Having a great home theater system can make your living room or rec room into the favored gathering space among your friends. However, many home theater systems are lacking in sound quality, visual appeal, or other factors that are essential for the perfect viewing experience. If your home theater system isn't quite up to par, here are few things you can do to improve upon it without spending a fortune.
1. Set your main speakers to "small."
The large/small setting on speakers regulates the frequency response of those speakers. If the switch is set to large, a larger range of frequencies is allowed through the main speakers. If the switch is set to small, only a narrow range of frequencies will be sent through those speakers -- and the remaining frequencies will be sent through your accessory speakers, such as the side speakers and the subwoofer.
If you set your main speakers to large, more of the bass will be sent through these main speakers instead of through your subwoofer. This will result in more muffled sound quality. Set the speakers to small, and the bass will be delivered through the subwoofer, which does a better job of amplifying it and creating a clear sound.
2. Darken the room.
If you watch a movie in a well-lit room, reflection off the screen will limit the picture quality. So before you sit down and use your home theater system again, invest in a good pair of room darkening curtains. If you're on a tight budget, you can even just hang a thick blanket over the curtain rod as a temporary fix. Turn the lights down when the movie starts, and enjoy your instant upgrade in picture quality.
3. Move the subwoofer.
One of the most common mistakes home theater enthusiasts make is putting the subwoofer in the wrong place. You want to place it as close to the middle of your "viewing section" as possible. For instance, if you have friends sit on a long couch in front of the TV, a good place for the subwoofer would be directly above the middle of the couch. Putting it directly on top of the TV is a good choice if there's no way to put it behind your audience. Just avoid putting it off to one side, as this will create pockets of deep bass and pockets of shallow bass throughout the room.
4. Take the TV out of "torch" mode.
Many modern TVs have a picture setting called "torch." This is intended to allow the screen to be visible in fluorescent lighting, such as that used in stores, so the TV's picture looks decent when on display in the store. The problem is, in standard lighting, this mode just drowns out the detail in the picture. Check your TV setting to ensure it's in "theater" or "movie" rather than "torch."
5. Consider ghosting your middle speaker.
If your surround system has a middle speaker but your viewing room is on the small side, you may be better off "ghosting" the middle speaker. In other words, you would take that speaker out of the system and just rely on the right and left main speakers. In small rooms, sometimes the middle speaker, if left in the system, takes over too much of the sound. The sounds coming from the left and right speakers are then so minimal that your surround sound system doesn't sound like it's surrounding you at all.
You don't have to spend a fortune to improve upon your home theater system. With the tips above, your movie viewing experience will be a better one, regardless of how many friends show up to share it. Contact a company like Evolution Audio Video if you need help with your installation.
Share9 May 2017
Hi, my name is Mary Sinclair, and I want to thank you for visiting my website. For the past fifteen years, I have worked as a consultant in the field of public speaking. I have worked with corporate executives to entertainers, and just about every profession in-between. One thing I find to be important to anyone who is wanting to hold the attention of their audience is making use of both audio and visual effects. Some of us remember our school teachers using overhead projectors. This is one way to help your audience see what you are talking about. I am going to share with you some different types of audio visual equipment that I recommend for my clients. I hope you will find this information to be educational and useful. Thanks again for stopping by.