Home theaters are very popular in the West now for many reasons, but partly due to the recession. However, I predict that after the recession is over, home theaters will take off like a rocket. In my estimation, this is because, the slump has forced people to examine their spending, which usually means cutting back. Going out, eating out and movies are all in the front line of these cuts. However, the slump is upsetting and people have to get some enjoyment from somewhere.
In the medium to long term, it is cheaper to build a home theater for a family than take them to a proper movie theater every week. Taking a family of four to the movies costs $50-$100, whereas a modest home theater might cost $1,000. It does not take long to recoup those costs. And it saves you the hassle of travelling there and back, the noise and mobile phones during the film and high prices for candy and snacks.
OK, maybe people at the moment are buying cheap packages of home theaters, but one of the first things they will change when they get a bit of money again will be the speakers, I bet. Evidently, you need a good quality, large screen, but after that, it is the sound and the barrier to good sound is usually poor speakers.
The most important factor in the design of your home theater is the dimensions of your room. If the room is small, you will not have need of so many speakers. Perhaps three speakers will be sufficient, if the room is small. However, if you only need three speakers and a sub-woofer, get high-quality ones.
If you have a bigger room, however, the basic three home theater speakers may not be enough. You may need to put up to six speakers and a sub-woofer around the room. The placement of these speakers is up to you and can depend on the shape or and size of the room anyway, but typical layouts are:
3.1 system: one speaker to the left of the screen, one to the right and one underneath it. You can put the sub-woofer on top of the central speaker or at the back of the room. Try it and see.
5.1 system: as 3.1, but with two speakers at the back of the room too.
6.1 system: as 5.1, but with another speaker between the rear speakers, as in the front.
7.1 system: as 6.1, but with two speakers central rear, slightly away from each other. You can move the existing rear speakers around to the sides too.
This set-up requires a lot of wiring as you can imagine. Now, you could tack the wires to the skirting board, but you should only do that after you are dead sure that you have the speakers in the right positions. Or you could hang the speakers on the walls. However, although that sounds good for music, it does not always sound all right for a movie.
The best option is wireless speakers. Wireless speakers can be moved around to suit the number of people watching the film or moved out for cleaning or redecorating purposes. You do not want to bash your nice, new, expensive speakers with the vacuum cleaner, do you?
More Information:
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with
wireless home theater systems. If you are interested in a
Home Movie Theatre, please click through to our site now.
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