Ten great buying tips for those about to venture out into the world of speakers.

The good news: There are audio speakers available today for just about every need. There are big ones, small ones and in-between-sized ones. It used to be that only the bigger speakers could provide you with quality sound and power for a home theater system. And here’s the really good news: Innovations have made some of the smallest speakers sound great. There are still bad speakers out there, though, so you should shop around with discerning eyes and ears. But you can get satisfying sound from a variety of options that fit every taste and decor.

First, however, please heed our general rules about home theater speakers:

PART 1
1) Don’t scrimp
2) Leave Mr. Audio at home
3) Same speakers, all around
4) The center channel rules

PART 2
5) Power isn’t all-important
6) Sensitivity wins
7) Surround channels should be diffused
8) More is not necessarily better
9) Try them out
10) Buy what you like

Elaborations on above points after the turn...
Now, for a bit more detail...

1) Don’t scrimp.
Your home entertainment speaker system is not the place to get cheap. You’ve heard the phrase, “where the rubber meets the road” to denote something’s importance? Just as a good set of tires is essential to the performance of an automobile, a good set of speakers is crucial to the performance of a home entertainment system—whether there are 20 speakers or just two.

The speakers are the last stops for sound on the way to your ears. So you can have the world’s greatest DVD player and amplifiers, all creating this beautiful sound, but if you have a lousy set of speakers, it will still sound lousy. In other words, your system will only be as good as its speakers.

There’s no set figure on how much you should spend on audio versus video, but a good benchmark is to try to budget for them equally, and look for a set of speakers to fit the audio portion. Try to spend at least as much on your speakers as you spend on your other audio components.

2) Leave Mr. Audio at home.
Everyone seems to have a friend or relative who is a self-professed audio expert, and when he—and usually it is a he—gets wind that you’re buying a home theater, he’ll suddenly become your self-appointed shopping consultant/escort/new best pal. Leave this guy at home. Chances are he will try to talk you into buying a system that he likes, not the one that is best for you. And he may be grossly misinformed. Consult him over the phone if you must.

3) Same speakers, all around.

Ideally, you’d have the exact same speakers throughout your home entertainment system. If it’s a five-speaker system, try to use the same five speakers. This is often difficult, as the front center channel is usually positioned horizontally, and you may not have room for full-size surround speakers. If that’s the case, look for packaged home theater speaker systems, though don’t bother with inexpensive home-theater-in-a-box systems which often include DVD players and A/V receivers. Opt instead for a package that comes with only speakers. Many manufacturers sell all five or more speakers together, with a smaller center channel and surrounds. The advantage of these speakers is that they are designed to work well together.

The speakers should also have identical power ratings and frequency ranges. A 5.1 surround-sound system, for example, calls for five full-range speaker channels. Look for ranges starting at 60 to 100 hertz for the low sounds and up to 20 kilohertz for the high sounds, and leave the really low bass for a subwoofer to reproduce. Some center-channel and surround speakers may have narrower frequency ranges, as they don’t normally reproduce some lower sounds, for instance.

If you can’t get all the same models or a package for the speakers, try to get them from the same manufacturer’s line, or from the same manufacturer, as each speaker maker tends to have a signature sound. That way, the speakers will sound good together. If you have to use a mix of brands, be sure your electronics professional matches them for tonal quality. This process is called timbre (pronounced tamber) matching.

4) The center channel rules.
It may be smaller than the other front speakers. It may lie on its side and look like it’s not doing much. But the center channel is the most important speaker in a surround-sound system. All of the on-screen dialogue comes through this speaker, and about 70 percent of all sounds in a movie soundtrack come through it. That’s a lot. Scrimp on it or buy an underpowered one, and you may be constantly turning up the volume to hear what’s being said. That doesn’t make for good a home entertainment experience. That’s why the center channel should have the same power ratings as your other speakers. Don’t settle for less.

Liked it so far? It gets better...
Story continued here in PART 2

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The hardest part of setting up your home for a complete digital entertainment experience is the wiring/cabling or whatever you call it. Figuring out the types of cables, wires provided, the myriad number of connections in your Digital entertainment components is enough to make you take that fateful decision to go and become a monk in the Himalayas. Come on, admit it, you are afraid as I am.

