Top 5 Home Theater Mistakes

This season a lot of us might have bought swanky new LCDs, and soon will realize that the sound output sucks - those tin can speakers are just no good. Thus the next, albeit last minute entry in our wish list is a new Home theater system, complete surround sound et al to enjoy the games and movies we love.

We have covered quite a bit on setting up your HDTV. This time let's focus on setting up your HT system, as there are correct steps and optimal things to do, in order to get the best sound. We will look at the most common mistakes made while setting up a new HT system in a room.

Caring for looks only
Nowadays we have a market swarming with scores of snazzy looking and slicker than thou speakers. The thing is sound quality does get compromised to a large extent when the shape of enclosure is fiddled with too much. Thus the first step to know when looking around is that flat and slim, "star wars" inspired designs are going to be, more often than not, bright sounding and slightly edgy in their frequency response.

Matching the size of your room
Any competent HT salesman must ask you your room size first, as there is no point getting overpowered, or underpowered systems. And a corollary of this point is that big floorstanders are not always the best. If your room is small then bookshelves or satellite speakers can also suffice. Also check the output power rating of the receiver.

Generally the manufacturers are inaccurate about this, thus the consumer must see the sensitivity of the speakers. A higher sensitivity rating means it will be louder than others when fed equal units of power, as compared to a model with lower sensitivity. Thus the output power must be perfect for your room, and not overkill or vice versa.