2.       Confirm that the speaker system’s polarity is correct. The most common error I see in surround sound system installations is that one or more of the speakers is wired incorrectly. In a typical 5.1 system there can be as many as 20 connections from the amplifier to the speakers alone. No matter how careful you are, there’s a good chance you’ll miss something so it’s a good idea to double check. Typically, a two-conductor speaker wire carries the audio signal from the amplifier to the speaker (many HTIB systems use proprietary connections to eliminate any possible chance of miswiring the system).

It’s important that one conductor connects the amplifier’s positive terminal to the speaker’s positive terminal and that the other conductor connects the amplifier’s negative terminal to the speaker’s negative terminal. If not, the sound will seem diffuse and will lack bass response.

Keeping track of these connections can be difficult over long speaker runs, so speaker wire conductors are always marked in some fashion, either with different colored wiring, a red stripe on one wire, or some ribbed, rubber edging. Use this marking to ensure that your wiring is correct. You can also use test signals found on various DVDs like Digital Video Essentials, Avia, or CDs from Stereophile and numerous car stereo manufacturers. Our favorite is Goldline’s 5.1 Audio Toolkit. Play the same signal through pairs of speakers. Sitting halfway between the two speakers, the sound should seem to emanate from a point midway between the speakers and should have reasonably good bass response (depending on the capabilities of the speakers). Switch the wiring on one of the speakers and listen again. If the sound is diffuse and hard to localize and seems to lack bass response, the wiring for one of the speakers at either the amp or the speaker is reversed and one speaker is playing out of phase with the other. Check the wiring at both points for every speaker until the bass is solid and the imaging is reasonably precise.