CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOUND SETUP FOR YOUR HOME THEATER
What’s the ideal number of speakers and method of set-up for your home theater system? The answer really depends on which room you’re talking about. Multimedia systems vary widely in size and scope, so each scenario should have its own unique applications for sound.
So let’s take a look at the most common rooms and home theater set-ups and match it up with the right speaker and sound arrangement.
Bedroom
Let’s start out small. The bedroom is a great, cozy place to have a nice moderately-sized home theater system. In this scenario, you might want to simply omit speakers from the equation (especially if those late-night movie marathons would wake up the roomies). Instead, opt for a set of surround sound wireless headphones.
The Den
The den is one of the most common places for a home theater setup. Depending on the size and layout of your den, you might need additional speakers, but you’re probably okay with just one… That is, the single speaker being an HDMI sound bar. Placed just above or below your TV, a high quality sound bar will deliver high definition sound plenty enough for the fam using an HDMI cable.
Small Living Room
With a typical living room setup, you’ll probably get the best experience with a three-speaker surround sound system. The idea is to cover the left and right side, as well as one speaker above or below the TV in the center. An AV receiver is advised in this scenario, which might prove more costly than the speakers, but well worth it for the quality experience.
Basement / Guest House
If you’ve got a little more room to work with, and some space that’s more contained, you could get away with a four-speaker sound system. You’d want to use the three-speaker setup as for a small living room, but throw in an additional subwoofer for bass, especially if you’re using smaller peripheral speakers.
Large Living Room
For a larger, more spacious living room you can really ramp up the home theater sound experience. If you have an HDTV larger than 42-inch, you should probably go for about five speakers to round out the system. It’s made up of 5 satellite speakers for the center, right, left, and two behind you. The two in the rear will also be left/right speakers, but you can adjust as needed for your room layout.
While there’s always opportunity to expand and experiment with an even more aggressive sound system, the best experience will result from the right balance and the optimum number and position of your speakers…and your neighbors!
