Enhance The Sound On Your Home Theater With These 5 Tricks!

Irrespective of how much time you spend reading reviews and comparing home theater systems, the truth is that you will not be able to enjoy its full potential until you set up its components properly. While properly setting up the video quality can be done easily with the adequate HDMI cables, sometimes getting the sound just right can be tricky.

The number one rule to remember about sound quality here is that matched speakers are always a better choice than a cobbled set of speakers. In fact, even a fairly priced set of speakers will provide better sound quality in this situation. If you’re not completely satisfied with the sound on your home theater system, then you should try these following tricks.

1. Position your speakers optimally

Ideally, you shouldn’t place the speakers on top of cabinets or inside bookcases, but rather on wall brackets or floors stands. If this isn’t possible, then at least make sure that the front speakers’ tweeters are positioned as close to ear level as possible. The rest of the speakers should be placed equidistantly in relation to the listening position.

2. Make sure you have the right cables

In case you’re still using your old wiring for your brand new system, then we can safely say you spent all that cash for nothing. To enjoy the full home theater experience you should upgrade your current interconnection cables with suitable HDMI cables. Not only will you get a clearer, crisper sound, but the HDMI wiring will also help you eliminate that cable mess looming behind the A/V receiver.

3. Play with the speakers’ setup menu

Because most new receivers have a setup menu, one method of improving the sound on your system is to start exploring the available options you find there. Basically, this task implies determining the sizes of the speakers and inputting the distance from the listening area. Take note that any pair of speakers which comes with a 6 inch woofer is considered large, while the listener-to-speaker distance in this case is measured in milliseconds (1 ms per 1 foot). Once you introduce the data, the receiver will be able to adjust the sound so that it reaches both of your ears simultaneously.

4. Use a separate power amplifier

In the eventuality that you dedicated an entire room for the home theater system and you usually prefer to pump up the volume when you have people over, then note that you also need more power. Therefore, you should take a close look at the speakers’ back panel (or read the manual) to see if it is possible to attach a separate preamplifier. However, make sure that the wall-per-channel of the preamplifier is at least 100 watts.

5. Ensure the room has the adequate acoustics

Sometimes, despite all the "fine tunings", you might not see any noticeable improvement in terms of sound quality. In general, when nothing works, the most probable cause is the room’s poor acoustics. Consequentially, if the room where you placed the home theater has several large windows or if the floor is made of tile or bare-wood, the best approach is to cover these surfaces with a thick drape and respectively, an area rug.