end of a separate HDMI cable is connected to the satellite box. Connect any unused cable with that of the TV input as found on the AV or TV receiver.

Make sure that you have made all connections so that the home theater system will work

You should connect the receiver to that of the TV and use the other end of the HDMI cable to create connections to the AV receiver. In case you do not have any AV receiver, you can simply make connections between the Blu-ray disc player and that of the TV using the HDMI cable. Get another HDMI cable to connect the satellite box with that of another HDMI input on the television.

See full story at www.intrahomesystems.com

Home theater setup: upgrading the speakers

(Credit: Bowers & Wilkins)

If you have outgrown your current home theater system (HTS) and staring to find its sound quality increasingly unsatisfactory, there are a few upgrade options without investing in a new set. But changing to better speakers is likely one of the most effective upgrades with the biggest impact in terms of audio quality.

Do take note that, in my experience, speakers often have a “break-in” period, ranging from a few days to months, before they perform optimally. Furthermore, using your system regularly should give your speakers a sufficient workout without using a specialized burn-in disc.

Upsize your front speakers

You can start by replacing the front satellite speakers with either a pair of bookshelf or floor-standing speakers. If you’ve been using 5.1-channel speakers with a 7.1-channel A/V receiver (AVR), you can also reuse the satellite speakers to play surround back effects. Here are some key advantages for making the switch to larger speakers.

Satellite (left), bookshelf (center) and flood-standing speakers (right)
(Credit: KEF)

Louder peak volume

Firstly, larger bookshelf and floor-standing speakers can typically handle more amplification power, which translates to a higher volume output. They are suitable for those who get their kicks from watching movies loud or have installed their home theater systems in a spacious entertainment room.

Better sound quality

Bookshelf and floor-standing speakers are larger than compact satellite speakers. So with more space, instead of using a full-range driver to cover the entire sound spectrum, separate tweeters and woofers can be added to boost treble and bass extensions, respectively. This means improved sound quality.

Two-way (left) and three-way speakers (right)
(Credit: Dynaudio)

Two- vs. three-way

Most bookshelf speakers these days come with both a tweeter and a midrange driver. Such a driver composition is also called a two-way speaker design. Meanwhile, some of the floor-standing speakers have a three-way design, equipped with one or more additional woofers.

Diffused sound for surround speakers

For most movie soundtracks, the standard surround and surround back channels are usually used for ambient sound and effects. In this case, speakers with a wider sound dispersion can create a more immersive movie-viewing experience.

There are three different types of surround speakers with such an acoustic signature: bipole, dipole and omni-directional versions.

Bipole (left), dipole (center) and omni-directional (right) speakers
(Credit: PSB/Jamo)

Bipole

Compared with traditional speakers that project sound forward, bipole speakers feature two sets of identical drivers to radiate sound sideways. This special design ensures more diffused sound, but still allows the users to somewhat pinpoint the location of a bipole speaker.

Dipole

Just by appearance, it is hard to tell most dipole speakers apart from their bipole counterparts. Both have dual drivers, but the dipoles generate sound which is known as “out of phase”. This basically means it is impossible to localize where the sound is coming from.

Omni-directional

For an even wider 360-degree sound, you can also check out omni-directional speakers. They typically sport an upwards-facing driver and a reflector to direct sound in all directions.

Other general considerations for speakers

You’re likely to come across the following features when shopping for better speakers. Some can have an audible effect on the overall sound quality, while others are quite controversial. There are both audiophiles that swear by them and those who scoff at these concepts.

 

Speaker sensitivity

With the same AVR, a speaker with a higher sensitivity rating will be easier to drive or power than a lower one. Most of the speakers these days have between 85dB and 95dB sensitivity, regardless of their size.

Ported (left) and sealed (right) speakers
(Credit: Monitor Audio)

Sealed vs. ported speakers

Unlike sealed speakers, their bass-reflex counterparts are ported to provide a stronger bass reproduction. However, with a high volume of air funneled through a narrow opening, noise can be an issue. Moreover, a minimum 30cm clearance in front of the port is recommended.

Biwiring vs. biamping

On the back of some speakers are two sets of wire binding posts for bi-wiring and bi-amping.

Bi-wiring lets users connect these speakers using two pairs of speaker cables, one to the low frequency (LF) input and another for high frequency (HF). However, since the two cables are still attached to same output at the amplifier side, critics often dismiss bi-wiring as a gimmick.

Four binding posts for bi-wiring and bi-amping.
(Credit: SVS)

By Philip Wong
See Full Story on www.asia.cnet.com

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