How Good Does Your Home Theater Sound?

If you’re making an investment in a home theater or media room, whether it’s a replica of the Strand or a more modest multi-purpose room, you want great sound to go along with a great picture on a big screen. While it’s a fact that better quality speakers and components will deliver better audio quality, sometimes other factors affect the sound adversely no matter how good the equipment is.

The inherent acoustics of your Atlanta media room or home theater layout might have more effect on the sound than you think. For example, too many hard surfaces might make some sound frequencies overly harsh. Things like windows along one wall and other room features can affect the sound, creating the impression that you might not be able to achieve the enveloping sound you want that rivals the local multiplex.

Don’t worry though; there are solutions. Home theater is in our name, so we know a thing or two about home theater sound. Read on to learn more.

SEE ALSO: What is Dolby Atmos? Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Room Acoustics

Depending on the size, shape, layout, and even the décor in your theater or media room, your sound can vary greatly, even with high-quality equipment. Some rooms experience muddy bass response and may benefit from more than one subwoofer. Subwoofer placement is part art and part science, and is critical to getting the full effect of those ultra-low frequency effects from the best action soundtracks. To go into more detail about subwoofers and bass, you’ll want to read this blog. The ideal room for a surround system is generally going to be rectangular, but some media rooms won’t fit that bill. Since we can’t move the walls, we resort to careful audio system tuning and acoustic treatments.

You may be wondering if acoustic treatments might upend the aesthetics of your home theater. Our partner, Kinetics Noise Control, makes a broad range of sound control products. You may be surprised to learn that wall panels and other home theater products have significant attention paid to design, as Kinetics understand that you want your space to look like a theater or a normal room and not a sound chamber. We can specify and install the right reflective, absorptive, and diffusive treatments that tame sound issues in the thorniest rooms.

Sound System Tuning

The basics of good home theater sound start with careful speaker and subwoofer placement. If you are using built-in speakers, even greater care needs to be taken as wire has to be run to the right places. Speaker height is also important to get the most out of immersive sound formats like Dolby Atmos. Overhead sounds don’t work as well if the ceiling height is over 15 feet. Room acoustics can even affect the choice of speakers, as there are a variety of options in speaker designs, and some types will work better in some rooms than others.

Beyond speaker placement, detailed tuning of a surround sound system is critical to getting the best audio in your theater. Room correction software built into receivers, augmented by detailed manual adjustments and measurements, adjusts for the vagaries of room acoustics and also helps compensate for them. Even the best speakers and electronics won’t sound their best without enough effort spent on this important step.

Georgia Home Theater can help you get the sound quality you want regardless of your home theater layout. Come check out our Atlanta showrooms, reach out to schedule a complimentary consultation, or click the chat button below to immediately connect with us.