Home Theatre Speakers, The Key Component
Imagine you are sitting in your home theatre, the lights are low, your popcorn is in hand. The screen illuminates with the opening credits of your favorite movie. But there is no sound. The key component to any home theatre system is the speakers. The biggest part of what makes your home theatre comparable to going to the big screen movie theater is the surround sound. The audio can make you feel like you are a part of what is happening. Music and sound influence emotion and create a sense of empathy towards the characters and the plot they are involved in. Without the sound, much of the experience would be lost.
Part of the unique surround sound experience includes the placement of sound. Dialogue and other primary sound will usually be heard coming from the front speakers. This is where most viewers will be seated the closest and will need to hear this pertinent information. However, in the case of a gun fight, many times you will hear the shots ring out from the home theatre speaker that coincides with where the character is shooting from. The results of the gunfire, such as people thudding to the ground, may resonate from the opposite speaker. Background sounds will usually come from the speakers at the back of the room. These will include sounds like rain, wind and other environmental sounds that would usually be heard in a large area, not in a specific location.
Because the direction of the sounds is so important in the surround sound experience, you should have a minimum of four speakers placed throughout the room. This will allow the sounds we already talked about to be driven from the most appropriate areas. When the home theatre speaker setup is done properly, the audio will radiate in a way that is most realistic. You wouldn’t normally sit down and be able to pinpoint the distribution of these individual sounds, but the reality is, they are designed in a way to generate an amazing adventure out of the movie. You will be put right into the center of the action. That is how you know you have a good home theatre.
