What To Look For When Buying a Home Theater System

A surround sound system turns a television into a home theater. Without it, you can never approach the audio experience intended by modern-day filmmakers. Sure, your HDTV can probably fake surround, but it's not going to sound like the real thing.

That real thing requires a receiver  and several speakers. YouReceiver can buy everything in a single package, or get the receiver separately from the speakers You'll get a better deal if you buy everything in one package, although hardcore audiophiles usually prefer to buy them separately.

Your receiver will process audio information from your DVD or Blu-ray player, as well as your DVR. You might also want it to process audio from your iPod, smartphone, tape deck, and turntable.

It must be able to send its amplified audio to at least five satellite speakers--the smallish ones that allow the sound to come from different directions--and one subwoofer.

The receiver will also need multiple HDMI inputs, as wellHDMI as other inputs for older technology. And it will need one HDMI output, so it can send the video information to your HDTV while rerouting the audio to your speakers.

Your receiver should also decode Blu-ray's high-quality formats, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

Do you need a 7.1 system, or is 5.1 sufficient? In a 5.1 configuration, you have three front speakers near the television (left, center, and right), two surround speakers beside the audience (left and right), and a subwoofer for the low-frequency enhancement track (LFE). For 7.1, you get four surround speakers, so that you can get different sounds behind and beside you.5.1: Five satellite speakers and a subwoofer

As I write this, few 7.1 mixes are available, but that's changing. I don't consider 7.1 absolutely essential, but if your theater room is reasonably deep, 7.1 may enhance some movies. I'm happy with 5.1, myself.by lincoln spector