Best Home Theater Systems

Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 5:39 am  
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Home Theater Systems Buying Guide

Deciding to invest in the best home theater system for your home is a big decision which should factor in many things with quality and price range being the two biggest determining factors. There are many home theater systems available so knowing how much you can spend and what you want to spend it on will help narrow the field down.

For example, if you are starting out at a lower price point there are a couple popular systems that provide a good quality experience such as the Panasonic SC-PT660 and the Panasonic SC-PT760. Both of these systems are available for around $150.00 and offer smooth sound, good picture and are an over all solid value.

Moving up in price somewhat is the Sony DAV-HD576WR for approximately $350.00. This home theater system is known for being a breeze to set up and use, has a five CD disc changer, can wireless stream music and is IPod compatible.

For between six and seven hundred dollars you could take home a Panasonic SC-BT100 with a built in Blu-ray player, wireless rear speakers, Dolby True HD sound and a built in IPod dock. Set up is not complicated thanks to the on screen menus.

Onkyo has a hit with its Ht-S9100THX home theater system. At a cost of right around one thousand dollars this is well worth it. Some of the highlights are the four HDMI inputs, speakers that are full size, awesome sound quality, high resolution picture quality, 290 watt subwoofer included, easy on screen navigation and set up and the system uses and equalizer which enables it to measure the speaker distance to ensure accurate set up.

Higher up the price point ladder we find the Panasonic PT-AX200U at just under $2000.00. This home theater system is popular due to its excellent color saturation, impressive image quality, smooth sound, 2 HDMI inputs and offers a gaming mode which has faster signal processing.

If you happen to like the great outdoors there is a home theater system for you too. The CineBox CHB-16 is like having your very own drive in theater. The inflatable screen measures sixteen by nine feet and the system is complete with an electric air blower, Sanyo LCD projector, DVD player, audio mixer, speakers and cables. Perfect for entertaining outdoors and at events this elaborate home theater system costs approximately $3500.00.

Regardless of your price range, you can find best home theater systems that will give you years of cinematic enjoyment.

Ultimate Home Theater Rooms



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Home Theater Speakers – Buying Tips

Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 8:31 am  
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Your Buying Tips for Your Home Theater speakers

Whether it’s mellow background music or the boom of an exciting movie, the sounds you hear from a home theater entertainment system all require speakers. A speaker system can make or break a home theater entertainment system. No matter how great you’re other audio gears is, if the speakers aren’t good, you won’t have good sound. And vice versa.

Buying Tips

1. Audition speakers, and buy what sounds good to you.

2. Match your speakers to your receiver or amplifier.

3. Tower speakers can be beautiful.

4. Small speakers can rock as well

The good news is you don’t have to pay a fortune for nice-sounding speakers. Audio technology has advanced to a point where many small speakers sound good enough for most people. Which leads us to the even better news: Today there are lots of different kinds of speaker to choose from building home theater entertainment.

Almost all home theater speakers today use what are called drivers. Typical cone-shaped drivers consists of a woofer for low sounds, a tweeter for high sounds and a mid-range driver for mid-range sound. A one-way speaker covers a full range of sounds with one driver; a two-way speaker uses a woofer and a tweeter; and a three-way speaker uses a woofer, tweeter and mid-range driver.

Home Theater: Speaker Type

Tower or Cabinet Speaker is the descendants of those plant-bearing behemoths your better half may have banished from the family room. Many tower speakers look like beautiful sculptures that blend with your decor. And here’s another reason to consider them: They will give you the best bang- not necessarily for your buck but in terms of sound quality. That’s because sound moves air, and generally, the more air moved, the better. Hence, bigger speakers tend to produce better and bigger sounds. That make these speakers great choices for the front channels in a large home theater system-even if they’re hidden behind walls and in columns.

Bookshelf Speaker

Bookshelf speakers are much smaller and take less space. In most cases, they’re small enough to fit on a shelf or a floor stand. Some are just smaller version of those big cabinet speakers. Many bookshelf speaker can also be placed on stands, and they can deliver enough power for all but the biggest and most serious home theaters.

In-wall  speaker works like a regular speaker. But instead of being attached to a cabinet, it’s mounted in a frame and set into your wall. It uses the wall cavity as a large cabinet, giving you more bass than you might get from a stand-alone speaker of the same size. These are great options when you don’t have the space. The reduced depth of an in-wall speaker, because it’s made to fit inside a wall cavity.

Ceiling speakers are hung or installed on ceilings to save space and better distribute sound. They are commonly used in home entertainment systems where there is limited room for freestanding speakers. They can also be used to channel sound over different rooms, such as kitchens and bedrooms. Ceiling speakers may be a single speaker or a system consisting of a subwoofer and tweeters. They may also come with a back box, which serves as a control panel for adjusting volume, equalization, and other sound attributes.

Subwoofers reproduce just the low bass for music and movie effect,  becoming more and more crucial to the home theater experience. When you go to the movie theater, you marvel not only at the images projected on the screen, but the sounds emanating around you. What really grabs you, though, is the sound you actually feel; the deep bass that shakes you up and gets you right in the gut. A specialized speaker, known as a subwoofer, is responsible for this experience. The subwoofer is designed only to reproduce the lowest of audible frequencies.

Subwoofer Speaker

Bipole and dipole speakers create ambient, nonlocative effects for home theater surround channels. Bipole surround speakers have two or more speakers that output sound from both sides of the cabinet. If used as side surround speakers, the sound is output both towards the front and rear of the room. If used as rear surround speakers, they output sound in both directions along the rear wall. The dual speakers used in a bipole speaker are ‘in phase’, meaning that both speakers output sound simultaneously. Bipole speakers create a diffuse surround effect so the location of the speaker cannot be pinpointed. In general, bipole speakers are a good choice for movies and music and are usually placed on the side walls. A dipole speaker outputs sound from both sides of the cabinet. The difference is dipole speakers are ‘out of phase’, which means that one speaker is outputting sound while the other is not, and vice-versa. The purpose is to create a very diffuse and enveloping surround sound effect. Dipole surround speakers are usually preferred by movie enthusiasts and are also placed on the side walls.

