Home and Family, Household Stuff

6 Things to Create an Amazing Home Entertainment Setup

Staying in and enjoying a great movie or listening to your favourite sounds is a popular thing to do and beats going out if you have an awesome entertainment setup that gives you an amazing experience every time.

Here are some pointers on what you need and how to put everything together in order to create the sort of entertainment centre in your home that is simply amazing and provides hours of enjoyment.

You need great speakers

Quality sound is one of the fundamentals that help to ensure that you create a top home entertainment system and speakers have to be considered as one of the most important upgrades to any home entertainment system. To learn more about quality sound systems and maybe even choose the next system for your entertainment setup, have a look at websites such as hifisystemcomponents.com and any others online that could provide you with excellent audio equipment.

A classic rookie error when you are shopping for speakers is to hone in on the wattage output as a guide for how good the speaker will be.

It’s best not to confuse watts with loudness if you want to get a great sound as you are normally better off buying a speaker that offers greater all-around quality and efficiency, despite having a lower wattage than some other speakers you might have seen.

Don’t be blinded by the power of your speakers as the highest wattage doesn’t always equate to the best quality sound. Instead, focus on build quality and be prepared to compromise on some watts to get the best overall sound.

Speaker placement is important

It’s great having more channel options when you sit down to enjoy a movie but if you haven’t placed your sound system and TV in the perfect spot, it might not allow you to get the maximum level of enjoyment from your investment.

If you really want to get the maximum performance from your sound system you need to get your speaker placement spot on.

Make sure that your speakers are not right up against a wall, as this will impact on performance, and work on directing them toward the main focal point where you will be sitting.

Don’t have the speakers facing straight on, which is a common setup error, instead, position them at an angle and maybe slightly upwards too.

If you are looking for a surround sound experience with your speakers you will probably need a minimum of five speakers in your setup.

The normal arrangement would be three speakers in the front, positioned left, right, and centre, together with a decent subwoofer, followed by two or more rear speakers on the left and right of your central viewing position.

Concentrate on your cabling

There are two things that really matter when it comes to cabling, the first is the need to hide the cables away neatly and the second point, that often gets overlooked, is that you need the infrastructure to be as stable as possible.

Your ultimate aim is to try and achieve a look that appears wire-free if possible, which is achievable if you think it through carefully and plan ahead before getting on with the installation.

Investing in good quality cabling like you can find here is a no-brainer because it should mean that your sound system performs consistently and you shouldn’t have to worry about your cables once they have been installed, with good planning and a focus on quality.

Don’t forget the lighting

As well as paying close attention to the acoustics of your room with speaker positioning it pays to think about another factor that will influence your enjoyment of your home entertainment system.

Lighting options in your room will make a major difference in how your cinema system looks and performs. Make sure you have good control over your lighting options so that you can create ambient lighting when you need it and can enjoy that true cinema experience.

To be able to change the mood in your room with lighting it’s not just a matter of using some dimmer switches, although they will be a big help in getting the levels right.

You should also pay attention to the amount of natural light that is coming through into the room and work on ways to control that with blinds and shutters.

What the professionals choose

Large flat screen TVs are hugely popular these days and the picture quality can certainly be very good, but there are some aficionados that would argue that you haven’t really got a true home cinema scenario unless you install a projector.

There is another element that you get with a good projector and a screen of equally high quality and if you want to feel like you are at your local movie theatre every time you use your home entertainment system it seems that a projection screen is the best way to achieve that aim.

Acoustics

You can invest in a top sound system and a great audio-visual setup overall but if you neglect the acoustics of your room it could undermine the performance level of your system.

If you have enough of a budget it would be worth getting a professional to create an acoustic design that resolves any potential issues and gives you optimum viewing and listening pleasure.

If you are creating your setup on your own aim to make sure you have a few hard and flat surfaces as possible, which means that hardwood floor should be covered over with a plush carpet if you want to enjoy good acoustics.

Fabric sofas and chairs and other efforts to minimize the prospect of echo will ensure that the rich sound that you have spent your hard-earned cash on will get the chance to truly shine in your acoustically-efficient entertainment room.

It can take time and effort to create the perfect home cinema and sound system but when you sit down and enjoy the entertainment for the first time there is little doubt that you will think all that effort and planning was well worth it.

Follow some of these tips and practical suggestions and you should have a better chance of getting the sort of system your eyes and ears will truly appreciate.