Top 5 Home Theater Mistakes

This season a lot of us might have bought swanky new LCDs, and soon will realize that the sound output sucks - those tin can speakers are just no good. Thus the next, albeit last minute entry in our wish list is a new Home theater system, complete surround sound et al to enjoy the games and movies we love.

We have covered quite a bit on setting up your HDTV. This time let’s focus on setting up your HT system, as there are correct steps and optimal things to do, in order to get the best sound. We will look at the most common mistakes made while setting up a new HT system in a room.

Caring for looks only
Nowadays we have a market swarming with scores of snazzy looking and slicker than thou speakers. The thing is sound quality does get compromised to a large extent when the shape of enclosure is fiddled with too much. Thus the first step to know when looking around is that flat and slim, “star wars” inspired designs are going to be, more often than not, bright sounding and slightly edgy in their frequency response.

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Matching the size of your room
Any competent HT salesman must ask you your room size first, as there is no point getting overpowered, or underpowered systems. And a corollary of this point is that big floorstanders are not always the best. If your room is small then bookshelves or satellite speakers can also suffice. Also check the output power rating of the receiver.

Generally the manufacturers are inaccurate about this, thus the consumer must see the sensitivity of the speakers. A higher sensitivity rating means it will be louder than others when fed equal units of power, as compared to a model with lower sensitivity. Thus the output power must be perfect for your room, and not overkill or vice versa.

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Placement/setting of speakers
This might be a Captain Obvious guest appearance, but HT speakers, be it 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, need to be placed in acutely appropriate positions, and then set according to the size and shape of the room. There is something called signal delay in the AV receivers, which needs to be looked up and adjusted, as we want the sound to reach the surrounds in perfect sync with the front speakers. If your receiver uses Audyssey RoomEQ setting, then the whole process should be used, as it works very well. The mic should be connected up and then let the receiver calibrate the speakers, crossover point delay etc. according to the measurements it takes.

Ignoring Acoustics
Once purchased, the system will not automatically sound good. The best equipment in the market can still sound inaccurate and boomy if not placed properly in a well balanced room. the acoustic properties of your room is very important in the reproduction of sound, thus a HT room should have absorptive surfaces on the immediate reflection sides and floor.

Bare rectangular walls will cause the sound to reflect off it, and thus create standing waves. Standing waves are natural resonance that occurs in a room, the frequency of which depends on the length. This is the prime cause of a boomy and wobbly bass. Carpets, shelves, painting, curtains, anything diffusive should be used. Also the sub should not be kept in a 3 way corner, as that too causes enhanced bass which might spoil the frequency balance.

Not understanding the “crossover point”
This is especially true for those with smaller square shaped rooms; and also those intending to get satellite-subwoofer systems. The crossover point is that particular frequency which theoretically divides the satellites and the sub. Also, in two way and three way floorstanding speakers, the crossover is the point that separates the two bands of sounds, going to the tweeter and woofer respectively. For the speakers themselves there is nothing we can do to affect the crossover point, but in the case of satellites and the separate sub, we have a choice of setting this.

Most receivers and subs these days offer this option to set different levels for eg. 100 Hz, 120 hz etc. Below this point all the sound goes to the sub, while above all the sound goes to speakers. Now depending on the size and acoustics of your room, one can greatly fine tune the bass response by just getting the crossover right. It’s a subjective thing, one must spend time with your sub, but after this the bass response can audibly change for the better.