A home theater system combines the technology that creates an immersive entertainment experience in your own home. The result is that you get to see and hear the latest audio and video exactly as the producers or directors intended. It may sound like a science-fiction dream, but it’s very easy to set up your own movie room in your own living space. All you need are the right home theatre components and a good TV. We’ll guide you through the process of selecting the best components to suit your budget, space and viewing habits.
A traditional component home theatre system uses a large flatscreen HDTV with a DVD or Blu-ray player, an AV receiver and speakers to recreate the cinema experience in your own room. These systems come in a variety of configurations with anywhere from two speakers and a stereo power amplifier (for mono sound) to a 5.1 surround sound speaker package.
The heart of any home theater system is the AV receiver, which is the brain that processes all of the information coming into your home theatre system from multiple sources and then distributes it across your speakers. Today’s AV receivers also act as the connection hub for your other audio/video devices such as 4K media players and smart set-top boxes. They support a variety of streaming services and some have built-in WiFi so that you can control your system remotely from a smartphone or tablet.
Speakers are what you hear, so a quality home theatre system needs to have plenty of them to create a full surround sound experience. You can find speakers ranging in size from floor-standing towers to in-ceiling models. Typically, speakers in a home theater system are matched so that they sound cohesive and clear together. We recommend keeping your speaker selection to one brand if possible, which will help maintain a consistent sonic balance.
If you want a simple, plug and play solution to improve the sound of your TV, consider a soundbar instead of a surround sound system. These systems are compact, offer excellent audio quality and often have built-in Wi-Fi and the ability to stream your favourite music apps. The only downside is that they don’t have as much surround sound coverage as a traditional speaker setup. home theater systems canada