When it comes to home theater, controversy can often reign supreme, with so many choices and decisions in our modern day world. What does it mean to have a killer system, and why so many brands and different philosophies? How does one choose? How do you know where to start and where to end getting something that'll not only fit your needs, but your budget as well? One reader certified as J. Dogg breaks down the basics and informs as well as educates what you need to look for in a home theater system and filter out the moonshine so you can guarantee to stay on top of your game. An amplifier or means of power should be, or rather suggested the piece of equipment you'll want to start with first. Generally, the heavier the amp, the more current or amperage it will generate to each speaker, helping the sound to come through full and clean. Often, a receiver with a built in processor and amplifier in one is usually sufficient for playing a movie and/or 2-channel music, but separates may offer a step up in sound quality. Although, separates may be pricier, they're really the way to go for obtaining the best sound, especially if the speakers you're driving on more on the larger side. The next step is to choose speakers. Before going into the different types of speakers, it really does help to keep all the speakers the same brand and same series with the same type of driver material to obtain the very best timbre match. Without a proper timbre match, you'll hear that bus explode, but will leave you guessing as to which direction it came from. In other words, you'll want birds of a common feather. A set of speakers for the front left and right of your TV should be the first set of speakers you invest in. This decision should be based off the fact on whether you're going to be using these speakers for movies, 2-channel music, or both. The size of room you're placing these speakers is also a big factor in terms of choosing between a tower speaker and a bookshelf. Tower are generally recommended for 2-channel music, as then you wouldn't necessarily need a sub to achieve a low end response. Having towers are also beneficial for movies, where a full and more accurate response would be created for movies. If your room is on the smaller side, bookshelves may be the way to go. The speaker often depicted, as the most important in an HT environment is the center channel, as about 60% of the information pertained in a movie comes through this channel. Having a center speaker with larger drivers and a decent-sized internal cabinet volume will prove valuable for maintaining a constant volume across all channels in your HT system, regardless of the movie. Information being sent to the rear channels is often in the form of treble and midrange. Because of this, it's not as important to have as large of drivers in these speakers as that of the center and front mains. Dipoles are usually recommended, as they present a larger than normal response, having one tweeter in each cabinet with a reversed polarity. This will make surround sounds or background sounds seem farther away than what you'd expect; similar to a small movie theater in terms of size. Keep in mind the reversed polarity in dipoles is not listening-appropriate for SACD or DVD audio. This type of setup would be more inclined to having a direct design speaker, like a bookshelf or small tower speaker. The .1 in a home theater system stands for the sub. If it were .2 or a 5.2 system, there would be 2 subs helping to equalize bass response, producing an essential balance for action/adventure movies. Subwoofers come in different forms for use in several applications. A common type of subwoofer is one that has a porthole built into the cabinet, releasing the pressure. This design allows for a lower bass response as the driver has the opportunity to attain a lower frequency response. This type of subwoofer is ideal for movies, and by placing the sub into a corner of the room, explosions come to life more effectively. The second type of sub is the sealed enclosure design. This type of sub is most versatile and can produce tight, accurate bass for music, and also have the ability to obtain the depths for movies. The cabinet withholds the pressure produced by the driver, resulting in time-aligned bass of which can be matched with the upper frequencies in your favorite song. Here you would have the opportunity to add more bass to music without it sounding like it's unnatural or not part of the song. A third design, though not as popular as the first two is the passive radiator. With this type, you now have an active driver producing the bass pressure while a secondary 'bass reflex' driver reacts in the same manner as the active driver, producing a much lower frequency response than the active driver alone. Subwoofers of this design are utilized more in movies to obtain this lower frequency response, but can also be used for 2-channel based music systems. Often more times than not, there may be a slight delay experienced with music, but beneficial to movies with a passive radiator. Speaker wire is needed to transfer the electrons from your receiver/amplifier to each channel, where by the means of electromagnetics, these electrons are transformed to audible sound waves. The thicker the speaker wire, the higher the potential for more electrons to travel to each speaker. If you're running speaker wire longer than 25 feet, it's often recommended you have speaker wire at least 12 gauge.
Article Source: http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit
When it comes to home theater, controversy can often reign supreme, with so many choices and decisions in our modern day world. What does it mean to have a killer system, and why so many brands and different philosophies? How does one choose? How do you know where to start and where to end getting something that'll not only fit your needs, but your budget as well? One reader certified as J. Dogg breaks down the basics and informs as well as educates what you need to look for in a home theater ...
Don't purchase any home theater system, make sure you read our home theater blog for excellent information on speaker systems, audio, video, and electrical installations. Get your own completely unique content version of this article.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 5 4 out of 5 3 out of 5 2 out of 5 1 out of 5