You fear that chaotic nest of wires behind your home entertainment system, you get nightmares of a slithering mass of wires and cables reaching out to you. Yes, I've been there. Not to worry, PopCola is here.

For both the newcomer and the old hand alike, connecting equipment in the most efficient and effective manner can be a painful chore. The following information will improve your background knowledge concerning potential A/V system connection schemes and where each is most appropriate. The next time you find yourself in a "connectivity quandary" perhaps the ideas shared here will help you to quickly solve the riddle of which wire goes where and why!

There's more after the turn...
Here's a rundown of all those wires, cables and connectors.

Audio Cables
Audio cables in home theaters take the form of either analog or digital interconnects.

Analog Audio:

• RCA Connectors
• BNC Bayonet-Style Connection
• XLR Audio Connection

Digital Audio:

• AES/EBU Digital Audio
• SPDIF Digital Connectors
• Toshiba Link, or TOSLINK

Video Cables
Video Cables are available as either analog or digital interconnects, with the majority of analog video interconnects being based on the same type of RCA or BNC connectors found in home theater sound systems.

Analog Video:

• Coaxial RF Cable
• Composite Video
• S-Video
• Component Video
• RGB Video and the SCART A/V Connector

Digital Video:

• i.LINK
• DVI
• HDMI

There are many more types of connectors for both audio and video, but the list featured above is more then enough for most people.



















Practical Home Theater Guide has a more detailed guide for selecting AV cables and Connectors for setting up your Home Theater. Do Click here for the Guide.

With the vast selection of options available, choosing the right cables and connectors will be downright confusing for the beginner. Familiarity with the options available on contemporary components will allow you to make an informed decision and, when all is said and done, end up with a home theater or music system that provides the level of performance and convenience you envisioned.

Important: The Cables & Interconnects that are shipped with the components are not always the best choice. Sometimes replacing them with the optimum choice will result in substantial improvement in system performance.

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Software for Digital home Entertainment is one area where there has been frantic development in recent times. With the number of people who are into the "Home Entertainment Hub" this was expected. Though there were many products geared towards this aspect, it was Microsoft who jump-started the 'Home Entertainment' wagon with the development of the XBox and the humongously popular Windows Media Center Edition (MCE).

Though Windows MCE is an excellent product and is somewhat of a pioneering attempt in the development of HTPC (Home theater PC), it does have its limits. And the multitude of commercial solutions available on the shelves don't offer much either. This is where Open Source steps in.

MediaPortal by Erwin Beckers and team is the perfect solution for turning your PC into a complete Media Center. Well its not perfect, but the closest thing to it. Erwin was the founder of XBMC (Xbox Media Center) project who later went on to start MediaPortal as a free open source product.

There's more after the turn...

In their own words,

MediaPortal is an Open Source application ideal for turning your PC / TV into a very advanced Media Center. MediaPortal allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder and much much more. You get MediaPortal as Open Source software. This means you can help in developing MediaPortal or tweak it for your own needs with lots of innovating plugins from our great community.

MediaPortal includes a host of excellent features.
To speak from a general overview, they are:

Create your own skins, or choose one of the available skins!
MediaPortal can easily be extended with extra plugins
You decide which keys you want to use for which actions
Internal support for several remote controls
Windowed and fullscreen support

And many more features like MyTV, MyVideo/DVD, MyRadio, MyPictures, MyMusic, MyWeather, Emulators, CD/DVD burning within MediaPortal, Email, PC monitoring, Scheduled Recording, alarms, games etc. MediaPortal is not a demo, shareware or anything like that. Rather it is a complete, free-to-use full version software that will turn your PC into a real 'Media Center' without changing much of your computer's hardware. Moreover, since it is open source, anyone can contribute to or customize the software according to their own requirements.

The hardware and software requirements to use this software is very much acceptable and will run as it is on almost every PC that is somewhat up to date. MediaPortal is developed on the Microsoft .Net framework using C#.

Download the full product here.

You can learn more about this amazing FREE, open source product by visiting their website, and also by having a look into this extensive documentation.

