What is a Home Theater?
A home theater is a collection of speakers and audio-video components designed to reproduce the movie-theater experience in the comfort of your own home. Although the size and the quality of the video screen or monitor are very important, a high-quality, properly set up multichannel surround-sound speaker system is what really brings a home theater to life!
Traditionally, music has been recorded in two-channel stereo; however, as the number of artists releasing multichannel music DVD’s and SACD’s continues to grow, multichannel surround-sound recordings are being embraced across the recorded-music industry.
Multichannel sound adds dimension, spaciousness and a heightened sense of realism to the music-listening experience. Recorded and engineered aesthetically, multichannel music will accurately reproduce all of the direct and reflected sound of the original acoustic space. Direct sound provides localization cues that can be realistically placed within the soundstage. Reflected sound completely envelops us in the music’s natural ambience.
Here’s what you will need to enjoy home theater and multichannel music:
- A/V Source:
- DVD-Audio/DVD-Video, SACD, DSS, VCR, CD, etc.
- Video:
- Direct-view/rear-projection TV, or front-projection system.
- Amplification:
Audio/video receiver or surround-sound preamplifier/processor and amplifiers. For 5.1* multichannel sound either setup must be able to decode Dolby® Digital and/or DTS®. For 7.1* multichannel sound either setup must have, additionally, one or more of the following: THX™ Surround EX™, Select™ or Ultra™; Dolby® Digital EX™ or Pro Logic II; DTS®-ES™ or Neo:6™; or other 7.1-channel modes.- Speakers:
- What home theater and multichannel music do not require are different types of speakers – one type for home theater, another for listening to music. Choose musically accurate speakers because they have the sonic precision needed to reproduce music as well as movie dialogue and special effects cleanly and naturally. Paradigm® speakers – musically accurate and timbre-matched – are created to satisfy audiophiles for both music and movies by providing The Ultimate in Sound for Music and Home Theater™.
Front Speakers (No.1) reproduce dialogue, sound effects and much of the music.
Surrounds
Like movie theater surround speakers, reverberant surround/ rear speakers envelop you in
sound without drawing your attention away from the movie you’re watching.
They add size and dimension to the soundstage and ensure a seamless transition
when sounds and effects move from the front and center to side and rear speakers.
Movie theaters use multiple arrays of surround/rear speakers to keep viewers from
being distracted by the sound of any single one (Fig. 1).
Conventional forward-radiating speakers cannot reproduce movie theater surround
sound in your home. If they are loud enough for their sound to blend with the
front speakers they draw attention to themselves. Turn them down so they don’t distract
you and they won’t blend with the fronts (Fig. 2).
So how can you hear all of the glorious surround sound you’re supposed to? With
reverberant soundfield surround/rear speakers placed to the sides and rear of the listener (Figs. 3, 4 & 5).
Like movie theater surround speakers, reverberant surround/rear speakers envelop you
in sound without drawing your attention away from the movie you’re watching. They add size
and dimension to the soundstage and ensure a seamless transition when sound and effects
move from the front and center to side and rear speakers.
They’re just as important for multichannel music. Because of their ability to create a large non-localized
soundfield, they contribute multidimensional realism to the reproduction of the original recording’s acoustic space.
The diffuse sound of reverberant surround/rear speakers turns your listening into a magical experience—they put
the “theater” in home theater and make music sound “live”!
Call today and hear the difference. For show room hours or to schedule an appointment, please call 717.558.4314.