Don't just take my word for it...

Here is a 3 1/2 hour video by JL Audio called: "The School of Sound". Most everything you'd want to know about car audio can be learned here.

Common Car Audio Myths Debunked

Common Car Audio Myths Debunked

Time to lay down the law  -  O.S. style!

Car audio holds a special place in my tech life. It can be blamed for pointing me on the road to pursuing the truth in the mysterious world of electronics, physics, and life in general. Nothing's worse than living a lie, especially when it was sold to you so cheaply by ignorant or greedy peeps. As I learned early on, there were many misconceptions flying in from all sides about nearly all aspects of car audio. A few brave pioneers blazed shiny trails to direct us to get to the bottom of the way things really are. Allowing for a more enjoyable sonic experience. In particular I'd like to personally thank Tom Nousaine who tirelessly explored all things audio. JL Audio also deserves some recognition as they provide fantastic documentation and tutorials for all (even during times when the industry was full of highway thievery). Without further ado, here is my attempt to debunk a few annoying myths. I have also provided many links just in case you don't want to simply take me at my word.

SPL levels - "My friend's car hits like 200dB" - Any mention of super large numbers in the decibel range and you should already have a number of red flags popping up in your mind. Even though you might hear of some vehicle hitting over 160dB (we'll use the 160dB mark for examples in this section), the misconception remains that hitting another 10 decibels more shouldn't be too hard (you know, toss in a few more amps and subs). In reality it is EXTREMELY difficult. The myths surrounding how loud a system can reach has to do with the fact that very few people know how the decibel scale functions. So lets get down n dirty and and see why pushing past 160dB is so hard. *First things first, the decibel scale is a logarithmic scale NOT a linear scale. (think of the Richter scale, and if you're still confused, then keep reading)* In other words every increase on the scale is not equal. In air (earth's atmosphere) the theoretical scale is 0-194dB. Now there is A LOT more information needed to completely explain it, but for this post as it pertains to subwoofers reaching extreme SPL, I'm gonna over simplify it a bit (hit up the links to teach yourself something). In an a very rough sense, in order to increase by 6dB ~ 10dB you need to double your output. So, to go from 150dB to 160dB you're gonna need twice the watts & twice subs, etc. The higher you get up in the dB scale the more difficult it becomes. Most dB drag racers use the golden rule that every time you double your watts you get about +3dB, all else being equal. And if you're wondering what happens if you could get enough power to punch through the 194dB ceiling? Well the 'sound' would become so distorted that it would be difficult to classify it as sound and would behave like a shockwave, leaving the sound scale behind. So, whats is the current SPL record for dB drag racing? At the time of this article, an astounding 181.8dB!
References:
Explanation of SPL with charts
dB Drag Racing current leaderboard

"It's easier to blow a sub with too few watts than too many" - This myth is like a never ending onslaught of zombies, you just have to keep on killing them (but then again whats the point? Can you actually bring death to something that's not really alive? anyways...) More often than not the key part of this myth is ignored when debates begin to rage. The key word is: easier. Is it possible to destroy a sub with too few watts? Maybe, but in any universe I've ever been to, it's never easier. There are two types of woofer failure; mechanical and thermal. In mechanical failures the woofer ends up destroying itself by extending too far, causing the cone, surround, or spider to rip or separate from one another. There is also the ever painful "bottoming out" when the voice coil slams into the magnet. In thermal failures, the voice coil receives enough current to cause it to heat up beyond its designed maximum, and burns itself out, sometimes in spectacular fashion. Without enough electrical current, the subwoofer simply will continue to soldier on. So in what circumstances could you accomplish in dealing a death blow to a sub with too few watts? Well, this ought to sum it up: user error. It could be that the user/owner doesn't know about RMS and MAX ratings, or perhaps the woofer is either free-air or in an overly large enclosure (in case you don't know having any sub in or behaving like its in free air, with no help from a properly built enclosure, is very very bad) A free air sub can be destroyed well before hitting its max watt rating. Also the quality of the products being used could play a role, as in a high quality amp powering a Uberfunktronix 78,000W 10" sub. As you can see in the preceding conditions the real failure is the dufus that put it all together, NOT the fact that there are too few watts. Some argue about amplifier clipping being the cause, but amp clipping is just pushing an amp too far where the signal coming out is full of distortion, and usually ends up sending out more power than its stated rating. Keep that up long enough for the woofer to over extend itself OR slowly heat the coil without giving it a chance to cool off, and you might, might destroy the sub. If it really was easier, YouTube would be full of titles like this: "1000W premium sub destroyed by my Uberfunktronix 100W amp!!! rofl ftw lolz..." When in this world governed by actual physics you see these:
Vid1  Vid2   Vid3   Vid4
Manufacturer Power Chart - notice the 'Green (minimum)' explanation.

