There are four basic types of home theater audio systems: home-theater-in-a-box system, soundbar system, and soundbar system. The Soundbar System is the easiest option to build your home theater system around. A home theater system is a speaker arrangement that goes beyond stereo sound to give you an immersive experience. The best surround sound speakers for your home depends on the size of your room.
Frequency response is one of the most important specs as it tells you the range of frequencies the speakers can produce from low to high. Designing your own home theater requires careful consideration of speaker placement, seating arrangements, screen size, and more. The center channel should be placed at ear level when sitting in front of the TV, typically under or over the TV. Audio Advice has a design tool to help plan seat layout, speaker placement, screen size, projector throw distance, etc.
When planning a home theater in a small room or large space, consider budget and what setup to consider for the best Dolby experience. Start by configuring your room size, adding seating, and selecting screen and speaker options to visualize your home theater or media room layout. Make your movie room a dedicated space with ambient light control, ambient sound, and build a proper A/V component rack. Properly ventilate A/V to ensure optimal performance and visuals.
📹 How to Create an Immersive Home Theater
Learn how to create an immersive home theater with surround sound in a few simple steps. We’ll walk you through the setup …
📹 How To Design A Surround Sound System
How do you design a Surround Sound System setup? For answers to the most common Home Free Home Theater Guide: …
This is about as basic as you can get. If you REALLY want to be immersed, you need a Dolby Atmos & DTS: X receiver (hopefully with at least 5.1.4 processing) and add overhead speakers (at least 4) to the basic 5.1 or 7.1 base surround layout, keeping the left/center/right speaker tweeters around ear level (surrounds just above your seated head). Then, a 4k Blu-ray player and a streaming device to give yourself the greatest source options for immersive soundtracks. 4k discs give you the best A/V quality, followed by regular Blu-ray discs in terms of picture quality (they sometimes offer immersive tracks and have the same basic lossless audio codecs from Dolby and DTS as 4k Blu-ray), with streaming bringing up the rear since the article and audio are severely compressed.
Love the article. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Quick question. You refer to atmos speakers. I had just purchased the Yamaha aventage Rx A880 receiver, Svsp sub, and 5 focal surrounds, all in ceiling. What do you recommend for the 4 atmos speakers(also will be in ceiling) Would appreciate your feedback
So I’m in a similar situation to the last two examples. There’s a closet in the back/side of my little theater room that prohibits me from putting the surrounds for a 5.1 setup at 90 degrees. It would probably be more like 80 degrees. Will this work do you think? Or should I put directional speakers in the ceiling behind at more of a 110 degree angle? It’s an 8 foot ceiling.
I watched a few of your articles, the home theater information is consistently of high quality. You have shared some great tips I hope to apply in my own build, and actually it seems I might need professional help to get this done properly. Thank you! please keep making articles. Also the illustrations help but your freehand drawings are pretty bad, lol.
I can’t get a straight answer from any local integrator on whether or not I should go 5.2.4 or 7.2.4. Ive got a 14′ wide x 26′ length room. Because my room is only 14′ wide, should I do 7 floor websites? If so, should I put the rears on the back wall OR in the ceiling behind the atmos speakers? Thanks!
Q: What if you have 2 rows of seating? Where would you place the “side surround” speaker? between the “king’s chair row and the 2nd row…which would mean the height would have to be roughly 1.5′ above the $row and a foot above the ear for the 2nd row? Would you still use bookshelf speakers? or would bi-pole di-poles be better??
Hi, first of all love your articles they work as inspiration for my project. Was wondering if you could maybe help me out. I am currently working on my man cave. It will be a nice large area. I’ve been searching online for the best “affordable” home theater systems and pretty much all websites points to klipsch. I am considering buying their r-625fa 7.2.4 system (around $ 4k). Do you anything about them? About this brand? Would this be a good option for my price range? If not, what other brand would you recommend. I will much appreciate if you
In your opinion, how important are the angles for the atmos ceiling speakers? I want to eventually do a 7.2.4. my room is 13ft by 13ft, with 9ft ceiling. if I follow the recommendations of 35° to 55°, my rear Atmos speakers would only be about 1’6″ from my back wall. And my front Atmos speakers would be almost on top of my left and right front speakers. would you recommend I keep it this way, move my ceiling speakers a little bit in towards my king seat, Or maybe go with a 5.2.4? Bonus question: should the height speakers point directly down, or angle towards the King seat.
