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In movies recorded for surround sound, the front right and front left speakers primarily play music and some sound effects while the rear speakers play primarily sound effects.  The front center speaker does much of the heavy lifting in movies: it transmits the voices and the center of the action.  Because the speakers play in tandem, it is generally a good idea to have speakers that are made to play together or at least made by the same manufacturer because such a set of speakers will produce a more even, balanced sound.  However, people often have unmatched speakers and have no complaints.  Ask us to evaluate your speaker set up – we’ll be happy to help you make the right decision keeping your priorities in mind

Get a Subwoofer.  Don’t underestimate the importance of a subwoofer, especially if you are going with surround sound.  A subwoofer plays low frequency sounds, such as crashes and explosions in movies and also stirring bass tones in music.  And though a good floor standing speaker may provide an extra musical octave of bass over its companion bookshelf version, extending low frequency playback to 30 or 35 Hz from 60 Hz for the bookshelf variety, a good subwoofer will reproduce sound well below 20 Hz, where much of the stirring bass sound of music and movies resides.  In addition, a properly set up subwoofer will reduce the strain on other speakers as they won’t be required to reproduce the lowest frequencies, resulting in clearer, more defined sound overall.  Also, many of today’s surround sound processes, such as Dolby Digital and the like, direct low frequency sounds to the subwoofer.  If one is not hooked up, overall sound quality may suffer.

>> Learn more in Audio – Speakers – Subwoofers

Proper Speaker Placement.  Many people don’t want to see speakers.  This is why so many people request built in speakers for integrated theater rooms.  We recommend that, if it is possible, none of the 3 front speakers of a home theater be in-ceiling or bracketed to the ceiling.  From up high, those speakers just don’t sound as good, and they divorce the sound from where you see the action happening.  Use in-wall speakers or bookshelves instead.  To get the most from your home theater set up, the tweeters of those speakers should be level with (or not more than 15º or so off) the height at which your ears will be while you watch a movie, typically sitting down.  The center front speaker should be in alignment with the TV and directly in front of the central viewing position.  The rears can be in-ceiling, though, because the sound that comes from them is ambient and less directional.

Because low frequency sound is much less directional –i.e., it doesn’t matter where it’s coming from—the subwoofer can be placed anywhere, but the front of the room is usually better.

In a 7.1 speaker hookup, the “side” speakers are either to the side of or directly behind the central listening position.  If this sounds confusing, it’s because both layouts are possible according to different surround sound decoding systems.

Bottom Line – Try to keep fronts at ear level and the center aligned with the TV directly facing, with all speakers an equal distance from, the central viewing position (i.e., the middle of the couch).

Surround Sound Not Just for Movies.  Music in surround sound is giving stereo a run for its money.  Two early surround sound music formats, SACD and DVD Audio, have never done well commercially even though the sound on better recordings is truly breathtaking, giving one the feeling of being in the middle of a crowd at a live performance.  Though the catalogue of music in the SACD and DVD Audio formats may be dwindling, they may in a sense be victims of their own success.  Sales of music DVDs recorded in Dolby Digital or DTS have taken off.  Dolby Digital and DTS decoding also reproduce the encircling musical experience, with a picture track to boot.

In addition, stereo recorded music often sounds as good or better in surround sound.  Two music decoders which now come with most new surround sound systems, Dolby Pro Logic II (or IIx) and DTS Neo:6, do an excellent job of converting 2 speaker sound to 5.1 speaker sound.  You can actually notice different sound –sound that you may have never noticed before—coming from the rear speakers: a bit of percussion, a keyboard trill or background vocals, for example.  In theory, these were the out of “phase” or ambient sounds that existed but were lost to compression at the time of the stereo recording.  You may be thrilled by the new interpretation of your CDs (some will be more affected than others) or you may not, in which case you can always just set your surround sound system to play in stereo.

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