Break-in "Subwoofers sound so much better after you break them in." - Oh the mysterious art of breaking in subwoofers, elusive as a certain cereal to a silly rabbit. In all fairness, there actually is a very short mechanical break-in period for some subs, especially if they are built for extreme excursion and power. The spider is usually the one in need of a little pre-game stretch. With all the exotic materials and checmicals used today, the fresh off the production line sub might need to run through some flexing before settling in. Most manufactures accomplish this when performing final quality assurance, especially for subs in a powered enclosure. Some raw subs might not receive this flexing and so it will happen in the first few seconds or minutes of use. I could keep going on in detail but this article by the fine folks at Audioholics does the heavy lifting for me. To sum it up, the break in is very short and makes almost no audible difference. So what's really happening is more human in nature. Most people after installing a system will dedicate many hours to fine tuning and tweaking all the dials until satisfied. Combine that with simply getting familiar with your new sounding setup, and it accounts for nearly all the break-in period.

Polyfill - The stuff of miracles, or just a bunch of fluff? - Polyfill is no miracle substance. It's the stuff in the stuffing of your pillows, and stuffed animals. It's cheap and well...fluffy. Some claim its divine in nature as it makes their subs much louder and more powerful, while others claim its nothing but snake oil for sub enclosures, and actually hinders subwoofer performance. Here is a great example, read the product reviews here and see the division, one star or five, no middle ground. The one star reviewer claims to have done extensive testing and proves the uselessness of polyfill (notice no actual hard numbers were provided). So what is this fluff all about? Polyfill is stuffed into a box at about 1.5 lbs (24oz) per cubic foot of internal space. It does not act like spinach to Popeye nor is it like kryptonite to Superman. It does not affect the subwoofer directly, but changes the behavior of the enclosure or more accurately the air inside the enclosure. Your subwoofer will vibrate and move the air behind it, cause all those molecules to move around and 'echo/bounce' off of the sides of the enclosure (NOT a standing wave, more on that in another section) creating friction etc. Polyfill will reduce that effect by converting that friction or sound energy to moving or vibrating the fibers, in turn 'slowing/reducing' the vibes, just as if the enclosure where in fact much larger than it really is. This changes the overall sound, causing people to use such descriptions as: smoother, deeper, richer, etc. The one star reviewer measured (if he did at all) the sub output itself, neglecting that the change is in the enclosure, not the physical properties of the sub itself. I personally feel that using polyfill is subjective and NOT a substitute for a properly built enclosure. Don't believe you can overcome a poorly (especially too small) crafted enclosure with miracle fluffiness of any kind. I do generally stuff enclosure as it does help fight any rough around the edges in the sound. Enough of my stuff follow this link for hard data..

Standing Long Waves - "Never build a square sub box" - People do amazingly stupid things to avoid these standing long waves, just like all those crazies that go out of their way to not get whatever scary disease pops up each year (I'm looking at you bird flu & mad cow diseases). A standing long wave happens when the distance between parallel boundaries are 1/2 the wavelength of the frequency at which the standing wave exists. (for math nerds, read this) Sub-bass waves vary from 56.4 feet (20 Hz) to 11.28 feet (100 Hz), the possibility of generating a standing wave would be almost impossible in car. Distortion created by upper frequencies or the fact that the enclosure itself is vibrating or resonating due to poor construction can be overcome by adding polyfill and building the enclosure out of heavy duty materials and ample bracing. And that's the short of it ;-)

Amps, Watts, and Reality -  There are too many quotes and myths concerning electrical current and how it relates to watt ratings of car audio components to list here, and I'm lazy. So here is a run down on some car audio electrical basics. 

*Years ago nearly every manufacturer was touting their MAX watts and how awesome they were. Zeus himself must have been quaking in his boots at the sheer power of these ILS watts (If Lightning Strikes). Recently however there has been a drastic shift, now most respectable companies give you the RMS watts as the main numbers of concern. A big thanks to the CEA2006 standard. Basically the RMS watts are the averaged output of the amp, since this is what happens most of the time during listening, those are the numbers you need. Keep in mind also that your cars 12V system varies between 11 & 15 volts. Most of the time amplifiers are tested at 14.4V. Keep Ohm' s Law in mind at all times. 

