Tips On Home Theater Speaker Placement

By Author: Milos Pesic
Total Articles: 28
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The basic difference that comes in between a regular television set and a home theater system lies with the sound system factor utilized by the devices. A regular television set could be forty inches wide, yet, without a surround sound system supporting it, a thirty inch display screen coupled with a home theater sound system would prove to provide a more theater like viewing experience.

In most cases, choosing the right surround sound format compatible with your home theater system greatly affects the overall performance of a home theater setup, as there are types of supported surround sound formats for home theater devices.

When talking about which surround sound format to apply during a home theater installation excursion, two main theater surround sound formats come into play. The Dolby Laboratories and the Digital Theater Systems sound format.

As different audio/video receivers are equipped to decode sound formats, using an ideal sound format of choice would greatly enhance the results of a home theater installation. Between Dolby Laboratories and Digital Theater Systems, a wide array of sound options ...
... exists, to a dizzying level. The bottom line is, when talking about Digital Theater Systems audio encoding, lesser compression figures are used, making DTS sounds much sharper and clearer compared to Dolby encoded audio elements. The downside is DTS isn't commonly used on television broadcasts, as well as with DVDs.

When faced with which surround sound format to choose for a home theater installation, users would have to decide whether they want DTS support, and how many speakers to use in the setup.

The most common surround sound setup options are 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1, named after the system's number of supported channels.

A 5.1 surround sound speaker setup is made up of a right, left and center front speakers, which are positioned next to a display screen. Two surround speakers positioned at the left and right, as well as a subwoofer would complete the surround sound setup. Both Dolby and DTS sound formats support this format.

Taking all the same speakers from a 5.1 surround sound setup, the 6.1 surround sound variety of surround sound setups has an extra rear channel. Dolby Laboratories' Digital EX uses this type of format, using the additional channel into left and right rear speakers. With DTS' DTS-ES, the extra channel is used as a single rear channel speaker, only.

In the 7.1 surround sound speaker setup, Dolby has separate channels for the rear right and left speakers, instead of using one split up channel and directing the split channels to two speakers.

Though the first thing one would notice in a home theater installation is the display screen, the surround sound setup is what completes the home theater system.

Considering the surround sound system format would be a wise thing to do, given that building something like a home theater installation is a major investment.