Yu’ve got a spanking-new plasma or LCD set in your house, and you’re ready to give the local theater a run for its money.
But don’t forget the sound, or even “The Dark Knight” will seem downright dull.
WWTW checked in with a pair of audio experts for their advice on buying your first audio sound system.
Laura Hubbard, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Electronics Association, says consumers should first figure out what type of system best fits their overall needs and budget before they go to a specialty retailer.
The three choices are:
- Home-theater-in-a-box systems (HTiB) - Audio systems feature five speakers, amplification and sometimes even a DVD player. These types of systems are best for small spaces.
- Component systems – A/V receiver plus separate source components and speakers. Most home entertainment and or home theaters have these types of systems. They are great for a medium sized room and gives you a lot of flexibility by building your system around an a/v receiver.
- High-Performance – Separate processor, pre-amp and amplifier plus source components and speakers, all custom installed.
Hubbard says a good A/V receiver should have enough inputs and outputs for your existing components and room to add future ones.
A typical surround sound setup will include at least five speakers and a subwoofer to create a 360-degree wall of sound.
Hubbard says for the full home theater experience, shoot for an A/V receiver or high-performance system with at least one digital audio input, Dolby® Digital or DTS surround sound processing and a multi-channel amplifier.
“It’s the closest thing to the true theatrical experience,” she says.
Jerry Del Colliano, publisher of HomeTheaterReview.com, says budget-conscious shoppers have a newer option similar to HTiBs. Sound bars offer a solid alternative, and they offer a far more streamlined presentation.
“It’s flat like your TV, so they make sense,” Del Colliano says, adding the sound bar approach can keep the price of a home theater room down to reasonable levels.
“You take a 50-inch Pioneer plasma set … stick a sound bar on it with a sub-woofer and maybe splurge on a Blu-ray player. That system is awesome,” he says.
Sound bars can cost anywhere from $200 to more than $2,000, he says. Some come with built-in DVD players, while others offer universal remotes. The built-in computers “use a lot of processing and trickery” tom mimic larger systems, but recent tech advances have made them able to do so without turning audiophiles away.
“Is it a 7.1 surround sound system? No,” he says. “That’s where we elevate away from the mainstream user into, ’I’m gonna do something cool here.’”
Del Colliano says consumers remain keenly interested in wireless speaker and audio systems, but the current technology isn’t strong enough to support it. Wait another three years, he says, and technology will catch up with consumer demand.
Audio systems don’t get tongues wagging like the best flat panel sets do, but they are essential to a home theater setup.
“Without a quality audio system attached to your TV, you are only getting half of the experience,” she says. “Today’s movies and many TV shows have surround sound encoded into their soundtracks. Attaching an audio system to your video equipment will put you in the middle of the action and give you true theater experience.”
For more information and to find an audio dealer near you, check out CEA’s consumer Web site, DigitalTips.org.
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