*"Class D amplifiers will never sound as good as A/B amplifiers since they are digital and not analog". At the astonishment of most people the D in this case does NOT stand for digital. The class type has to do with HOW the amplifier does its job (adding more electrons to the flow) and not with its sound processing. The reason you see more and more class D amps is because they run cooler, therefore smaller and have a theoretical efficiency of 100%. But its greatest strength is it's biggest weakness in that a constant switching is taking place and needs to happen quickly enough with out adding or taking away from the original signal. So the better the quality of the design the better the amp (as with anything in this life). Class D  Class A/B

We took a brief journey through audio mythology and came out all the better. This was not an all inclusive list and one day I hope to do a part II of other common myths. So please leave comments and suggestions below and we'll give those myths the same O.S. treatment!

Kickin' Appss

With all the hype and countless hours of fun surrounding Windows 7 upgrades I thought I'd toss in my two wooden nickels worth of useful applications that have installed themselves into my heart. (aww... ain't that just sweet?, too bad mine's beyond fraggmented to care) These are not really Windows 7 specific, just good Windows based apps that I like. *Some of the descriptions are straight from the makers' own summaries or cnet's download.com site.*

Google Chrome Browser - "Chrome is blazingly fast and is easily the quickest browser available. Chrome is Google's attempt to make the Web browser disappear and to focus on the applications and pages users are viewing, rather than on the border with its tools." If clean and simple are your things then Chrome is the browser for you. The 'address' bar also doubles as the classic Google search bar.

Cost: FREE

Google's Picasa (3) - "Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Sharing your best photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing a button!" Just like they say, it organizes pictures, and makes it very easy to edit and share, especially if you have an existing Gmail account.

Cost: FREE

Libra - "Libra is a beautiful library software to manage your Books, Music, Movies and Games. You can track items you have lent out, or tag them with meaningful terms to organize them effectively. Libra can import your items from other applications, or scan them from either your webcam or any barcode scanner (including CueCat). Once you have built your collection, you can print out beautiful catalog pages of all your items." I use a 400 Disc DVD changer and store most of my kids' movies on my home network, this is by far the best way to organize them and use to pick a movie to watch. The library is also exportable to Excel for a text list print out.

Cost: FREE

DVDFab (6) - "DVDFab----Copy any DVD to blank disc/PSP/iPod or other mobile devices in smart ways, the fastest DVD copy software. Powerful and Flexible! Enjoy it!" This software can copy any movie disc and is really simple to run. I use it for full quality rips for the the kids' flicks.

Cost: Free basic edition (~$30)

Belarc Advisor - "The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. " Basically it reads your entire PC and sums it up and displays it in web-browser format.

Cost: FREE

PlayOn\TVersity - Media servers to share local and web-based conetnt, see my previous post for a lot more information.

AVG Free Anti-Virus - "AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is an anti-virus protection tool available free of charge to home users. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability." I shouldn't have to explain what this does.

Cost: You gussed it, Free

WinRAR - "Anyone seeking an all-in-one archiving solution would be remiss to not check out WinRAR." In a quick summary; its like winzip, on crack.

Cost: Free Trial, $30 full product.

VLC Media Player - This bad boy will play just about any format of audio and video out there. It also is light weight and comes in a portable version (for use on a USB thumbdrive).

Cost: FREE

This is a quick, off the top of my head type list, so if there are some apps that need some love and respect, please post it in the comments section.

All's Well That Shares Well

No, despite popular rumors I haven't given up on this blog. In fact its kinda nice since that long break I now have more goodies to rant and rave about. So with a great home theatre comes great responsibility. First you must have content to play and this presents opportunities and challenges. Fortunately many others share this passion and have developed fantastic tools, many free, to assist A/V junkies.

To kick things off many people have access to disc based media (CDs & DVDs etc), and then classic sources like TV, DTV, satellite, cable etc. So what next? Digital streaming media of course! Terabytes (it comes after gigabytes silly) of entertainment are chomping at the bit (computer joke, did you catch what I did there?) to be played whenever you choose.

