Home Entertainment Center:
Curse or Blessing?

By David Gibbons
Revised April 2007

Furniture manufacturers leapt into the home stereo and then home theater business early and with both feet with their offerings of "entertainment centers" of various types over the years.

Unfortunately, these "significant other"-attracting pieces of furniture can cause as many problems for your home theater as they solve. Let's list out some of the problems, and some of the solutions that can be undertaken.

PROBLEM #1: OVERHEATED EQUIPMENT

Many home entertainment centers offer totally enclosed cabinets which are supposed to hold the electronics for the home theater. This often includes a solid set of doors for the front. Where does the heat get out? Amplifiers and receivers in particular generate a lot of heat, and totally enclosed places for them can mean a early death due to heat stroke.

Solutions to problem #1:

• Cut LARGE openings in the back of any closed equipment enclosures, and do not place the entertainment center right against the wall. This way hot air can escape out the back.
• Remove any solid doors for equipment cabinets so that the heat can escape out the front.

PROBLEM #2: IMPOSSIBLE WIRING ACCESS

The fully enclosed equipment spaces also make it very difficult to wire a home theater. Sometimes the entertainment center manufacturers teasingly provide a few small holes or thin slots which are completely inadequate for the number of cables that usually have to be connected up these days.

Solution to problem #2:
Happily, cutting large holes in the back of the closed areas or even removing the back cover of the entertainment center behind the equipment shelves makes it much easier to wire everything, and also helps with problem #1 above. Sometimes the back cover or panel is a structural stiffener for more inexpensive models, so just enlarging access and cooling holes may be the best you can do for such units.

PROBLEM #3: UNUSABLE REMOTE CONTROLS

Doors over equipment shelves can sometimes block the signals from the remote controls.

Solutions to problem #3:

• Remove the doors! Now the remote-control can get to the equipment, and the equipment runs cooler too.
• Choose an entertainment center with doors which are transparent to the remote control signal.
• Choose an entertainment center with no doors.
• Choose an entertainment center with doors that hide away inside the cabinet when opened.
• Install a 'infrared repeater' system which relays your remote control commands to the equipment in the closed cabinets.

PROBLEM #4: BAD SOUND FROM THE SPEAKERS

Putting speakers into hollow wooden boxes (the spaces in the entertainment center where they want you to put the speakers) can often act on the speaker sound like trying to talk with your hands cupped around your mouth.

Solutions to problem #4:

• Mount the speakers on separate stands outside the entertainment center.
• Buy a low entertainment center that only sits underneath the television and speakers, with the speakers on short stands to place them at a height even with the center of the television screen.
• Place a good quality sound-absorbent material in the back of the enclosures where the speakers sit to help kill the resonance of the enclosure so it does not alter the sound of the speaker too much.
• Make sure that the speaker front edges are lined up with or even slightly in front of the front edge of the entertainment center.

PROBLEM #5: BAD STEREO SEPARATION

Stereo speakers or the left and right channels of a surround sound system setup must be placed an equal distance from either side of the television screen. As a starting point, the distance between the speakers typically should be slightly more than the distance between the viewer and the television screen. Dolby digital-equipped home theaters might be able to lessen this distance a little due to the excellent channel separation between the left, right and center channels. Entertainment centers can force you to place speakers in locations that violate these guidelines.

Solutions to problem #5:

• Modify any barriers or dividers in the entertainment center that prevent you from keeping speakers centered around the television.
• Mount the speakers beyond the outside edges of the entertainment center using shelf brackets or similar type hardware. Make sure that the front of the speakers are not behind the front edge of the cabinet.
• Mount the speakers on their own stands on either side of the entertainment center at the proper spacing and height.

PROBLEM #6: INFLEXIBLE AND/OR IMMOVABLE

People usually buy the entertainment center to "just fit" the television and other equipment that they have currently. Then they're stuck when they want to upgrade to something with different dimensions - particularly the display! Large entertainment centers with no wheels also make it a nightmare to get behind the unit to do the original wiring or re-wiring later.

Solutions to problem #6:

• Get something with some designed-in flexibility
• Get something with good wheels or casters

PROBLEM #7: INCONVENIENTLY LOW ACCESS

Some entertainment centers force you to place the electronic equipment all the way near the floor. This places the equipment down closer to the dirt, splashes, vacuum cleaner activities, and (God help us) very small children. It's no fun having to get down on your hands and knees to push buttons, to put in a disk or videotape, or to try to remove a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich from the VCR.

Solutions to problem #7:

• Buy an entertainment center that provides at least some equipment shelves at a convenient height
• Place the equipment which you need to reach most often at a location somewhere between waist and chest height. Place the other equipment that you don't have to mess with very often down in the lower areas of the cabinet

PROBLEM #8: SPEAKER BLOCKAGE

The doors on some entertainment centers swing out in such a way that they will block the sound from the speakers from getting to the audience. Even if they do not block the sound completely, they can recreate the undesirable "hands cupped around the mouth" situation mentioned earlier. Subwoofers set next to an entertainment center also can get blocked by open doors

Solutions to problem #8:

• Choose an entertainment center without doors or doors that swing out of the way.
• Remove the doors.(Do you detect a theme here?)
• Locate any speakers so that the doors do not block them when the doors are open.
• If you use small speakers, and you have doors that open out to left and right on either side of the entertainment center, consider trying to actually mount the speakers on the inside of the doors so that when the doors swing open the speakers are in a good position. Please see the picture of Karin W.'s system on the Testimonial page.

CONCLUSION:

If you get the impression that I am not in love with "home entertainment centers," you have got it right! I feel the best compromise for folks with conventional TV's is a sturdy, somewhat low, open set of shelves which are high enough to put the television screen at a good viewing height with the TV sitting on top of the shelves.

Here's a simple sketch:

However, Ginni Designs (http://www.ginnidesigns.com/) offers some products that address some of the problems I have mentioned, If you must have a "Nice Piece of Furniture" to justify all of the money you are blowing on your home theater gear, consider the Ginni Designs products as a starting point. On the other hand, if you have a large screen television, an inexpensive open equipment rack on wheels or casters can do a fine job of keeping the associated electronics off the floor. Consider one of the sturdy 2 ft. wide by 4 to 5 ft. height adjustable "wire shelf" racks often sold to people for use in storage in kitchens. These are often chrome in color, but a little black spray paint can fix that, if chrome doesn't fit into your decor.

If your significant other has his/her/its heart set on having a piece of furniture as part of the home theater, please keep these guidelines and problems in mind so that you do not excessively compromise the performance and convenience of your home theater.

Good Viewing,
David Gibbons
Home Theater Tune-Up