Home Theater Electronics

Satellites, center channels, and subwoofers

The phrase home theater electronics refers to the numerous electronic components that make up the modern digital home theater. This can include DVD players, large-screen HD or plasma televisions, and digital home theater projectors. But more often than not, home theater electronics specifically means the speakers and sound equipment that transform a TV room into a digital home theater.

How home theater electronics work

There are several important differences between the experience of a movie theater and a home theater - the size and clarity of the picture image being among them. But perhaps the biggest difference is the quality, clarity, and power of the sound.

Home theater electronics allows a viewer to experience surround sound in a manner that's similar to a movie theater. The part of your home theater electronics system that enables that to happen is the audio/video receiver and amplifier assembly. The reason that digital home theater electronics are better than analog is that the sound can be encoded on six separate audio channels rather than the two audio channels that comprise a stereo signal.

These multiple channels of sound are why surround speakers are an essential part of a home theater electronics system. You've probably seen a name before like Dolby 5.1. Most home theater electronics systems feature five speakers and a subwoofer, which in numeric terms is written as 5.1.

The speakers in a home theater electronics system are known as satellite, center channel, and subwoofer. The four satellite speakers are placed in pairs on the left and right, in front of and behind the viewer. These are what create the illusion of movement in your home theater electronics sound.

The center-channel speaker is typically smaller and is placed directly in front of the viewer, usually on top of the television. A quality center-channel speaker is an important part of any home theater electronics sound system because it reproduces all of the dialogue and front sound effects.

The subwoofer is the home theater electronics component that delivers the bass, and it is normally positioned on the floor.

Home theater electronics surround-sound formats

Unless you're a home theater electronics expert or sonic perfectionist you're probably not going to worry that much about surround-sound formats. Just remember that clarity is often more important than power.

If you are a stickler for home theater electronics sound formats, you should buy an a/v receiver that provides both Dolby and DTS (digital theater sound) options. DTS offers a clearer sound than Dolby but isn't usually encoded on TV broadcasts or DVDs. But at least you'll have the option if it is.

The other formatting issue to keep in mind is that surround sound can be further broken down into 6.1 and 7.1 setups. These offer additional audio channels that are used in six and seven-speaker home theater electronics setups.
 

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