If you’re a music, movie or sports buff, your home entertainment system is not complete without surround sound. Since Dolby introduced four-channel, or “quadraphonic,” sound in the mid-1970s, surround sound has been the preferred technology of serious home entertainment enthusiasts.
The earliest application of surround sound appeared more than 30 years prior to Dolby sound in the Disney animated film Fantasia. In the movie’s bumblebee scene, Walt Disney wanted to create the impression that the bee was flying throughout the theater. This experimental application of surround sound used three audio channels and speakers.
From the late 1950s to the last decade of the 20th century, two-channel, or “stereophonic,” sound was the most popular technology in home entertainment. Even though Dolby introduced quadraphonic sound in the 1970s, cost, technical difficulties and incompatibilities of format delayed its popularity until Dolby Digital and Digital Theater Sound (DTS) appeared in the early 1990s. The digital audio signal greatly improved sound quality and allowed the use of more speakers.
The Science Behind Surround Sound
Surround sound results when information is sent through multiple audio channels to speakers in various locations throughout a room. The most popular surround sound format is 5.1. This technology involves one middle speaker, one right and one left speaker, and one right and one left surround sound speaker. The .1 represents the channel for low frequency effects (LFE) that’s sent to a subwoofer. Dolby Digital and DTS both utilize the 5.1 format.
A more recent format, 6.1 surround sound, utilizes the same setup as 5.1 with an added sixth speaker in the back-surround location, which gives a 3-D sound. Some 6.1 extended formats include THX, Surround EX and DTS-ES. The 7.1 surround sound format involves splitting the back speaker into right and left-surround sound.
No matter which format you choose, the receiver is the most important element of your system because it decodes all the audio that was encoded in the Blu-ray or DVD and sends the signals to each speaker.
The Superiority of Surround Sound
With surround sound, you experience lifelike motion picture entertainment because you hear the audio from all angles, and each sound comes exactly from where it would if you were actually in the midst of the scene.
In addition to movies, surround sound allows you to experience sports events as if you were present at the game. Likewise, you can experience video games as if you were an actual participant.
Surround sound allows your home entertainment to be an engaging experience and not just a recreational activity.
How Can You Get the Best Surround Sound from Your Home Entertainment System?
When surround sound first appeared on the market, it was a novelty and relatively costly. Today, however, the average family can easily afford this popular form of home entertainment.
Depending on your budget, you have several options from which to choose. You can either purchase an entire package that includes a Blu-ray player with built-in receiver and speakers, or buy separately the Blu-ray player, receiver, speakers and subwoofer. Either way, you have the freedom to create your own personal 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system.
Proper speaker placement is essential for the best sound. The ideal location for each speaker depends a great deal on room size and furniture placement. You may feel installing your own home entertainment surround is too challenging. If so, we advise having a professional AV installer do it for you.