Having your very own surround sound system as part of your home theatre system is something to behold for those new to this technology. It truly gives an immersive experience that you can only otherwise find in the cinema. Having an extra level of depth to your entertainment can not only boost the quality of the audio you are hearing, but also offer you an added level of immersion. To find out what is the best surround sound installation for you, let us look at the different types of systems and how they work.

For those new to this technology, just having multiple speakers attached to your audio system will not give you true surround sound. Surround sound differs from conventional audio such as stereo by separating parts of the audio track of a film into several separate and distinct channels. You may have an existing stereo system, computer or television that offers a ‘virtual surround’ option in the audio settings that gives a different sound than usual.

Separate audio channels per speaker

This is not a true surround sound experience, and only uses a multi-band equaliser to increase or decrease certain frequencies of sound to give you a different experience, such as increasing the volume of speech and decrease the volume of background noise. A true surround sound system will record the speech parts of a film separately from the background noise, sound effects and other audio levels to create a new channel.

A true surround sound system decodes all of these separate audio channels from a Blu-Ray or television broadcast and feeds each individual channel to a single speaker or multiple speakers at one time. The audio of each channel is cued up to the images on screen to give you that extra immersive feel. This is the feeling you get when your ears prick up when you hear footsteps behind you, or cars passing by in a film where the audio has been sent to the speakers behind you.

Cinema quality audio at home

Modern surround sound systems employ the latest technology that has been passed down from the movie industry and directly from the cinema itself. You can pick up many surround sound systems that are Dolby Digital or THX Certified that incorporate the same audio systems you can find in most cinemas.

There are thousands of different surround sound systems to choose from on the market, and due to their popularity and advancement in technology the prices have come down to offer you cinema quality sound starting from even under $100. Of course, the latest innovations in the system as well as choice of speaker can reach $10,000 for some systems. Many surround sound systems include a media playback device within the speaker amplifier, meaning you can watch your Blu-Rays and DVDs with crisp audio quality, too.

Speaker positioning and identification

Whatever system you purchase, speaker positioning is key to getting the full experience of the sound. Position your speakers in accordance to the instruction manual to get the best out of each system. a 5.1 surround sound system incorporates 4 satellite speakers that are positioned around the room, two rear and two at the front. The fifth speaker is placed under your television to give a projected sound whilst the last speaker is a subwoofer.

Position these speakers as described and you can start to enjoy the best sound you’ve ever experienced at home. Your surround sound installation will be quick to assemble and arrange, but if you feel that the system is too complicated for you, or need to incorporate a surround sound system into a larger home theatre, hiring a local surround sound installation company will ensure that you get the ultimate sound of the cinema at home.