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ADDING SURROUND SOUND TO YOUR HOME THEATER

Audio is critical to your media experience. Some experts believe it's even more important than the video, and in fact most people will perceive one identical video setup as better than another if the audio is better. The best way to choose an audio system is to listen to several. Receivers and amplifiers will vary, though most of the better brands produce very good equipment. Where you'll hear the biggest difference is in the speakers. Reading the specs can help. On the high end, most of the better speakers will produce 20,000 Hz or better, which is at the upper limit of most people's hearing. Depending on your ears, you may not hear much difference in the high notes produced by various speaker models.

But if you want to get a deep base for the lows-that 'in your bones' quality that you can feel as well as hear, you need a subwoofer that goes below 30 Hz. Many lower-cost subs won't give you 50 Hz or even 80 Hz, and at that point it's almost a misnomer to call them subs. A good full-range loudspeaker will go lower than that.

The midtones, too, can be an issue. Many surround sound drivers don't start working till 125 Hz or higher. But sound has directionality at lower tones than that. If you have to set your crossover much higher than 70 Hz, you'll be able to pick out where your subwoofer is located in the room, and that's not good. For this reason, you're better off with 2-way speakers for the front and rear rather than the simple tweeters often supplied in surround-sound packages.

The size of the speaker you need is related to volume level it's able to produce, particularly with the lower notes. For most homes, 100 - 120 watt mains are more than adequate, and that should work for you unless you have a very large room or you like really loud sound. A two-way speaker able to produce that volume will probably use about a 5" cone.

The rule of thumb for subwoofers is that the wattage output should equal the total wattage of your other speakers. So if you have five main speakers producing 100 watts each, you should look for a 500 watt sub. Generally speaking, at this size you're going to want an 'active' sub, one with its own amplifier.

People often ask us if they're better off buying a packaged surround system or choosing their own individual speakers. Unless you have someone designing a custom system for you, you're almost always better off buying the package. That way you can be assured that all the components work well together.

Sometimes people ask about Dolby 5.1 vs. Dolby 7.1 systems (the difference being five versus seven drivers, plus the ".1" subwoofer). Dolby 5.1 has become the standard. It's hard to hear the difference if you go to 7.1 and, most important, nearly all media is set up with the 5.1 coding.

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