Tips for Buying Surround Sound Speakers for Your Home Theater System

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By Kurt

What makes surround sound speakers special? In the darkness of your home theater, they make you feel as if you're right there on the scene. When placed correctly, you can close your eyes and hear the movie sounds around you - the chirping crickets, the waterfall, the passing car, the helicopter high above. People love surround sound speakers because they add to the whole entertainment value of a home theater system. Want your own set? Here's how to pick the best ones for you.

Speaker and subwoofer

Surround sound speakers have separate audio channels and unlike other conventional speakers, those with surround sound feature at least four of these audio channels. The subwoofer is the one that reproduces the low-frequency sounds and effects. Any sound traveling at low frequencies are caught by the subwoofer and amplified for us to hear. The subwoofer is responsible for those low rumblings and from-the-bowels-of-the-earth reverberations.

Room size

When shopping for surround sound speakers for your home theater system, you'll have to consider the size of the room. Many units come as HTIBs or home-theater in-a-box systems, combining a set of speakers and an AV receiver that usually comes with a DVD player. The only thing you'll have to buy is a TV.

For the sound, budget surround sound speakers are smaller and less powerful so expect sound quality to be less impressive. However, if you're looking for some decent ambient sounds, you can find it in budget packs, provided you spend enough time to shop and hunt. Most of these speakers also offer a range of 50W per channel or lower. Not very earth-shaking, but that should be enough to fill your bedroom and impress your date.

Size matters.

It's okay to mix and match different sizes of speakers, as long as you keep like ones the same. For example, buy the same size front speakers and the same size surround speakers. If your surround speakers are different sizes, you'll find an annoying discrepancy in sound that you have no one to blame for but yourself.

So how's the sound?

Surround sound speakers come in formats such as Dolby Digital and Pro Logic II. The standard surround sound pack usually contains Dolby Digital/DTS and the Dolby EX/DTS ES. However, it's the tonal quality you'll have to look for, especially if you're buying different brands. Check how it performs if you up the bass, treble and midrange. While amplifiers do most of the job in a surround sound system, you'll do well to check how the whole package performs by itself or with other add-ons.

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