By David Gibbons
Revised April 2007
Some home theater set up jobs I have done in the past point out that spending lots of money on home theater equipment that you cannot set up properly will be a waste of money. Let me ask you these three questions:
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1) Will you really be able to make use of a fancy surround-sound system?
If you cannot place your center speaker right on top of or below the television, or if you cannot place the left and right speakers the same distance from either side of the television, it will not matter how expensive your speakers are. The sound image produced by those speakers will be incorrectly placed, perhaps to such a degree that you might choose not even to use those speakers.
The "delay" and "balance" controls on modern home theater receivers can help adjust for minor location imbalances, but (for example) if the center speaker is located well off to the right side of the television, it's not going to do much to center the dialogue on the screen.
Further, if your seating is well off to one side of where the TV and speakers are located, surround sound is also not going to work very well. You have to surround the listeners with the speakers...
If your significant other favors having a home theater room which is full of glass and smooth hard walls and floors, just forget about having excellent sound. The echoes are going to kill you. Think sound system in a fully-tiled bathroom.
If your significant other finds even the sight of speakers to be unacceptable, just buy a television that has a good pretty speakers built in and leave it at that. Some televisions now produce pretty good sound and spending a lot of money to get sound that is not really that much better (because you can't set the system up correctly or the room wrecks the sound) does not make much sense.
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2) Will you really be able to make use of a large or high-performance television or display?
High-quality televisions or display units may not deliver all the performance you paid for unless the room they are in is properly darkened. If your family HAS to watch TV in a bright room, then the expensive "black-level" performance you paid for will be wiped out by the glare of light coming from lamps or through windows or hallways lighting up the screen.
Some rear projection televisions only deliver a good picture if you're sitting in front of them, with your head about even with the center of the screen. If you or your family insist on watching while laying on the floor or sitting well off to the side of the screen they're not going to get the good picture you paid for.
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3) Will you or your family be able to successfully operate a complex home theater system?
Home theaters with multiple sources of sound and picture can be confusing and frustrating to use. If you or your family are technologically disinclined, you might end up not using many of the expensive features you paid for. You want to buy what you can understand and deal with comfortably.
Having a technologically inclined friend write up a step-by-step series of user instructions can help, IF the users are willing to follow the instructions.
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Of the three points made above, the one about the sound system is the most important.
The main ways to spoil a TV picture are to not have it adjusted correctly, or watching the TV in a brightly lighted room. Basic adjustments are easy to do, and lights can be turned off at the flick the switch! (At least at night.)
Things can be done during setup to simplify operation.
It can be more difficult to set up a room to allow a set of speakers to deliver their full surround-sound performance. If you do not have the freedom to place the speakers in something at least close to the recommendations the manufacturers make, I suggest you think hard about whether you really should go for a surround sound system, particularly an expensive one. Sometimes just a good set of stereo speakers will make a nice improvement, at much less cost than a surround-sound setup.
Speak to your significant other or family BEFORE you go out and drop a lot of cash on some fancy system that you will not able to install, locate, or use so it can do its job correctly.
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As a side note to this, look carefully at the glossy advertisement pictures for home theater equipment in the home theater magazines. You'll see home theater equipment designed to "look" good as furniture or sculpture or interior decorating accessories. If that is what you're really after, may I suggest some tasteful real sculptures or even tasteless bric-a-brac. It will probably be cheaper, and you won't have to run wires to it! The advertising photographs often show speakers in unworkable locations, and this can give people the mistaken impression that speakers can be placed for the best visual appearance and the sound will just naturally happen, due to the high price of the speakers. Alas, cruel physics stands in the way.
To be fair, you will always get SOMETHING out of the speakers, no matter where they are placed. It's just that to spend a lot of money on something that doesn't end up working very well doesn't make sense.
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I hope that this little essay doesn't scare you off of considering home theater. Instead, I hope that it will help you to look hard at your proposed home theater space to see if you can actually make that space into a good home theater. Other essays on this web site cover some simple things you can do to alleviate many of the problems I mention in this essay.
The home theater equipment manufacturers (of course) want a home theater in every room in every house in the world. It is up to you to decide if it makes sense to put one in a room in your house.