Ok so you have movies or music sitting on your PC in another room, and you want to play it on your big screen and surround sound, well what to do? What to do? Answer: Get the signal from your your home network to your theatre room, that's numero uno in making this possible. The choices are wired or wireless. If you plan on HD content of any kind go wired, period. It will be well worth any efforts of running the cable. Wireless is pretty convenient but slower and more often than not it will cost more as well. If you need help with the networking side of things, enlist the help of some friend or family member, and do the nerd in him a favor and make it worth his while. Nerds and geeks often prefer monies or foods as payment, or tickle their floppies and hit 'em with both.

Part duex is choosing a player. If you have a Wii, Xbox360, PS3, XBMC, or theatre PC (HTPC), you'll be set. If not, other players exist like stand alone media players and even some newer DVRs are capable of a great many things. The newer generation consoles and especially the more powerful Xbox360 and PS3 are ideal for theatre setups since they are made to handle HD content and have been designed to work with shared media, and by the way they play games as well.

Since most of what you'll be streaming; movies, music, and photos will be stored on a computer somewhere you need to be able to get to them. There are mainly two sources; 1. local area network (LAN or your home pc) and 2. media available via the World Wide Web. 1. LAN is often 'easier' since no high speed Internet is needed, just that wired network at home. 2. WWW sources require high speed Internet and depending on the site and content may require a paid membership or special software be used to access what you want. Many popular sites for movies and TV shows include direct network sites like CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN etc. Other sites like Hulu and Joost are not network specific and host a wide array of videos to watch. Netflix is natively supported by the Xbox360, but with the help of software can be used on other devices.

PlayOn and TVersity

These two bad boys of media server and sharing software are both easy to use and fulfill many digital desires. They accomplish many of the same things and therefor have many similarities but have different strengths and weaknesses. Each will require that a host PC be on running the software at the time you wish to use them. Click on their names below to visit their sites.

PlayOn: This tool is most popular for streaming Hulu to your home theatre, though it is very capable of accessing other sites. Its is extremely easy to setup and use. It generally costs about $40 and has a good support staff that constantly keep it up to date. It comes with a 14 day trial to give you a chance to take it for a spin. This software uses less power from your PC to run. The ability to share your local files has been recently added. If Hulu is your main reason to bring streaming media to your entertainment room this is very recommended.

TVersity: A little more complex this one packs a powerful transcoding punch. This is meant to be able to get any media to any device, automatically. Very popular for sharing locally stored files. It detects devices accessing it and adjust the media to fit the player, all on the fly. For this reason it will require a little more horsepower to run on your PC. It also can access Hulu and other online sites but approaches it in a different manner, and in some cases not as smoothly as PlayOn. TVersity rules the locally stored kingdom. TVersity will stream media to fit your gaming console, HTPC, iPhone, PSP etc. and the list goes on. It can even allow you to access your media from anywhere in the world. They offer two flavors: Free Edition for locally stored files and a few online sources and the Pro Edition for $30 for Hulu and other similar sites.

I cannot praise both companies enough for offering solutions to fulfill our deepest streaming media desires. Since both offer trial periods or free versions they can be tested to ensure they fit your needs. I currently use both and they can run on the same PC without conflict. Other media server software exists and usually end up being more specific for a certain device or purpose. If you fill an app needs a shout out please post it in the comments section.

If you ever have said to yourself, "It would be awesome if you could just click on something and watch any movie or TV show whenever you want." That day is upon us my friends! Sure there are some wrinkles yet to be straightened out but you, the Media Pioneer, will pave the way for future users. Your grandchildren will honor thine efforts with even more hours in front of the 'boob-tube".

Updates and Upgrades

Since finishing the past 4 part article, two critical pieces of equipment have made their way into the home theater. A new A/V receiver and a Sony PlayStation 3. So yes, it has been a long time since I last posted but its not like I get paid to keep this thing up to date. Without further adieu...

