Do you know these knowledge points about setting up a home theater in your living room?

Do you know these knowledge points about setting up a home theater in your living room?

Normally, home theaters are divided into living room theaters and independent private theaters. In the past two years, as the quality of film sources has improved and the price of audio equipment has become more affordable, more and more ordinary consumers will install their own home theater system in the living room. Today we will use a relatively easy-to-understand Let’s use this text to popularize the design and purchase of living room theaters. Living room cinemas are aimed at people with limited housing space. If you have a large flat or villa with more than four bedrooms, my personal suggestion is to give priority to the independent private cinema solution.

What is living room cinema?

Literally, it is a combination of living room + cinema, which means that you can feel a cinema-like viewing experience in the living room. A complete theater system requires image display equipment (TV, projector, laser TV) and sound system. At present, because the price of large-screen LCD TVs is very low, in a bright environment like a living room, LCD TVs are overwhelmingly the first choice. Of course, if you pursue the ultimate large-size screen, you can also spend a budget of nearly 20,000 yuan to buy a laser TV (ultra-short throw projector). It mainly depends on the money in your pocket and whether you care more about image quality or screen size.

After the display device is selected, the sound system must be considered. This is also a point that confuses most friends. First of all, we need to understand that the theater sound system is composed of multi-channels. Due to the limitations of the room layout, most living rooms have 5.1 channels, as shown in the figure below.

The 5 in 5.1 refers to the front left and right main speakers, the center speaker, and the rear left and right surround speakers. .1 refers to one subwoofer. If the room is larger, two subwoofers will be used. The overall system is called a 5.2-channel system. Some friends' living rooms are relatively long from front to back, so in order to make the sound field connection more natural, they will adopt a 7.1-channel layout, that is, add left and right surrounds, as shown in the picture below.

Presumably everyone has heard of panoramic sound effects more or less in movie theaters or when buying speakers. The above two common living room sound fields are not panoramic sound. The so-called panoramic sound refers to the addition of sky channels to the above two solutions. At present, Atmos solutions include Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro-3D. Unfortunately, the latter two are gradually being ignored due to the small number of film sources. Even independent private theaters mostly use Dolby Atmos standard design solutions.

System planning and wiring

After understanding the composition of the living room theater, you can formulate a system plan. If the aspect ratio is greater than 2:1 and there are suitable places to place speakers on the side walls on both sides, it is recommended to use a 7-channel solution. If the living room has been decorated, you can choose a soundbar product with independent surround speakers, or a product with wireless back surround amplifier. The soundbar is an easy-to-install, cost-effective cinema sound system, but it can only be used as a second-best alternative. The wireless power amplifier can be directly wirelessly connected to the rear surround speakers to achieve a wireless connection with the host, eliminating the tedious and unsightly installation of speaker wires.

After determining the 5.1 or 7.1 channel layout, you can proceed with wiring. Under normal circumstances, a decoding combiner is used in the living room and placed in the TV cabinet. The source signal (HD machine, set-top box, game console, etc.) is connected to the power amplifier through an HDMI cable. The power amplifier outputs to the speaker, so the wiring required is mainly the speaker cable. If it is If you use a projector, you need to run a longer HDMI cable. For long distances, it is recommended to use fiber optic HDMI cables. Compared with traditional copper HDMI cables, they are softer and less likely to break. They are usually run through ceiling light strips or suspended ceilings. Line, the specifics will depend on the actual scene.

Enough bare wires should be left at both ends of the wiring to connect the speakers. The front left, right, main speakers, and center speakers do not need to be inserted into the wall. The wiring can be routed behind the TV cabinet, which is convenient for adjustment and saves worry and effort. A 5-channel system only requires two back surround speaker cables (not required for products equipped with wireless back surround amplifiers). In audio wiring, the more links there are, the greater the loss to the sound.

Selection of sound systems

There are many types of cinema speakers. Unlike other electrical products, professional audio brands are often very unfamiliar to ordinary people. It is precisely those brands you know that are unknown in the audio industry. These speakers are nothing more than There is a familiar home appliance brand logo hanging on it. It is actually produced by a small factory. It can only be regarded as a speaker, but it has little to do with professional home theaters and Hi-Fi speakers. Such products are often promoted as being able to sing karaoke and watch movies. , listen to music, the key price is ultra-low. If you find this type of product, don’t buy it. E-commerce sales and positive reviews are now ruined.

If you want a sound system with good sound, you need to match it according to the standard (speakers + amplifier) of more than 10,000 yuan. A system with panoramic sound will be more expensive. Generally, e-commerce channels will recommend amplifiers for this type of speakers. Just make your choice based on your actual budget and the appearance of the cabinet.

Installation and commissioning

The sales of home theater audio products may be somewhat different from other products because of the high professional requirements for installation. The e-commerce platform is more suitable for everyone to purchase multimedia speakers, Bluetooth speakers, and products that do not require pre-embedded wires in advance or have simple wiring (supports wireless rear surround). As for relatively professional products, e-commerce platforms are only suitable for checking prices and selections, and then go online to check the physical dealers in your location, and have a trial experience in the physical store. Basically, you can get the same price as online. If you encounter online If you go to a physical store to do activities, the price will be more advantageous. Another advantage of buying in a physical store is that professionals will come to install and debug it. People in the industry often say that the prerequisite for an excellent home theater must be that the room's acoustic treatment must be in place. Audio is no different from other household appliances. It needs to be adjusted according to different usage environments. This is usually done through the built-in software of the power amplifier. A professional team will also use a room acoustic tester. Use professional data to adjust the placement of speakers and subwoofers to get the best listening experience from the emperor's seat (sofa).

Audio is an electronic product that can be updated quickly. In addition, the level of movie recording continues to improve, and there will be more and more sources of panoramic sound films in the future. The highest level of decoding for movies currently is panoramic sound decoding, which is downward compatible with 7.1 and 5.1. However, 5.1 and 7.1 cannot be expanded upward. Professional products are already at the forefront of the times. For families who have the conditions to build panoramic sound, it is recommended to choose panoramic sound equipment, so as not to spend a lot of money to buy new equipment, redo acoustics, and hammer on the sound when you want to experience panoramic sound. Inevitably, it is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also expensive. Now that we have such mature equipment, why not do it in one step? If you are one step ahead of others, you will not fall behind the times.

Summarize

It is recommended that if you have the opportunity to go to an audio store, you must experience the feeling of the panoramic sound demonstration film. The heavy rain clips are often demonstrated. If you close your eyes, you will really feel that you are there. The sound of raindrops falling around you is natural and clear. For those who want to improve their quality of life, it is very necessary to have their own home theater at home. Nowadays, any video APP has rich high-definition resources, and there are also many multi-channel audio tracks. If you have a fever, you can set up a NAS local area network at home and download some high-definition original disks. The effect will instantly beat the average small movie theater.