Speaker bars contain all the channels for a surround-sound system in one cabinet and are often placed beneath a TV screen. It can be a solution for people who do not want a lot of wiring running about their home and want to supplement the audio from their flat panel HDTV. They are designed to be used in a living room home theater application and are placed below a flat panel TV. The slim units normally house an amplifier and speakers which simulate the effect of actual surround sound speakers with varying degrees of success depending upon the brand and model.


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Home Theater Speaker Guide

Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 5:57 am  
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Your Home Theater Speaker Guide and Tips

There are several tips and guide to look for when shopping Home Theater speakers. But the most important thing is to listen to several speakers in your price range and go with the ones you like.


Frequency Range is simply the range of frequencies a speaker can reproduce. The human era can hear sounds between 20 Hz to 20Khz. Music goes down to about 40 Hz in low bass, and beneath that are movie effects that is subwoofer can provide. Many subwoofers can reproduce frequencies from 120 Hz down.


Power is expressed in watts and is often given in a range, from minimum to maximum. You’ll want to match it with the power rating of your receiver or amplifier. System producing 100 watts or more per channel should be used for large dedicated area like home theater room.


Sensitivity measures the speaker’s response to low power and it is important as power. It is expressed in decibels (dB), from about 83 to 93 dB, the highest the better. An increase of 3 dB in sensitivity is equivalent to doubling the power.


Impedance is a measure of electrical resistance and is measured in ohms. In this case, the lower the impedance, the less resistance. Most speakers are rated at 4, 6, 8 ohms. The most important things and tips to remember is to match the impedance of your speaker with that of your receiver or amplifier.


Magnetic shielding protects nearby devices like TVs from the powerful magnets used in speakers. This is especially important to have in center-channel speakers or other speakers placed near a TV screen.


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Home Theater Amplifiers

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 2:43 am  
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Amplifying Your Home Theater Experience

Many people have heard of amplifiers but don’t know exactly what one is. There are several types of amplifiers such as those for guitars, cars and home theaters. An amplifier receives signal from sources such as CD’s, DVD’s, laser disks and cable TV it then increases or amplifies that signal and then routes it to either the speakers if it is an audio signal or the screen if it is a video signal.

There are many great home theater amplifiers on the market to choose from to complete your home theater package. To determine which is right for your system consider what price range you wish to stay within and how much power (watts) you desire.

A Buttkicker amplifier (model # BKA-1000-4) would run a person about $350.00 and would be a great addition to any home theater surround sound system. Providing 1100 watts for terrific sound.

For someone who is more budget minded when shopping for home theater amplifiers the Audio Source AMP-100 two channel bridgeable power amplifier provides 100 watts (fifty in each channel) giving you high end sound at a low end price coming in just under $100.00.

The Yamaha HT-6230BL is a 500 watt amplifier that would make any home theater package shine. Producing smooth, high quality sound and realistic picture this amplifier is well worth the $250.00 price tag.

If you are in the market for wireless home theater amplifiers the Buttkicker BKA300 is a terrific option. This Buttkicker attaches to a chair or couch to send low frequency sounds directly into the listener’s body. This home theater amplifier has terrific sound and a price point of right around $300.00.

When shopping for home theater system components if there is a little more wiggle room in your wallet there are some products that really are shining stars such as the NAD T-955. This premium product provides five channels with 100 watts each giving the sound quality great depth and detail. At a cost of about $800.00 this one is for people who know what they want.

Continuing up in price another high quality home theater amplifier is the Sony ES 120 watt model # STRDA6400ES. Who wouldn’t want this to round out their awesome home theater set up? Sure it has a heftier price tag of $2500.00 but the seven channels of incredible sound and internet connectivity make it well worth it for those who are true audiophiles.

Keep in mind when designing your home theater that there are many prices and options for home theater amplifiers and you are sure to find one that meets both your needs and your budget.

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Home Theater Surround Sound Systems

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 2:36 am  
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The Two Approaches Tips To System Home Theater Surround Sound Systems

When it comes to having home theater surround sound systems, you will have two options. The first option is to buy a ready to go, out of the box system. These systems will normally include a complete speaker system consisting of one subwoofer, at least five speakers, but in some cases up to seven additional speakers, a receiver/media player component, a remote and all the necessary cable connections. These prepackaged systems are easy to set up and the prices can range from as little as $150 and can top out in the few thousand dollars range.

The other option in home theater surround sound systems is to piece together your own system. Most people who are avid about home theater will often go this route. The main component of these systems is the receiver. While the prices on the top-flight receivers can be rather high, normally a good quality receiver can cost anywhere from $200 to $600.

The second feature that you will want to focus on is speakers. Once again, the highest quality speakers will cost a lot; but there are very affordable speakers that will grant you excellent sound and not cause you to miss a few house payments. In addition, you will also want to choose whether a complete surround speaker system is for you or whether you wish to purchase speakers as separates. After the receiver and speakers are taken care of, you will need to connect your DVD player, CD player and any other components you wish. After that, you should be ready to go.

People are often convinced that having excellent quality sound for home theater surround sound systems will cost them a small fortune, and while you can spend as much as you want, you do not have to break the bank to have a system that can dazzle you. Whether you decide to get a box system, or you decide to piece together your own customized system, you can have all the quality your eyes and ears can handle with a price tag that your bank account can.



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