Imagine the experience of a theater in your home. That’s the power of a comfortable couch, a good entertainment center and some powerful A/V equipment. Learn how to put your brand new HD TV to good use, or how to maximize the effectiveness of your sound with these important tips on home theater setup.
Optimal Viewing Distance
You might not realize this, but you can instantly improve the picture quality of your television by making sure that you are placing your couch at the proper distance away from the screen. There are all kinds of articles about this very topic, but you can use one simple formula to get the results you desire. Just take the diagonal screen measurement, then multiply that number by two. That will give you a rough estimate of the number of inches away from your television that you should be seated.
Speaker Placement
There are plenty of tools online to help you determine where would be best to place your speakers. Home entertainment systems that are hooked up to computers, for example, will usually have some interactive guide to follow. You should have a central speaker, which you may want to line with sound proofing foam to control noise levels, and speakers at the left and right sides. The side speakers should also be at the same height, which is usually just above where ear level would be.
Bass Management
Bass doesn’t travel in any one direction like sound does. It can seemingly come from all over. For a secluded area, this is fine. For those living in apartment or tract housing, this presents a problem for neighbors. The best solution is to use acoustic foam panels in your theater room to try and dampen some of that sound. The panels will absorb bass and leave less to reverberate through your home or your neighbor’s walls.
You can also adjust the cross over frequency to something lower like 80hz. This determines when sound will travel to speakers, and when it will go to the subwoofer, which drastically decreases unwanted bass. Just be careful when applying these settings to a surround sound system from the subwoofer. In these cases, turn the subwoofer crossover to “off” and adjust the sound through your receiver.
Final Thoughts
Home theater setups are undeniably cool, but they often need the right amount of tweaking to get the desired effect.
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Carlo Badalamenti writes on behalf of Canada Foam by Mail. Find out how to sound proof a room with acoustic foam panels when you shop online with Canada Foam by Mail.