As a seasoned audio/ht guy myself, im never really caring so much about Atmos! Im, first,, most concerned about the biggest, high quality, hi-res projected picture i can fit in a given space! Second, i want a high quality front L/C/R setup, integrated with proper subwoofer needs. 3rd, 2 maybe 4 properly placed and dialed in surrounds. 4th, effectively treat the acoustical environment. 5th, decor, and lastly, MAAAYBE subtle ButtKicker type seat or floor shaker integration. Having 187 websites of FILLER loudspeakers placed all around the room isn’t ao important to my enjoyment of the system, personally! I feel quality over quantity, n careful balance n care in maximizing the main elements is of most importance, for me. Of course my other pet peave is that most people can’t even properly place 2 loudspeakers in a room correctly! Now they’re trying to haphazardly put 16 websites in m exist EA speaker position is going to yield quality sound reproduction??! Usually NOT! Less is definitely more here. I think. But hey…
nice review bro i have one doubt as a begginer i dont know which receiver to buy either 5.2 av receiver or 7.2 av receiver. i didnt have much interest in surround sound, i have only interest in music quality, i am confused some times that may 7.2 av receiver have best music quality rather than 5.2 av receiver, so if i want to buy a av receiver only for the music purpose which one would you tell me to buy a 7.2 av receiver or 5.2 av receiver
I love your advice about directional in-ceiling speakers for surrounds. I have an area with no left wall for my setup and this will allow me to put in surrounds without building pillars for them. Should I stick with in-ceiling or should I use wall mounted on the right where i do have a wall??? (I’m thinking they should be the same, in-ceiling).
Speaking of less than ideal setups. Many people advise against putting a 7.1 setup in a room that’s “too small” (9’x11’ for me specifically), but I did that and it sounds pretty good to me. Movies that I watch sound very similar to when I watched them in the commercial theater. I sit 3.5’ from the back wall, do you think I can try a 7.1.4 atmos setup?
I’m going to say this really slowly and I’ll say it only once….. so listen…. they….still…..just….manipulate….volume (and…mayb….eq….and …delay)… ..on….the…..speakers…theres…just….more….speakers….. A….dinosaur…does….not…..actually….run….across…your….living…..room – there….are….health …..and…..safety….concerns…..associated…..with…..that…..and…..also….terrorism….if…it’s….a …muslim….dinosaur.. Jeez
Thanks for this article! I have the very same situation in my home theater room as the example you give at the 9:40 mark, where I have no back wall (for over 30′) and I am not able to mount my side surrounds at or near ear level, as they are both obstructed by doors. The room is about 12′ wide, by the way. Instead, I have Klipsch CDT-5800II in-ceilings pointed at the cash seat for my rear surrounds and Klipsch RP-500SA side surrounds, mounted just above the door frames (as low as I could mount them) at 90 degrees to the cash position. I must say, the setup sounds good. Far from perfect, but I am happy with it. I want to augment the setup with 2 or 4 CDT-5800II in-ceiling speakers for ATMOS website, but am unsure which. Any advice there?
I’m in the UK and our ‘average’ houses are hardly ever rectangular, I have had to compromise so much, I have a door at the back left rear, a wall that doesn’t allow me to add side speakers so I got dipoles/bipoles and they are all on the back wall and then the rear surround backs are also on the back wall but higher, and btw this is a lounge only 18’ x 18’ (L) (C) (R) Seating (RSL) (RL) (RR) (RSR) That is the only solution I Had, using Denons Audyssey and some bipole/dipoles, I have managed to get it the best I can for a 7.1 set-up, One day I will have a dedicated room, great article, we do what we can, with what we have. 🙏🏼