5 golden tips for choosing your home cinema
A home theater system is the ultimate solution for creating an immersive 360-degree sound environment, perfect for enjoying the latest cinematic masterpieces or filling your living room with evenly distributed music. With options like 2.1, 5.1, 7.1, wireless, Bluetooth, HDMI, and optical, there’s an array of features tailored to diverse needs.
Choosing among various models can be challenging. To avoid any mistakes, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your requirements. A few straightforward rules can help determine if a model is the right fit for you.
Here are my five golden rules for selecting the ideal home theater system.
The 5 rules:
Know how many speakers you need
Home cinemas come in various forms: 2, 3, 4, 6 or 7 speakers, 1 or 2 subwoofers… It is important to have what number of speakers is suitable for the room where the system is to be installed. The rear outputs are a real plus for the spatialization of the sound, especially for movie lovers. In this case, it is better to plan for a 5.1 or 7.1. 4.1 and 6.1 are less widespread, but work just as well.
With its Acoustimass 10, Bose offers a 10.1 home theater!
The 2.1 and 3.1 are to be preferred for small rooms or if you don’t have much distance. A system with a central channel is a real asset when used in cinema mode, as it is reserved for voices, which brings clarity to dialogue.
Having the right connections
The integration of the selected system into an existing electronic ecosystem is a critical consideration. Should it be installed concurrently with other devices, such as a television or projector, there may be slightly more flexibility.
Ensuring compatibility with other devices is crucial for seamless operation. Primarily, this includes the connectors. HDMI is the most prevalent type, found on the majority of soundbars. It’s quite uncommon to encounter models without this connection.
With several HDMI inputs, the home theater becomes the center of his living room, as here the Yamaha has APKYHT2920BL.
However, caution is advised with low-cost models, as manufacturers may cut corners to save costs. While HDMI is primarily designed to transmit video signals, the utility of the CEC feature, which enables the control of multiple devices simultaneously, cannot be overlooked. With this feature, the home theater system can automatically power on with the television, and similarly, power off.
The optical connection has long been THE way to transmit digital sound, and some home theaters offer it, but its 1.5 Mbps speed is much lower than the 5Mbps of HDMI. You might as well stay on HDMI.
For older equipment or to connect non-video sources such as a turntable, an RCA jack or a jack input will be welcome.
Permitted space
There are 2 types of home theater speakers: compact and full-floor. The former are made to be placed on a piece of furniture or hung on the wall, while the latter are made to be placed freely on the floor, and have the speakers at the right height for optimal listening.
High speakers like those of the Philips HTB5580 make it easier to set up the home theater.
The decision is largely influenced by the room’s layout. However, this factor need not be a concern, as often there is both a compact and a full-height version of the same model, making it a non-critical element in the final decision. Compact models remain the most prevalent.
Fitting the center channel can be challenging since it needs to be positioned directly below the TV. It’s fairly straightforward in a wall-mounted setup. When integrating it into furniture, it may require a bit of maneuvering, akin to playing Tetris.
Define the use of your home theater
The home theater is not exclusively reserved for watching movies. The models are now increasingly versatile, with Bluetooth features for streaming music for example.
For the best musical rendering, choose speakers with the largest possible midrange drivers, in order to cover the range of sound frequencies. This information is usually provided in the technical specifications.
When you live in an apartment, it is nice to be able to adjust the bass independently to avoid neighborhood problems.
Read User Reviews
Sometimes the best testers are the users themselves. Thanks to the comments they leave on the online product sheets, it is very quickly possible to identify problems of use in real situations.
A cable being slightly short or the absence of wall fixing screws may not be emphasized in a “laboratory” test by a tech journalist. It’s valuable to hear from someone who has experienced connecting everything for the first time. Occasionally, one can pose questions to others who own the same product, like on Amazon.
Conclusion
With these 5 simple rules, it is possible to identify your profile and avoid pitfalls and disappointments when installing your home theater at home. We could extend this list and go into detail to take into account more criteria. What rules would you see in it?
