Something as simple as a miswired speaker can render the
quality of a $10,000 sound system to something less than that of a carefully
adjusted, all-in-one home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) system. There’s little sense
in spending a lot of money on
electronic equipment if you don’t take the time to make sure that everything in
your system is installed correctly and fine tuned to perform as well as it can.
This article will likely be the first of many such features intended to cover
the basics of tweaking your audio and video system to achieve peak performance.
With the proliferation of 5.1 digital soundtracks on everything from cable and
satellite channels, HDTV shows, DVDs and video games, it only makes sense to
start with your audio system. After all, audio is what immerses us into the
experience on a subconscious level. Here are 10 tips, in order of complexity, to
help you tweak your system, regardless of its cost, to sound its best without
replacing components.
1.
Connect
the surround speakers
and place them to the sides or behind
the listening area. This may sound like heresy to audio enthusiasts, but
statistics show that a majority of people with surround sound receivers and
home-theater-in-a-box systems don’t even bother connecting surround speakers, or
connect them and place the speakers on top of or near the front speakers. Yikes!
As Gary Altunian’s article “5.1 Channel Audio” in our October/November issue points
out, 5.1 (read five point one) channel digital audio soundtracks are available
from a number of sources and can envelop the audience in the program. If the
action on screen occurs on a busy city street, you’ll hear traffic and other
noises come from behind you. As a bus passes by on screen, the sound will follow
through the speakers from side to side and front to back. In order for you to
take advantage of the soundtrack, however, you need to have at least five
speakers (three front and two rear speakers; the point one channel denotes an
optional subwoofer or low frequency track) connected to a surround processor.
More advanced systems can use even more surround speakers. The Dolby Digital or
DTS processor found in nearly all new receivers decodes the digital audio signal
from your DVD player, HDTV tuner, cable or satellite receiver and Xbox game
console to deliver enveloping surround sound.
Surround
speaker placement is important to sound quality but there are as many correct
answers to where you should place speakers as there are different types of
rooms. Use your surround sound processor’s internal test signal generator to
send what’s called “pink noise” (and sounds like radio static) to individual
surround speakers, then have a friend move the speakers around while you sit and
listen to the results. Some people like to hear the surround sound directly,
others, like myself, like a more diffuse, non-localized ambience. You have to
try different variations with different program material to find out what works
for you. Generally, though, you get the best results if the speakers are to the
sides and slightly behind the main listener, at roughly 110 to 120 degree angles
from a centerline between the main listener and the TV. The speakers also work
best placed a couple feet above the listeners’ heads, firing sound parallel to
the ground. Again, different rooms and personal taste will create different
results.
