Home Theater Audio: How To Design Your Personal Sound - By: Jonathan Schultz, Posted on: 2007-08-08

There are many decisions these days one has to contemplate and one of these decisions may be what to get for an HT system. Many brands exist in the real world and each brand offers something different than the others with a different philosophy and overall theory of sound. While we respect these other brands, how does one come to the conclusion to choose one over the other, especially if you have never physically heard the brand(s) you're pondering? We'll offer some inside non-bias advice on where to begin, what to look for and when to run.

First, you need to start with the source; the means to power your system. Many go with a receiver where you have a processor as well as an amplifier built into one to save space in a HT center. The other option would be to go with separates. One unit processes the information, while the other unit does the amplification. Separates enable a better sound quality, but generally cost more than a receiver.

Speakers are the next choice to fulfill your hoss setup. By going with the same series and type of material used for each driver will ensure the best timbre match. Regardless of 5.1 or 7.1, movies will sound more life-like when you ensure you have a good timbre match. You'll want to first start by choosing a center, then the mains, next your surround backs (4th and 5th channels), and last in the case of 7.1, a pair of speakers for side surrounds. A good choice for side surrounds are often a set of dipoles as you can disperse more sound in opposite directions of the room, creating a larger feel similar to that of a movie theater.

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.

Once you've chosen your front mains and wish to incorporate them into a HT setting, the next speaker that's often been depicted as the most important is the center channel. About 60% of the information in a movie (depending on the type) comes through this speaker. Back to the basics of physics; the larger the center channel speaker, the fuller vocals will be in any movie. A large center is crucial, as you won't find yourself playing with the center volume during quiet passages in a 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.

A subwoofer is needed if your primary choice of movie type is action/adventure films. Without a sub, explosions just won't sound the same. Even better would be the existence of 2 subs; one in each corner of the room. This would provide an equal bass response or pressure, and wouldn't necessarily have to turn up one sub to its threshold, as you would then have 2 subs distributing the bass load. The most common type of sub is the port-hole design. This design allows the internal cabinet pressure generated by the driver to be released through the port hole. This allows the driver to obtain greater depths of excursion and lower frequencies.

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.

The third type is the passive radiator whereby you have an active driver with at least one or more inactive drivers that work in unison with the active driver to bring you an overall lower frequency response. This design is efficient in a way where the cabinet size can be on the smaller side, but still have the ability to generate some serious bass. These type of subs work fairly well playing music with only minimal delay, but come alive in the sub-low frequency world for movies.

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.

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Before you purchase any home theater systems, make sure you read our home audio blog for detailed information on speaker systems, audio, video, and custom installations.
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