Heart surgery - My Sony receiver suffered a massive attack and went the way of the dodo and joined that giant transistor in the sky. Well that lead me on quite the little adventure: find a budget minded A/V receiver with updated capabilities. After a few hours of online research I finally settled on a new unit and decided the extra bucks were worth it to pick it up at a local brick and mortar store. I had in mind a receiver capable of 7.1 channels and HDMI connections to be able to take advantage of the fact that HDMI combines both HD audio and HD video in a single connector. This was important since the PlayStation 3 I was looking into supported both of those features for its Blu-ray playback abilities. Pretty simple really, find a decent brand with those features and I was set. It came down to a Sony and a Denon, and since my Sony just died I was willing to give the Denon the nod. It was about $250 cool ones and I took it home itching to hook it all up. Well hook it up I did. I hooked up the recently purchased PS3 and my DVD changer via HDMI, which eliminated the secondary audio cables, and cranked up the volume! Soon there was great HD video being projected, but silence remained. I double checked my settings, connections, and source selections, everything seemed right but why wasn't I hearing a dang thing? Ashamed I reverted to my user manuals. All the instructions I had followed were still not resulting in sound. I turned to the back of the manual to the troubleshooting section. There hidden away I found my answer: the unit I purchased supported HDMI video pass-through, no audio would be available through HDMI. Well what in the hump is the point of that!? I really liked the unit otherwise but decided to return it. The second trip back I was prepared to look specifically for HDMI audio support. Turns out as I scanned the spec sheets and asked the in-store 'experts' they really had no clue. I then visited the manufacturer's websites for full specs again to find that this feature was very well hidden in a mud hole of data and numbers. The fact that most 'lower' priced models fail to support audio processing via HDMI is a dirty little secret they like to keep hidden, hoping the average end user is too passive to care. Well the fact remains that optical and coax cables don't support 7.1 channels, only HDMI and 8 separate audio cables are available for 7.1 audio. So lesson learned. The cost? well it took nearly $500 to fulfill my wish list, as time has passed since this episode I am glad to note that prices for these fully capable HDMI units are steadily dropping.

The new unit - Denon AVR-1908 7.1CH A/V receiver. This unit, and its slightly updated brother the AVR-1909, pack a lot of features into fairly reasonably priced packages. They run around $600 at full retail (although you should never have to spend the full amount as a little bit of shopping around will save you some $$$) and are well built. The 1908 uses high quality power supplies and sound processing circuitry. This is not gonna be a full run down of all specs as they would be a lot of dry fun and this is simply a quick overview of the recent upgrades to the theatre. For a full list of what's under the hood, please visit Denon AVR-1908 site. I instantly noticed big differences in the little things in the audio of my favorite movies. The channel separation as well as the balance was a huge improvement over the old Sony. Setup was a fantastic breeze. The unit detected the 6.1 setup as well as includes a mic for detecting each speakers distance, frequency response, volume, and room acoustics. This takes all the guess work out of it, and even after months of listening I still agree with the adjustments the automated setup made.

Not everything is rainbows and penny whistles. The user interface is odd and getting into certain menus and features are confusing, as well as understanding what settings are available and when are not made a whole lot easier even with the help of the user guide. Granted that all slowly becomes easier with time and once the time for tinkering has passed and you get all your preferences locked down its just daily functions like source selecting and volume. 

Overall this unit gets high marks and would be a welcome addition in any home theatre on a budget.

PICTURES:

Home Theater, On a Budget Like Mine - part 4

ACT IV (The Finale): Make the Most of Your System Well if you've read the three previous posts I'd like to thank you for getting this far. Think of this as the bonus features on a DVD. We've traveled through the environment of a great home theater, looked closely at the projector, and hopefully you we're listening during the ramblings on about the surround sound. What more could we possibly talk about? Glad you asked, because there is more. This is a rundown of a few items that enhance the use of your system and ensure that you squeeze the most of your investment. Then we'll finish with a full list of all items pictured and noted in this 4 part post.(Before you continue, it's wise to read this.)

*The DVD player - I noted earlier that I opted for a 400 disc DVD player. The unit I use at home features HDMI and Component output for high quality and features an upconverter. Upconversion helps crispen up the video output before getting to your HD projector or display. Your HD capable unit has a higher resolution than a standard DVD and when a lower resolution signal is displayed it often takes on a fuzzier or less detailed look since its 'spreading' that image and upconverting DVD players help cut down on that effect. Also the other benefit of a 400 disc player is the elimination of the need for a DVD rack, keeping the clutter down to a minimum. Also on that not the projector setup also allowed me to have a home theater with no need for an entertainment center again freeing up a lot of space in the mixed-use room of mine.

