As nice as having a large screen for your home theater is, your audio receiver is just as important. Perhaps it is even more important. We all have seen the gag in movies and on TV where the big muscle-building guy has the voice of a 12 year old girl. As hilarious as that is in the movies, do you really want your friends to get that impression of you when they come over? How do you achieve that "big sound" that will make you the envy of the neighborhood? Don't worry, just read on...
First we have to understand, in rough terms, what an audio receiver does for you. The job of the audio receiver is to amplify sound to your speakers. The 5.1 home theaters have become the average these days. Now before your eyes glaze-over, let me explain what the "5.1" means. The first number (5) represents how many of the small speakers you have. Then second number (.1) is how many subwoofers you have. Like the name sounds, woofers are the ones that make the deep, resonating sounds for you. Mid-range speakers handle sounds in the range of the average human, as far as tone. High frequency: highs are, oddly enough, the higher range of noises. Good examples of that would be a whistle or something shrill, like the average mother-in-law. The second job of the receiver is to separate the channels. Channel separation is why you hear the guy on the left of your screen talking on the left side of your living room. Savvy?
Speakers that will work with your audio receiver are important as well. It is important to be able to identify the speaker wattage. Clearly defined, speaker wattage is the maximum amount of wattage a speaker can sustain on an ongoing basis. Speakers carry no wattage themselves, so if you are looking at 200 watt speakers, the 200 describes the wattage the speakers can receiver from the receiver without being damaged (ideally). So buying 200 watt speakers and a 2000 watt (per channel) receiver is probably not a good idea.
So how much power do you need for your speakers? If you have 200 watt speakers, having a too powerful of a receiver will leave you buying new speakers after you "blow" your old ones. While having, say, a 100 watt audio receiver will make getting a home theater a moot point anyway. There must be a hard and fast rule for picking speakers and receivers. It just so happens that you are about to read a simplistic solution, with very little math involved. Take for example 200 watt speakers and multiply by .75 (150 watts). Then add back in now add 25 watts (175 Watts). 175 Watts would be the very rough recommended WPC (Watt Per Channel) you would be looking for from a receiver. Why? With all the different manufacturers' there is some cushion they provide themselves. Basically, 200 watt speakers can handle more than 200 watts. For warranty reasons they aren't going to tell you that, or tell you how much they can handle at "peak performance." Audio amplifiers will generally have a peak output above their specifications as well. That is as so if there is a sound louder than the "loud sound," it can be differentiated from the initial sound. It's like they can crank it to 11 if they need to. By keeping more or less to these specs you can eliminate under-powering without worrying about distortion at high output.
Another concern is decidedly less high tech: the environment you will be using as your home theater. Acoustics play a role as well. Acoustics refers to how sound travels in a given room or environment. You have the room for your theater, you have sounds, so you will need a fundamental understanding of acoustics. How does sound move through your room? Again, we have some hard and fast rules for this. Read on intrepid do-it-yourselfer!
"Warm" rooms are generally just that: warm. Think about a movie theater. Have you ever noticed the extra padding and/or heavy curtains on the wall? That's to absorb sound. So basically, a sound at say, 70 dB (decibels) is born and dies right away making room for the next sound to take its place. This is the ideal environment for your home theater. Realistically, it's not going to go down that way. The exact opposite would be the "cold" room. Go into a public restroom, or if you have the time drive to the Grand Canyon. Sound echoes there. That's bad, and though it's not really that discernable to the untrained ear in say...your apartment, it is a factor in noise.
Fixing a cold room is easy. Throw down some rugs, hang some pictures or tapestries, and possibly move some furniture against the wall. Fixing a warm room is harder. Usually, the biggest problem is muffled bass. Try raising you subwoofer off the floor a little; that might give the sound a little more room to permeate the area. Recording studios spend thousands of dollars to have someone "tune" their rooms. So if you don't have a perfect acoustic setting, don't feel bad if it takes you several tries with speaker placement and room acoustics.
The final suggestion is pretty straightforward and requires no math at all: When in doubt, ask a professional. Even if you bought your gear somewhere else, a qualified professional at your local electronics store will almost always be willing (even happy) to answer questions and give additional advice.
