SURROUND SOUND

The magic carpet components that surround and put you INTO the movie!

Okay, so you spring for the new Home Theater and you want 5.1 sound? Assuming you want to go full steam ahead, here’s what you need to know:

Surround Sound:

Circle the wagons, we are under attack: the new Home Entertainment Systems, along with a much, much better PICTURE, include a provision for higher fidelity SOUND, and 6 channels (called 5.1 to confuse you – I’ll explain) or MORE.

Why are 6 channels called 5.1?

Some guy in a lab coat did it, I bet. Actually, there can be discrete (separate) left, center, and right speakers, then left and right REAR speakers (that’s 5) and, the .1, a subwoofer for bone shaking bass.

Do you NEED all that?

No. But it is cool and does indeed submerge you better into the reality on screen. Alternatively, you can play certain CDs or DVDs and hear music all around you. Some of the music production has been gimmicky so far, but producers are catching up to the best use of the technology.

Do some HDTVs come with speakers built in? Yes. But they are much cheaper, and therefore not as exciting to listen to as in-the-wall or freestanding/hanging speakers, but you can start out WITHOUT the extras, and build from there. Once you get the outboard speakers, though, be sure to turn off the in-set models because they will interfere with the soundstage (image) the surround sound speakers throw at you.

WHAT IS SURROUND SOUND?

It’s a term that describes the modern movie experience. Modern movie soundtracks contain localization information to immerse you in the reality of the film. Likewise, the home theater experience attempts to create that same ambience. Most surround systems today are 5.1 systems.

What?

Again, a 5.1 surround sound system is actually 6 sources of sound… I’d write 6 speakers, but since some speaker boxes have more than one speaker in them (most do), that could be misleading. Let me say, then, 6 speaker BOXES. 3 across the front, 2 in the rear, and one wild card. These would be: Left front, Center front, Right front; left rear, right rear, and subwoofer. Placement of the subwoofer is likely to be a matter of your personal taste and what the room design allows. If you want to go all out, it has been shown that 2 subwoofers usually sound better than one. You don’t NEED two unless you are looking for the last ounce (actually, TON) of impact!

Too much? You are not alone!

According to a consumer report, over 50 percent of respondents claim some physical limitation as a reason for not installing a home theater system, with 26 percent stating small room size was a factor, 23 percent stating aesthetic reasons such as exposed cables and wires, and nine percent stating they had no desire to reconstruct and/or remodel their homes to accommodate a new system.

Methodology: "Home Theater: Capturing the Digital Entertainment Center", was an online survey conducted among members of The NPD Group’s online consumer panel. A nationally balanced sample of 5,419 adults completed the survey between September 9 and September 16, 2005. The survey looked at three groups of consumers; those with a home theater, those planning to install one in the next 12 months, and those not interested.

So, what to do? Check this out!

The incredibles. The YAMAHA YSP-1

Yamaha YSP-1 Digital Sound Projector Okay, so you like the whole idea of Home Theater and surround sound, but your significant other turns into a snarling bulldog when you float the possibility of running wires around the room to all those speakers. cinemas-de-recherche.org to the rescue!

"But honey," you now can say, "there's a better way!" Actually it may or may not be better since there are so many variables, but if it's this or nothing, why not give it a try. (Try for a 30 day trial period, if you can wrangle that.)

The following description is sort of unbelieveable. One box. Goes under the screen. Inside? 40 1.6 inch speaker drivers, 2 larger speakers - just under 5 inches, and digital amplifiers. The whole shebang is just a shade under 41 x 8 x 5 inches. Weighs 29 pounds and lists for $1500.

How can it project sound around the room? By using time delay and phase tricks.

Will you hallucinate surround sound? It's likely.

No subwoofer. Might be better in certain room shapes than others. Looks great. Saves space. Only wires are the ones that feed it - no outboard speaker wires.

Left, Center, and Right speakers in one box.
The MIRAGE UNI-Theater

A compromise might turn the bulldog’s snarl into a smile. You can have your rear speakers, but those other boxes can be pared down with the Mirage Uni-Theater.

The UNI-Theater incorporates the left, right and center speaker in one ingeniously designed, extruded aluminum enclosure divided into three independent chambers. Each chamber houses an active 3" woofer, two passive 3" Polypropylene Titanium Deposit Hybrid radiators, and a 3/4" Pure Titanium Hybrid Tweeter

$999. 19 pounds. About 5 x 37 x 4 inches. Is NOT powered, so you need amplifers. (Pictured above with grill off.)

You’ll want a subwoofer. You might place one of these puppies under the screen and hang another from the ceiling in the rear of the room.

Polk Audio SDA SurroundBar Titanium Single Speaker 5.1 Surround

THE POLK SURROUNDBAR

Here's another one-slim-box solution to 5 channels of sound. Just remember the sound field is an illusion which depends on the circuitry, your room shape, what's in it, and where you sit. Worth a listen. At $949 MSRP. 3 tweeters, inputs for 5 channels. 43 inches long. Aluminum enclosure, magnetically shielded. Available Oct 2005. Click above for more and/or to purchase.