*High Definition - With digital broadcasts coming and the latest format war between HDDVD and Bluray ended its time to prepare yourself. First digital does not mean HD. Did you catch that? If not, read that line again. I'm sure that's eventually where its all headed, but when over the air (good ol' rabbit ears) goes digital it only affects those not currently with cable or satellite TV. HD media will be present in select digital broadcasts, and certain satellite and cable channels and programs. Slowly more and more programming will move toward HD. Home movie viewing changing quite a lot actually due to Bluray and internet streaming/downloadable content. Bluray is simple and in my opinion going to be the most common for some time. You buy a Bluray player or PS3 gaming console a Bluray movie disc, pop it in and enjoy. For internet content there are subscription based services streaming to your PC, latest gen gaming console, and a few more services in the works.

*Media Centers - Truly add another dimension to your home theater by combining the best of PC entertainment as well. PCs designed to fit into your array of home theater components are PCs featuring TV tuners, music and video libraries, the internet and so on. With wireless keyboard and mice sets designed for use while lounging on the couch its the best of both worlds. In my list of favorite things article I mentioned XBMC (Xbox Media Center) which in my case is a software modified Xbox that can play games, and manage my media, check weather, watch movie trailers just for starts, and so much more, it's all the PC without the PC.

*The Other Rooms - Don't let your other rooms feel left out just 'cause one of them has been graced with a sublime home theater. Most A/V receivers come with Room B or Room 2 speaker outputs. It's just like it sounds, it'll play to either the main room and a secondary (or outside on the patio) or both. With my 2.4GHz wireless (think cordless phone) Xbox controllers I can go any where in my house adjusting volume and changing songs as I am cleaning up or just relaxing. I put two floor speakers in my front room to fill my whole house with music of my choosing.

*Home Networking - Take your mother's advice and be sure to share. Share your internet connection and media storage to all PCs, media center PCs, or XBMC units throughout your home. Again, in my favorite things article I mentioned another fabulous device the Linksys NSLU2 Network Attached Storage (NAS) adapter. Basically it converts an external Hard Drive's USB connector to work through a network cable. This allows 24hr access to your files from any device in the home, without a dedicated PC to be on all the time in order to share your data. It's not the only adapter out there, but it's a great flexible small device that can hook up to two hard drives and has a lot of features.

*Well that about does it, 'cuz I'm sick of all this typing. So as promised I'll sign off with a few more pics and a full list of all that I use in the home theater I put together (on a budget like mine).

Projector: Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP (720p)

Screen: Optoma Panoview 92" Grey Wolf, pull down

A/V receiver: Sony STR-DE695 6.1 Channel Receiver

DVD Player: Sony DVP-CX995V 400 Disc DVD/CD player

Speakers: Harman Kardon HKTS 8 (6.1) Home Cinema System

Speakers (room B): Infinity Reference 2000.4 Floor Speakers

Console: Xbox, soft-modded with XBMC (Media Center)

Data Storage: Linksys NSLU2 2-port USB 2.0 HDD network storage adapter

-and the last 3 pics:


Screenshot of the main XBMC menu screen
Though not particularly pleasing to the eye, this closet hidden mess stores nearly 1TB of information. The NSLU2 is the small furthest to the rear.
Infinity Reference 2000.4 floor speaker, classy looking unit I think, looks at home in my front room.