First we have to understand, in rough terms, what an audio receiver does for you. The job of the audio receiver is to amplify sound to your speakers. The 5.1 home theaters have become the average these days. Now before your eyes glaze-over, let me explain what the "5.1" means. The first number (5) represents how many of the small speakers you have. Then second number (.1) is how many subwoofers you have. Like the name sounds, woofers are the ones that make the deep, resonating sounds for you. Mid-range speakers handle sounds in the range of the average human, as far as tone. High frequency: highs are, oddly enough, the higher range of noises. Good examples of that would be a whistle or something shrill, like the average mother-in-law. The second job of the receiver is to separate the channels. Channel separation is why you hear the guy on the left of your screen talking on the left side of your living room. Savvy?
Speakers that will work with your audio receiver are important as well. It is important to be able to identify the speaker wattage. Clearly defined, speaker wattage is the maximum amount of wattage a speaker can sustain on an ongoing basis. Speakers carry no wattage themselves, so if you are looking at 200 watt speakers, the 200 describes the wattage the speakers can receiver from the receiver without being damaged (ideally). So buying 200 watt speakers and a 2000 watt (per channel) receiver is probably not a good idea.
So how much power do you need for your speakers? If you have 200 watt speakers, having a too powerful of a receiver will leave you buying new speakers after you "blow" your old ones. While having, say, a 100 watt audio receiver will make getting a home theater a moot point anyway. There must be a hard and fast rule for picking speakers and receivers. It just so happens that you are about to read a simplistic solution, with very little math involved. Take for example 200 watt speakers and multiply by .75 (150 watts). Then add back in now add 25 watts (175 Watts). 175 Watts would be the very rough recommended WPC (Watt Per Channel) you would be looking for from a receiver. Why? With all the different manufacturers' there is some cushion they provide themselves. Basically, 200 watt speakers can handle more than 200 watts. For warranty reasons they aren't going to tell you that, or tell you how much they can handle at "peak performance." Audio amplifiers will generally have a peak output above their specifications as well. That is as so if there is a sound louder than the "loud sound," it can be differentiated from the initial sound. It's like they can crank it to 11 if they need to. By keeping more or less to these specs you can eliminate under-powering without worrying about distortion at high output.
Another concern is decidedly less high tech: the environment you will be using as your home theater. Acoustics play a role as well. Acoustics refers to how sound travels in a given room or environment. You have the room for your theater, you have sounds, so you will need a fundamental understanding of acoustics. How does sound move through your room? Again, we have some hard and fast rules for this. Read on intrepid do-it-yourselfer!
"Warm" rooms are generally just that: warm. Think about a movie theater. Have you ever noticed the extra padding and/or heavy curtains on the wall? That's to absorb sound. So basically, a sound at say, 70 dB (decibels) is born and dies right away making room for the next sound to take its place. This is the ideal environment for your home theater. Realistically, it's not going to go down that way. The exact opposite would be the "cold" room. Go into a public restroom, or if you have the time drive to the Grand Canyon. Sound echoes there. That's bad, and though it's not really that discernable to the untrained ear in say...your apartment, it is a factor in noise.
Fixing a cold room is easy. Throw down some rugs, hang some pictures or tapestries, and possibly move some furniture against the wall. Fixing a warm room is harder. Usually, the biggest problem is muffled bass. Try raising you subwoofer off the floor a little; that might give the sound a little more room to permeate the area. Recording studios spend thousands of dollars to have someone "tune" their rooms. So if you don't have a perfect acoustic setting, don't feel bad if it takes you several tries with speaker placement and room acoustics.
The final suggestion is pretty straightforward and requires no math at all: When in doubt, ask a professional. Even if you bought your gear somewhere else, a qualified professional at your local electronics store will almost always be willing (even happy) to answer questions and give additional advice.
About the Author:
Zeeman Haus enjoys writing articles online on a variety of subjects. You can check out his latest website on HDMI Review which discusses how you can get low prices on HDMI Cables, Splitters, Extenders, Boxes, and Adaptors.
