Self Made Home Theatre

It also includes Speakers--including a subwoofer--and a source (DVD, laserdisc, VHS).

Definitely the cause of much financial difficulty, but for many people it's worth it to be able to

blast your neighbors. The sound in a home theater system is as important as the big screen TV.

A good stereo TV sitting all by itself sounds better than a bad home theater system install.

Boomy (or nonexistent) bass, no audio detail, and/or muddy, inaudible dialog can make a movie

unwatchable.

When planning a home theater, remember that the physical geometry of the room is as

important as the equipment in the system. Poor room acoustics can cause soundstage and

bass-response problems that will significantly detract from the viewing experience. With a few

exceptions, one usually can't control the shape of the room available to use. An irregularlyshaped

room can be compensated for by creating a "theater zone" within the living space.

The key is to create a sound field that centers on the viewers' seating area.

A system sounds best when there are few or no echoes. A standing wave is created when a

sound wave's echoes reinforce themselves, amplifying a specific tone. Another nuisance is

when an item in the room starts to resonate to a specific wavelength(s) in the sound from the

speakers. This can be dealt with by adding damping items or rearranging things like moving the

couch, adding drapes and/or rugs. A hard-core audiophile can even buy damping panels and

vertical tube-shaped corner treatments to damp echoes.

The Gear

You need to match the sound to the image, so one does not overwhelm the other. Speaker

laminates, grill covers, and other cosmetic considerations should be dealt with at this time. How

much speaker wire are you going to need, and what kind? If you are going to run cables under

the rug, you need flat cables made for such use, as regular wire will not only cause ugly bulges,

but also may cause a trip and fall hazard and eventually wear through in spots and create short

circuits.

Speakers

A home theater requires at least five speakers: Front left, front right, and center (placed directly

over or under the screen), in the back, left and right rear, and in a corner, a subwoofer. This

layout is also known as a 5.1 system. Whether you use full-range speakers for your front

channels or not, the subwoofer is needed because movies have deep bass tones not normally

found in music, especially for visceral effects like explosions.

The center channel needs to go immediately above or below the TV screen, the front speakers

need to be in the front corners of the listening area at roughly the same level as the center

speaker, and the rear speakers need to be at the rear, preferably firing sideways towards the

listening area. Bass can be adjusted by moving the sub into and out of the corner it is placed in.

It doesn't matter much which corner you use, as the human ear cannot locate the source of low

frequency sound to any great degree.

Many speakers are sold in sets especially for home theater systems, but you can also pick out

your own components. This applies mostly in cases where one already has front speakers and

only wants to add to them. The important thing to remember is that a set of speakers sold

together is designed to work together, with tonal quality and crossover points that match one

another. If the speakers don't sound the same, it can cause jarring differences when audio

effects travel from speaker to speaker.

There are several types of surround sound. The most prevalent are Dolby Pro Logic (analog)

and Dolby Digital (also called AC-3.) THX Cinema is a signal enhancement developed by Lucas

Film that in addition to modifying the signal, mandates power minimums for each channel for

proper sound reproduction. Simply hooking up an add-on surround speaker system to your

basic TV/Stereo VCR/DVD can make a basic HTS.

There are many such add-on systems out there, in varying levels of sophistication.

Most add-on speaker systems intended for HTS upgrade have a built-in surround sound

decoder in the subwoofer, which saves on hookup complexity and clutter. As far as the surround

mode, most basic systems only decode Dolby Pro Logic, but that is more than enough for a

basic setup. It's always wise to spend a little more on speakers, then sort other parts later.