Newest Accessories Make Setting Up Multi-channel Audio Systems A Snap

Setting up multi-channel audio such as a home theater system has always been fairly

complex and vendors recently have come up with unique product and technologies such as wireless speaker kit products or virtual surround sound to help simplify this process. I will review the latest trends to find out which products actually work. I will also give some guidance for selecting the ideal components.

Most of today's TVs will be installed as a multi-channel audio system. While traditionally TVs would have built-in stereo speakers, these days a number of external speakers are used to let the viewer experience surround sound. In case of 5.1 surround, 6 speakers are used: center, left and right front, left and right rear and a subwoofer. More recent 7.1 systems require a total number of 8 speakers by adding 2 additional side speakers.

Thus setting up a home theater has become quite difficult and long speaker wire runs are often undesirable for aesthetic reasons. Several technologies have emerged to simplify this process.

The first approach is called virtual surround sound. This method will take the audio components which would normally be broadcast by the remote speakers. It then applies signal processing to those components and inserts special cues and phase delays. Then these components are mixed with the front speaker audio. The audio is then broadcast by the front speakers together with the front speaker audio components. The signal processing is modeled after the human hearing. It uses the knowledge about how the human ear can determine the origin of sound. Due to the signal processing, the viewer is tricked into thinking the audio is originating from virtual remote surround speakers.

The advantage of this technology is that only a few speakers are required and no long speaker cable has to be run throughout the viewing environment. The drawback though is that each human will process sound differently due to the different shape of each human ear. The signal processing of these virtual surround systems is based on a standard model which was measured with a standard ear. However, virtual surround will not work equally well for every person.

Another method for eliminating long speaker cable runs is to use wireless surround sound kits or wireless speakers. A wireless kit includes a transmitter and one or several wireless amplifiers. The transmitter connects to the source. The wireless amplifiers connect to the remote speakers. Usually the transmitter component will come with amplified speaker inputs and line-level inputs. This offers flexibility to connect to every type of source. A transmitter volume control helps maximize the dynamic range and avoids clipping of the audio inside the transmitter.

Some wireless speaker kits are designed to connect 2 speakers per wireless amplifier. A better solution would have a wireless amplifier for each remote speaker to eliminate the cable runs between each of the 2 remote speakers. The most advanced wireless systems use digital transmission to avoid signal degradation. In multi-channel audio systems, it is crucial to pick a wireless solution with a latency of only a few milliseconds. This will ensure that the audio of all speakers is in perfect sync. Otherwise there will be a noticeable echo type effect. Some wireless systems work at 5.8 GHz which offers the advantage of less competition from other wireless devices than systems using the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band.

Another solution are side-reflecting speakers. These systems are sometimes also called sound bars. In this case the audio for the remote speakers will be sent by separate speakers located at the front at an angle and reflected by walls as to appear to be originating from besides or behind the viewer. The result heavily depends on the interior, especially the shape of the room and the decoration. It will work well for square rooms with no obstacles and sound reflecting walls. However, realistic scenarios often will differ from this ideal and reduce the effect of this solution.

by: Brian Fuller

POST COMMENT

Choose From The Best In Lihue Rental Cars Vehicle Tracking from mixtelematics.co.uk Packing For Road Trips Garage Flooring Ideas For Looks And Functionality Junk Yards Used Car Parts In California Online Car Sales - 5 Tips to Buy Cars That You Want to at Low Prices Maui Car Rentals: Consider Your Options Ethical Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Video To Mp3 Converter Online-Cucusoft All Audio Scam Police Cars - How to Find Used Police Cars For Sale in Cheap Price Popular Car Manufacturers And Their Famous Emblems Finding Used Carpet Cleaning Equipment Repo Auction - What to Look Out at Repo Car Auction?