There is a lot of information online that can help you in assembling a home theater. Spend some time reading recommendations and equipment reviews in magazines such as Home Theater, Sound & Vision, The Perfect Vision and others.  Pay particular attention to the most important topics:

The Room

A Properly set up room can dramatically effect the sound and enjoyment of your home theater. Rectangular is best, the others not as good. Is it a dedicated room or does it need to be integrated into the family room. Of course, a dedicated room allows more freedom for more equipment and better designes.  Seating position is critical and should be about 2/3 back from the front screen. Do not place the sofa against the back wall if possible. How many persons will need to be seated? Think about speaker placement, the sofa(s), side tables, subwoofers, etc. The decor is an important topic especially for the decorator in the house. Decide on the size and locations of speakers, the type of speakers....free standing, on-walls, in-walls, soundbars etc.  How will you run the wiring? Inside the walls, under baseboards or under carpeting carpeting.

The Equipment

Especially speakers.  Will the room be used mostly to listen to music, watch movies or both. That effects the type of speakers and screen that you need. All your speakers should be the same brand, especially the front three. The surrounds speakers should be matched to the fronts and be designed for use as surrounds. The subwoofer(s) can be from different manufacturers and are not as critical but they still need to blend well with the fronts. Do not place subwoofers near corners.  Normally free standing speakers are the best followed by on-wall, in-wall, and soundbars. Avoid speakers in the ceiling since they can be fatiguing because your ears (sound) and eyes (video) will not be aligned with the screen. Do not place speakers inside bookcases unless they are specifically designed for that purpose.

Probably the most difficult is deciding on the number of speakers....5.1, 7.1, 9.1 or more. Your budget, past experience, lifestyle, decor, size of room and layout will determined your decision. A good quality 5.1 systems can sound very good specially in smaller rooms. If your room is very large consider adding a second pair of surrounds, larger front speakers or more subwoofers. If you only have one pair of surrounds, place them on the sides, instead of the rear,  if possible. Also, the center channels handles 80% of the sound you hear when watching movies so do not skimp. They should be the same size or larger than the left and right front speakers.

Today's receivers come in all flavors. You can also consider separates which allows more powerful amplifiers. The receivers wattage should match the speakers or be higher. A speaker that has a rating of 100 watts into 4 ohms requires just that. Do not use under powered receivers because they will clip when pushed and that can destroy the speakers faster than a higher power amplifier. (Google it!). Make a list of the features that are important to you. Consider musicality or movies. Do you need legacy inputs such as s-video? Will you connect to online services through the receiver, the Blue Ray player, a separate computer or media server? Would you like HD Radio? Will you need to upscale your legacy analog sources (VHS,8MM) to HDMI so they can be viewed on your HDTV? What about iPod/iPhone connectivity? Is the HDMI 1.4a (allows audio return)?

As you can see they are many things to consider. That is why you should speak to a professional if you are unsure or do not have the time to do the research. I hope this helps and feel free to contact us with any questions.

Already have a home theater! Here is a checklist to help you quickly improve the sound of your home-theater system. Until you take some time to properly set up your components, they won't perform to the best of their abilities.

Every receiver has a setup menu, but if you've never explored the options, your sound is probably out of whack. If you receivers comes with a microphone to adjust speaker level...use it.   Your receiver can send a test tone to each speaker, which will help you adjust the relative volume of each channel. In most cases the reciver adjust the level automatically. As the sound jumps from speaker to speaker, the loudness should stay the same. You can adjust the level of each speaker by ear but I recommend that you use the microphone that came with the receiver and it's internal program. The first step is easy enough: select Speaker Size--large, small, or none--for the left- and right-front speakers, the center speaker, and the surround speakers. As a rule of thumb, speakers with 6-inch or bigger woofers are considered large.  receiver or  or you can

Confirm that your speaker and interconnect cables are in the correct positions:
With that tangle of cables looming behind your A/V receiver, it's all too easy to mix up which wire goes where. When you're running through the speaker-level adjustments, double-check that the test tones are coming out of the intended speakers.

Tweak subwoofer-level and crossover controls:
Test tones and meters aren't the final arbiters in the bass department. If your sub's bass is boomy, thick, or uneven, first try lowering its level (volume) control--most folks crank their sub louder than necessary. Next, if your satellites are very small, the crossover control should also be set to its midpoint or higher. Bigger speakers produce more bass on their own, so they sound best with the sub's crossover knob set at or near the bottom of its range. Finally, moving the sub out of the corner and closer to one of the front speakers may produce smoother, flatter bass.

Purchase speaker stands or brackets:
Speakers inside bookcases or on tops of cabinets do not sound their best. Placing them on floor stands or wall brackets can radically improve their sound quality. Speakers also improve when placed 1 to 2 feet from side or rear walls.

Optimize speaker placement:
Even if you don't go for stands or brackets, just remember that's it's important to place the front speakers with their tweeters at--or as close as possible--to ear level. The left/right speakers should be equidistant from the listening position. If a speaker is within 18 inches of a room's corner, angle it away from the corner and toward the main listening position. The center channel should be below the screen, the closer the better so the sound appears to come from the screen. 

Tame uncooperative acoustics:
Rooms with bare-wood or tile floors and lots of windows or mirrors always sound overly bright and zippy; a thick rug and/or window drapes will sop up some of the harshness.

Upgrade speaker/interconnect cables:
Are you still you using skinny, freebie wires? Moving up to higher-end cables can make a noteworthy improvement to your sound.

Add a separate power amplifier:
If your room is large and/or you really like to pump up the volume, you may need more power. Take a peek in your receiver's owner's manual or back panel to see if it has a set of preamp-out jacks for the left, the right, the center, the left-surround, and the right-surround channels. If your receiver is so equipped, you can go ahead and hook up a gutsy separate 100-, 150-, or 200-watt-per-channel amp to your receiver. Let the good times roll!

Buy matched speakers:
If you're currently using a cobbled-together set of speakers, consider buying a matched package. Even a moderately priced ensemble will offer far more cohesive sound.

Simply Network can analyze your home entertainment needs, evaluate your options and perform a custom installation that's designed to fit your lifestyle and your budget. Call for a free phone evaluation!