Setting Up Your Home Theater System Speakers – Part 2
Alright, if you’ve read the first part in this two part series about setting up your home theater system speakers you should already have your center speaker placed and your sub woofer placed in the places that best enhance their performance. Now, you’ll be putting into place the speakers that wrap the sound around your ears and really pull you into the action.
The side and surround speakers are the speakers that bring to life any show you’re watching. They bring with them the small nuances that soundtrack creators add to a movie to make it feel real. Without these speakers you’ll still enjoy your show, but with them in place and in the right places you’ll enhance your experience tenfold. You’ll truly be bringing the cinema right into your very own home.
First you will be placing your two side speakers. Your side speakers bring you more music sound and have some special effects sounds tossed in as well. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes but their purpose is to be on the side. As with the center speaker, they should be placed exactly where their name implies they should be. It’s a little trickier to place these as opposed to the center speaker because when you’re setting up your home theater system you’ll be trying to account for all the seating positions. So to start with, place them at the sides of the room and point directly towards the center.
Finally it’s time to setup your surround speakers. These are the speakers that will bring your home theater experience as close to reality as you’re going to get. The surround speakers bring in all the little reality sounds: the wind blowing, distant voices, rain on the window. This is the stuff that really pops!
You should start out by placing your surround speakers somewhere slightly behind and to the side of where you intend to have the sound directed. This will enhance their effect right out of the box and if you’re motivated you can literally be enjoying your new system within minutes of bringing it home and taking it out of the packaging.
After you have everything all set up. Start enjoying, if something sounds a little off or if you just want to see how things work, go ahead and start shifting where the speakers are. After awhile, you’ll find the exact position that works the best for each speaker. Experimenting is part of the fun of setting up your home theater system.