Building An Awesome Home Theater For Yourself
Aug 31 '01
The Bottom Line Read my review.
Welcome to the world of home audio. This place can have excellent products, and also terrible sounding products. So many different brands to choose from! Well, many of you think you have to spend a fortune to get a great sounding home theater, but that is not true. Here, I will show you how to buuld a great home theater system, and even save big money.
-The Front Stage-
*The most important speakers in your set-up are in the front. They consist of the two main speakers, and center channel. Usually, you would want the center channel to match your main speakers. Try to get these speakers from the same brand, or even the same speaker series if you can. This will create a more natural and seamless front stage. But then this aspect gets divided into two situations. If you're into music, you will usually play it on either four or two speakers which does not include the center channel. The center channel doesn't exactly sound all too great when playing music. So for music junkies who aren't much into movies, try to spend more money on the main speakers, and less on the center channel. If you're into movies such as DVDs which use Dolby Digital and DTS, then you should pay more for a center channel. When watching movies in digital formats, the center channel plays about 50% of all the sound you hear. So if you're gonna be spending money, this is where most of it will go.
-The Rear Speakers-
*The rear speakers handle backround noise for digital format movies. They aren't at all as important as the speakers that you will have in the front. If you have a 5.1 hook-up and play music in a four channel DSP, these speakers will play out the music... However, they won't be nearly as audible as the main speakers... Or sometimes, you won't hear them at all. These speakers shouldn't cost at all as much as the speakers you use in front. The ideal speakers for this job are 2-Way speakers. A 3-Way will give you cleaner sound, but it is pointless here.
-The Bass-
*People say that if you have ported 3-Way speakers, they will create more than enough bass. With many cheaper 3-Way speakers, that is completely false. When your speakers simply can't put out enough bass to fullfill your needs, you will want to purchase a single speaker called a subwoofer. Subwoofers are powered usually by one large driver that has a frequency range of 20hZ to 120hz, or sometimes the cross-over is at 80hZ. But anyway, the subwoofer gives you thump and bump in your music. Some may think that a subwoofer is stupid, but it makes all the difference you can imagine in your music and movies. Subwoofers are very expensive speakers though, they will usually cost more than most of your other speakers. Subwoofers also come in many sizes. The usual sizes start from 8" and go to 15". Sometimes if you need destructive bass, you can get a dual-firing 15" or 20" subwoofer. I found the best overall size to be 12" regarding the driver size and amplifier. Before you buy a sub, you should research it very well.
-Where To Buy-
*You can always go to a store like Tweeter, ABT, Best Buy, or Circuit City and buy your speakers. But if you feel like taking a slight risk, buy your speakers off the internet. Often you'll be glad you did. Some of the prices that I have seen on the internet nearly made me wet my pants. For example, let's take the JBL speakers. I was looking at main speakers once. At Best Buy, you can get a pair of JBL N38 3-Way speakers for $400. However, at etronics.com you can buy those much cheaper... Or you can even buy the JBL ND310 speakers which include an extra bass driver for ~$320 a pair! I was astounded to see this. Then I decided to look stuff up on eBay. Wow, some people were selling speakers from brands like McIntosh, JBL, etc... The expensive good brands for most part. People were often selling these speakers dirt cheap... Either these products were stolen or the people who were selling them were crazy. Too bad I already bought my home theater... I could've had a much more expensive hook-up regarding the ESRPs for much less money than I actually paid for my hook-up. So, eBay is now a good place to buy speakers since members now rate each other based on their trustworthiness and other stuff. So, always check the internet first. When you go into a store like Sears, ABT, or Tweeter... Ask them to match the internet prices. I know Sears does, and maybe the salespeople at those other stores will give in.
-In Conclusion-
*I hope this review has helped you out in making a buying decision. When you design a home theater hook-up, put the best and most expensive speakers in the front. You will usually want 3-Way main speakers with a nice center channel from the same brand. Cheaper rear speakers, and also a subwoofer. You should first see what you want in a home theater. Before you even start to look, I wnat you to find an alarm clock. Hit the sleep button, and put on a clear sounding radio station. Either you may say the sound is good, or you may say it is terrible. If the sound is good enough for you, you don't need to spend thousands on a home theater. If the sound is unbearable, you may need to spend a lot of money. If you need more help and need to see more thourough information, look at my more in-depth reviews on each type of speaker... Other than that, good luck, and I hope you enjoyed this.
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Member: Soup Enthusiast
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Reviews written: 488
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About Me:
I enjoy many of life's passions... Music, medicine, people, and life itself.
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