Just the other day I was having a real bad headache. So bad that I wasn’t even in a mood to appreciate a good movie. And here I was in my living room experiencing or rather hearing Die Hard 4.0 that my neighbor was watching. That’s when I realized how commonplace the “5.1” has become and how incredibly affordable too. (Not to mention how noisy!!) Here’s a take on home theatre sound systems.

Home theatre systems weren’t all that common say 5 to 10 years back. But all of a sudden middle class homes are inundated with 5.1 surround systems. (Often kept on one table!!) Even my friends PC boasts of a 5.1 surround. So what’s a home theatre system anyway and what’s all the fuss really?

Image Courtesy : onkyo.com

  
 We shall discuss the acoustic side of the home theatre system. (Remember that the article was inspired by a headache in the first place.)  Home theatre systems are supposed to recreate the movie experience at home. Of course you need disks supporting surround sound. (This means multichannel sound). So the mp3 you ripped off the net or the divx movie that you just finished downloading or that DVD you bought near the pavement wont work the same way a authentic DVD (or a proper copy of that) works.

Popular Channel Profiles:

 5.1 is not the only format, but definitely the most popular of the lot with two front, two rear speakers, one central speaker and one sub-woofer. 6.1 is available which has a rear central speaker as well. 2.1 systems are also prevalent. The ones from BOSE claim to be better than most 5.1s (and expensive too.) Each has its own way of decoding the sound and sending them to the different speakers. This needs what we commonly refer to as the amplifier system, No need to bother, it comes packaged with the speakers. 2.1s are also popularly available for PCs from manufacturers like Logitech, though these lack the associated electronics (amplifier).

Sound Formats:

Some of the popular sound formats include mono, stereo (I suggest the song “bang bang” by ‘Nancy Sinatra’ to fully appreciate the effect of stereo format), Dolby, Dolby Digital DTS…Etc. In the multichannel format, the sound for each channel is recorded separately and based on the band of the frequencies is played back by the appropriate speaker.