You have been admiring and desiring surround sound/home theater systems since the first time you heard one play at an electronics store or friend's house. You have wanted a system for a while now and to your surprise you finally have your hands on that great new surround sound/home theater system. There is only one minor problem. You are not sure of the best way to hook it up.
You may be wondering if there is a right and a wrong way to hook up surround sound/home theater systems. You may also be wondering what is the best way to get the optimum sound out of your new system. There are some simple steps to hooking up a home theater system.
The first step is to decide where to place the TV. Perhaps even more important than this is to make sure that you have a TV that will provide the optimum amount of sound. You wouldn't put a pair of top of the line sports tires on an old beat-up clunker. Nor should you hook up a home theater system to an old console TV or a small 17" old tube TV. Actually most old TV's do not have the proper connections so if you do not have a latest generation television with audio hook up and digital sound then you may want to update your TV.
Once you have a new generation TV then you need to decide where you want to place the TV. When setting up a home entertainment center it is a good idea to have a central location for the TV. You should place the TV in an area that does not receive direct sunlight or glare that may obstruct the image during the day. If you have to use a room that has several large windows that receive direct sunlight then you may want to purchase vertical blinds or other window treatment that can block out as much daylight as possible.
The trick to creating a high quality home theater is to replicate the conditions of a real theater as much as possible. This involves reducing the amount of light in the room. This will also involve utilizing the acoustics of the room. Since your home theater may be set up in a room that is not closed off to other rooms you will most likely lose some sound quality.
The best way to accommodate for this is to make sure that you place your surround sound home theater system's speakers in the best possible locations. An integral part of this is finding the proper place to set up your receiver. The receiver is the brains of your surround sound/home theater system. This is the unit that processes the signal from the TV or to the speakers. The receiver also acts as the radio and may contain your CD or MP3 player system. These units in some cases may be self contained units.
You should have your receiver placed in line of the TV and the seating area. This will assure that it is inline of the remote signal. You will not want to have to move every time you want to use the receiver so to make it as effortless as possible, the receiver should be placed somewhere that it will easily pick up the signal of the remote.
Now that the receiver is in place, you will want to place the other components. With a surround sound/home theater system, you typically have 6 speakers in total. There is the center speaker, two fronts, two rears and a sub-woofer. Naturally the center should be placed in the center of the room as much as possible. Your sub-woofer you will typically want to place in the seating area somewhere. You will probably want to conceal this unit without blocking the sound coming out of the speaker.
The front speakers should go above and to either side of the TV and receiver. Rear speakers should be behind the seating area and as directly across from the front speakers as possible. Once all these wires have been connected in the proper connections, then you are ready to fine tune the system. The owner's manual of your surround sound/home theater system should provide you with a detailed set of instructions for connecting the speaker wires to the receiver. Some systems color code these to make the process easier.
Fine tuning the system is often a personal preference. You may want to play with the controls until you find what works best for you. Many surround sound/home theater systems also have preprogrammed sound programs installed into the system. These predesignated sound controls will distribute the highs, lows and mids. You should now be ready to enjoy your surround sound/home theater system.
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