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Part 3: What Home Theater Speakers Should Do

Now that we’ve outlined what makes a good speaker in general, let’s look at the speakers in a typical 5.1 home theater to see what they need to do. 

Left and Right Speakers: Must reproduce a lot of material – music, some dialog, special effects, etc.  And they should be magnetically shielded if you’re going to place them close to a TV, particularly if the TV has a CRT (a cathode ray or “picture” tube). 

Center Channel Speaker: Some critics say the Center Channel speaker is the most important speaker in your entire home theater system. Although we don’t fully endorse that view, we do think that your center channel speaker should be of very high quality.  A quality Center Channel speaker will make dialog sound better – from whispers to shouts – and let you understand what’s going on. 

The Center Channel speaker should have the same tonal balance as the Left and Right speakers.  If it doesn’t, you’ll hear a disturbing discontinuity in any sounds that “pans” from left to right or vice versa. 

And your Center Channel speaker should be magnetically shielded because you’ll place as close to your TV as you possibly can without interfering with it.  That way, the Center Channel speaker will “anchor” the dialog to the screen so you won’t see your favorite actor in front of you but hear him or her coming from the left.  Or right. 

Surround Speakers: Although soundtrack demands on surround speakers aren’t usually as heavy as those imposed on the three front speakers, don’t be fooled.  Some movies really pump out a lot of information through the Surround speakers.  And, if you’re a multichannel music fan, you already know that there’s no telling what you’ll hear from the rear channels.  So choose good surround speakers that are close in tonal balance to your front speakers.  That way, you won’t hear the screaming Ferrari at the back of your theater aurally morph into a Lamborghini by the time it gets to the front. 

Subwoofer:  Here’s the speaker that provides the sonic underpinnings of everything you listen to, whether it be bass guitar licks, organ pedal tones, a slathering T-Rex thundering up the road, or just your ordinary, every-day galactic cataclysm. 

The main task of a subwoofer is to move lots of air to generate those powerful bass notes. Don’t just look at the diameter of a subwoofer’s cone either.  An 8” “long throw” cone might just move as much air as a less robust 10” one.  You shouldn’t get carried away by megawatt power specs either.  Although it might take 10,000 watts to pump out the bass in Yankee Stadium, your home – and the people in it – will definitely be happy with a small fraction of that power.  Placement, you see, is the key to good bass response and we’ll clue you in to the best way to find out where to put that subwoofer soon.  Want more on how to choose a subwoofer, click here.