Understanding Home Theater Speakers in Different Locations!

Understanding Home Theater Speakers in Different Locations

The speaker part in building a home theater is undoubtedly the most important part. There are various types and sizes of speakers. You may have heard of speakers with various names. Understanding how they are used is very important for building an excellent home theater. s help.

Nowadays, home theater surround sound formats are basically Dolby Atmos, and even you can hardly find seven-channel power amplifiers that are not Dolby Atmos in the market. Basic 5.1.2 panoramic sound, advanced 5.1.4, 7.1 .4, you can see that there are many home theater speakers. Each speaker has a unique role, but ideally they are matched as closely as possible. With Dolby Atmos, if all speakers have the same sound signature, those flying effects in the room will sound more like the real scene. If you have a great Dolby Atmos home theater setup, you'll feel like you have your own great private theater.

Let's take a 7.1.4 home theater audio system as an example, you will have a left channel main speaker, right channel main speaker, a center channel main speaker, left and right surround speakers, left and right rear speakers, 4 Dolby Atmos speakers, and finally a subwoofer. (The first number describes the number of speakers at ear level, the second number refers to the number of subwoofers, and the third number refers to the number of sky channels) Let's see how to decide where you should allocate your budget.

Core front left and right speakers

As the name suggests, these are your left and right front speakers. They are usually placed on either side of a video display, or behind an acoustically transparent projection screen. They can be floor-standing, bookshelf speakers, wall-mounted or wall-mounted, depending on which location best suits your room and budget.

The left and right speakers receive a lot of information from the soundtrack of a movie or concert. You don't want to cut corners with these two speakers. One minute they might be playing the soundtrack, the next they might knock you off your seat with a bang. If you're all watching sports and low-key dialogue-heavy drama, you can spend the money you spend on the left and right on other gear, but generally these are the most important speakers in your home theater.

Left and right speakers are especially important if you like concert videos or just want to listen to music in your home theater. About 75-80% of the sound in a concert video will come from the left and right channels, and if you decide to listen to some vinyl records in stereo in your home theater system, 100% of the sound will come from the left and right main channels.

center channel speaker

When watching a movie, if you can't understand the dialogue, you'll hardly like it. Almost all sounds in a movie will appear in the center channel soundtrack. Many front channel speakers will be long and thin to fit under the screen, but there are also center channel speakers on the wall and in-wall that do well.

Ideally, the center channel should be the same as your left and right speakers. This makes everything completely seamless when the sound or track is panned in front. The producers also mix the same content across all three channels, which works great if they're the same.

If you can't have the exact same center speaker as your main left and right, make sure you have at least the same brand, and if possible they should be in the same series. Most good speaker manufacturers will design their mid-channel speakers to be a good match for the same range of upright or bookshelf speakers.

Left and right surround speakers

In a home theater, you'll have at least two left and right surround tracks, and another pair of rear surround tracks if your budget and room allow. Like the left and right main speakers, these speakers can be floor-standing, bookshelf, wall-mounted, or in-wall.

With the advent of Dolby Atmos, the positioning and design of these speakers has changed dramatically. Before Dolby Atmos and object-based surround speakers, surround speakers were there to help you get a sense of space. Many models have two-sided or angled speaker assemblies that send sound to the front and back of the room if used for side surround speakers, and to the sides if used for rear surround speakers. We've also suggested mounting them higher in the past to help create a sense of space.

All of that changed with the introduction of object-based surround and lower surround speakers, as well as ceiling or height speakers. Now we want the sound from the surround speakers to be directional, not directed in multiple directions. We also want them to be closer to ear level, since we now have dedicated atmospheric height speakers.

In the past, producers also didn't send a lot of big effects and all-round information to the surround channel. Since the advent of the Dolby Atmos system, when we look at a movie soundtrack, the surround channels have as much information as the front channels.

Also, in an ideal home theater, the surround speakers should be the same as the main speakers, but in most rooms it's not practical to have a large floorstanding speaker on either side of the seat (try it if you have the space) !) We usually see an on-wall or in-wall speaker for the surround channel.

Just like the middle channel, you will want to have the same brand and if possible in the same model series to keep matching. While surround speakers are not as important as the main left and right speakers, producers are increasing the content sent to these channels, so a good home theater can no longer use really small surround speakers.

Choice of sky speakers

Sky speakers are the key to Dolby Lab's new Object Surround Sound. The high-quality sound they provide makes you feel like you're in a movie. While a basic 5.1 system will sound far better than a regular stereo, the full Dolby Atmos ratio is a whole different level.

There are several ways to get these grand atmospheric effects in your home theater. The first method is to install speakers on the ceiling. Another way is to use what's called a booster speaker. Sky speakers are designed to sit on your left and right speakers and bounce off sky effects.

If you opt for 4 Atmos speakers, which is preferred, the Altitude type will sit on top of your front and rear speakers. This means that if you're using a lift speaker, your rear speakers need to be bookshelf or floor standing speakers, or you can put your lift speaker on a stand.

There are now some left and right speakers on the market that actually have Atmos height speakers built into the top of the speakers for a very clean look.

If connecting to the ceiling is difficult, there are also new speakers designed to be angled so you can mount them at the intersection of your wall and ceiling to send the height effect to your listening area.

For those opting for ceiling-mounted speakers for atmospheric height effects, make sure they are the same distance from the left and right speakers, and preferably find a model that mounts the speaker assembly inside the enclosure at an angle. This way you can aim them at your hearing area.

Like all the other speakers we've discussed, you'll want to stick with the same brand if possible -- if that brand makes an Atmos speaker.

Audio engineers are really good at using sky height speakers in movies these days, so our recommendation is to be as big as possible that will fit your setup or budget.

bass

There are two basic types of subwoofers used in home theater, indoor and in-wall. Most room subwoofers will have an amplifier built into the subwoofer. There is now a wireless subwoofer on the market that makes placement very easy. For in-wall subwoofers, the amplifier will be a separate section, which is rarely used.

The purpose of a subwoofer is to provide deep bass. This has two parts. First, the ".1" soundtrack of a movie is what is called the LFE channel. This stands for low frequency effects. This signal will be sent to your subwoofer. Also, your other speakers may not be able to handle the very deep bass information in the other channels. This part of the soundtrack will also be routed to your subwoofer.

Typically, your home theater receiver or processor lets you set the cutoff frequency for each set of speakers. Sending bass information to the subwoofer instead of other speakers has two benefits. Subwoofers are designed for low frequencies and usually do a better job reproducing deep bass. Plus, they don't have to work as hard by removing the deep bass parts of the track from other speakers. This makes them sound easier and also reduces the power requirements of the amplifiers driving these speakers. Subwoofers absorb the maximum power of any type of signal, which is why you see subwoofers with high power ratings.

When you consider requiring all subwoofers to work, it's not hard to see why it's another very important part of your home theater. You'll find subwoofers at a variety of prices. Usually, as you spend more money, you get a woofer that gets deeper and better defined bass.

You'll also see some subwoofers with built-in room equalization. We've found this to be a great benefit, especially if your home theater receiver or processor doesn't offer it.

Finally, we strongly recommend at least two subwoofers for a good home theater. Everyone doesn't have to work hard, and it doesn't sound too hard, plus having two speakers in a room really helps smooth out bass frequencies across the room, giving everyone in the theater great bass.