5 Tips for Better Home Audio

Maximize your audio investment with a few simple but often misunderstood guidelines.

1. Bigger is not necessarily better. Most loudspeakers move air, so it’s true that bigger speakers move more air, which can produce more realistic sounds. But with today’s technological advances, much smaller speakers often sound fine for most tastes. Good sound comes in all shapes and sizes, from small bookshelf-size speakers to architectural speakers that fit flush in walls and ceilings to tiny cube-shaped speakers. You only need go with great big speakers if you absolutely must have the best and can afford it.

2. Power isn’t everything, either. Unless you’re planning to create a great big home theater room, don’t get caught up in the need for 100 watts per channel. Sometimes half of that will do for a modest theater—and you can still make it loud. A speaker’s sensitivity is actually more important than its power. Sensitivity refers to how well the speaker responds to the audio signals it’s being sent. This is expressed in numbers from about 87 to 93 decibels (dB), the higher the rating the better. And here’s a little gem to share with your 100-watt-per-channel friend: An increase of 3 dB in sensitivity is roughly equivalent to doubling the power output. (The sensitive guy wins again.)

3. Match your equipment. Be sure to match the power output of your surround-sound receiver or amplifier to your speakers’ power rating. The impedance rating—often expressed in 4, 6 or 8 ohms, should match as well. You don’t need to know what that means, as long as it matches.

4. Same speakers, all around. Try to match your speakers to one another as well. Ideally, they should all be identical. But because space constraints and aesthetics often make this impossible, many speaker manufacturers offer smaller center-channel and surround speakers (for the sides or back). That’s okay, as long as all the speakers are from the same brand or line, as companies tend to have a signature sound. If going with all one brand is not possible, have your electronics guy timbre (pronounced tamber) match the different brands of speakers. This simply means making the speakers complement one another tonally.

5. The center channel rules. Yes, believe it or not, that teeny center-channel speaker you saw in the big electronics store’s display and placed on a shelf like an afterthought is the most important speaker in a home theater. All of a movie’s dialogue and much of the other sounds come through this speaker. That’s why it should be placed close to your video screen and should be identical to the left and right front speakers. Many speaker brands sell a smaller center channel with the left and right speakers, but it is made to complement them and is often oriented horizontally so it can be placed above or below a TV or video display. The center-channel should have the same power ratings as the other speakers, too.