Home Theater, On a Budget Like Mine - Part 3

Act III: The Sound The room is prepped, the stage set, the projector mounted and dialed in, you pop in your favorite flick loaded with great special effects. Everything looks great, but how does it sound? That's the question we'll answer in this segment. It is said that the great and almighty George Lucas stated that the sound was 50% of a movie. Well I think he is right. A lot of time and effort is spent tweaking the audio just so on any movie no matter how basic, but the fun sets in when there is at least 5.1 audio channels synchronized and adjusted to immerse you in movie land.
*First things first, lets follow the flow from its source. We won't go into too much detail between Dolby Digital, DTS, etc., but touch upon technical data as it is necessary. So whats on that disc anyways and what are you missing by not taking advantage? Well most movies are Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded. So here is the break down: 1. Center, 2. left front, 3. right front, 4. left rear, 5. right rear, and 6. subwoofer (yes 5.1 actually means SIX speakers). So if the disc contains all that info lets take advantage of it and stop using a simple 2 channel setup, its bad for the karma and makes audiophiles (name adopted by those with an obsession to all things audio) angry enough to make you swallow a tweeter.
*Decode, amplify, and distribute. The reason most movies are Dolby Digital 5.1 is because it will work with both 2 channel and 5.1 home configurations with no action required on your part. DTS and other similar 'advanced' encodings require that you choose that option on a movie's language or audio menu. This is because the DTS signal is purely a data signal that needs to be decoded by another source. 5.1 audio requires a receiver and for DTS a compatible decoder must also be present. The more advanced audio signals can only be transmitted through a true digital cable (sometimes called a SPDIF), such as a digital coax cable (looks like a regular RCA style plug but there is just one for all channels) or an optical (toslink) cable. Then your receiver decodes the digital goodness and amplifies the signal and sends it to your speakers. Pretty simple really, but to make it work you need to have the digital output enabled, the right cable and of course a receiver and all the speakers.
*Lets assume you have your DVD player setup for digital output and you have the right cable in hand, now onto the receiver and speakers. These need to be considered together. You can use either a HTIB (Home Theater In a Box), or a component set where you piece it together. First lets talk about the most popular choice the HTIB. Usually chosen for cost savings but also for simplifying things. They can come with or without a DVD player. A lot of audiophiles will consider you filthy and unclean for going this route but I am not quite so against it. A decent set will usually save you money and sound pretty darn good, bang for buck speaking. A component set gives you much greater flexibility but will often times set you back a few more clams. For most folks going this route it is recommended to use a A/V receiver. A/V receivers will be the central component in your home theater. All audio and video signals will route first to the receiver then to your display and speakers.
Sony STR-DE695 6.1 Channel A/V Receiver
Rear connection panel, it's not as complex as it looks
For speakers it is usually recommended you buy the same series of speakers or a matched speaker set. This ensures that you get speakers that work in harmony so your audio output has no odd spikes at certain frequencies and conversely holes in other areas.

HARMAN KARDON HKTS 8 6.1 HOME CINEMA SYSTEM
*Speaking of speakers......the basic loudspeaker design has been the same for probably 100 years or more. Manufacturers really have dedicated most of their efforts into perfecting the design. So one might think that after a century of redesigns that things are calm in that industry but that's just not the case. It seems every year someone comes up with some other new way of perfecting the output. Moving along to the number of speakers needed (or desired). Again 5.1 being the standard so 6 total are needed. 5 satellite or surround speakers and one subwoofer. There are 7.1 encodings coming up on Bluray High Definition so be prepared if you absolutely have to be up to date. The difference is in the rear, (thank you for noticing , I've been working out) instead of simply having 2 rear speakers there are four, 2 to the side/rear and 2 more behind the listener, but lets stick with the 5.1 since the principles are the same. 1.The Center Chanel: this is the most important since the majority of all sound comes from this little beast, so make sure yours is up to the task.
Front wall mounted center channel speaker
2/3. The Left and Right Front Speakers: these also see a lot action. Another aspect that is overlooked in home theater design is music. If you plan on also using your audio system for music listening, and you take your music listening seriously, get a good pair of front speakers. 4/5. The Rear Speakers: these don't see as much action as the rest but are absolutely critical in adding depth and transform a sound system into a surround sound system. 6. The Subwoofer: probably the most fun of them all. No home theater is complete without it (since that streaming data signal dedicates a complete channel to it alone). Your smaller speakers are just not capable of producing the lower end of the sound spectrum. These require their own amplifier (usually built in) and are larger than the other speakers.

10" Subwoofer in current location (Yes in a corner but properly tuned works well in this location)
*Location, location, location. Speaker placement is as important as going through the effort of buying all those in the first place. Nothing gets under my skin quicker than to visit someones TV room and seeing all 6 speakers next to or around the TV facing out to the listeners. Whats the point?, just box up those rear speakers, it'll save you the clutter. So lets start with the Center. This needs to be as close and centered (whoa, is that where it gets it's name from?) to the TV or screen as possible, just below or above is the usual. The two front speakers should be within 12"MAX height difference compared to the center channel and wide enough to create a sense of space and width. The rear speakers should be slightly higher than the listening level and usually a bit more directly facing the listener. The Sub, well that's a different story. Bass or low frequencies are not very directional, you've just got to play with it a little before settling on a good spot. Most experts recommend the front. Also be aware that corners will amplify certain low frequencies, so in general experts say to avoid them since they alter the designed sound output. A good spot lets you get rumbled pretty good with out being able to pinpoint the sub's location with your eyes closed.
*SO with these principles in place you should now be able to add fantastic sound to match your fantastic picture!