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I know it is the age of the remote, but anyone will agree that it has reached ridiculous levels. Hah! I have to keep a separate side table for all my remotes. In this day and age, every electronic device and almost every appliance comes shipped with a small box (remote) that fits in your hand. Its almost as if there is a secret war going on vying for the real estate that is your palm. On an average, every household has a bare minimum of 4 remotes. Most times I find myself using the wrong remote for the wrong device. Even fans come with remotes ,sheesh!

The Universal remote was touted to be the solution for this quaint problem of plenty, but we all know how that turned out to be in practice. The Universal Remotes that are sold in most stores are next to useless, it is cheap, but what is cost when one cannot use the remote effectively. Yes, there are some sophisticated Universal Remotes that addresses this problem of plenty quite effectively, and some can even be programmed to accept and control new devices as and when you buy them, they can be programmed for every device that would possibly need a remote. But they are bulky, complex to use, and they are not exactly cheap either. That puts them out of us commoners' hands.

Till the day comes when the prices of these 'Universal Remotes' come down to acceptable levels, all we can do is keep juggling the remotes in our hand to find the right one to switch on that damn TV.

-end of post-

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Recently we have been talking about full blown home theaters, with grand designs and even grander budgets. But most of us cannot afford that expense. A good majority of people, yours truly included, can at the most, integrate a home theater into our living room. And it is more than enough for the most part. No! it is not enough. But I can dream, can't I ?

Coming to the matter at hand, do excuse me for I have a tendency to drift way off-course once I start rambling. Shit! there I go again. Okay, now I'll really come to the point.


The Day before yesterday, I purchased a new surround sound speaker set for my home theater (I am updating my ancient home theater, one piece at a time). Once I bought the set, I realized I needed stands for my rear and side speakers, since wall mounting the speakers is not a feasible option in this instance. Much to my frustration, I found out that good quality speaker stands would make me spend way more than my budget (they are really expensive, you know). Now, I am not a cheapskate, all the same I am not exactly loaded. Naturally, the best option was to build my own speaker stands.

As I researched, I came across this post on How to: Dirt cheap Speaker Stands by Chris Meltcafe. A most excellent article, I must say - fast and easy to make, and really really sturdy. It can be made from easy to find materials, looks excellent and more importantly, since I have a tendency to be a bit of a klutz, the stands are very sturdy and can withstand much abuse. Do check it out, you'll love it.

A moot point : You do not have to do exactly as specified. You can use the guide as a starting point and branch off into your own idea.

Cost factor apart, I love the feeling I get when I build or assemble something with my hands. I love what I did with the stands - they look real good, blending into my decor. They are easily serviceable, replaceable and more importantly, cost around 10% of the price of a store bought speaker stand.

-end of post-

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"Designing a Home Theater ? Why would someone design a home theater ?", one may think. Some people may feel that no designing needs to be done while setting up a Home Theater, you just shove the right equipment in the right places. While this may be true for most "Home Theaters" that are set up in living rooms or the "I too have a Media Room", we are not talking about those kind of setups.

If not them, then who are we talking about ?

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Well, we are talking about the serious Home Theater Enthusiast. The kind of person who would invest his time and money in building a great Home Theater setup or at the least one who would make some rather dramatic changes in the existing room setup to accommodate a kick-ass Home Theater. To make life easier for these kind of people, a number of software tools for planning,diagramming and making schematics for your Home Theater have been developed. They make it possible to design a complete and complex Home Theater setup, with all the different components, lighting, wiring, room setup etc, before starting the actual work of building it. Using these tools, you can have the actual plan in your hands and then go about on the business of building your dream Home Theater.

If you are planning your Home Theater from scratch, these tools will be of immense help. As with all software, there are both 'FREE' and 'PRO' type software packages available.

The 'PRO' tools include a host of excellent features to aid in schematics and design. Most notable among them is d-tool's System Integrator 5. It is one of the best in the business and its abilities go far and beyond designing a Home Theater. You don't have to spend big bucks to get some of the same features, a good many of the schematics can be made with Microsoft Visio. However its the custom templates and pro features that set quality designs apart from amateur doodles.

Among the 'Free' packages for designing a Home Theater or just making line schematics are AVsnap and Rack Tools. Of these, AVsnap from Altinex is actually very useful and more based on "wiring" in the two packages. You can create your own custom equipment types and then line draw all of the connections ahead of time, or use their pre-made library and modify the results to your system and needs.

Racktools from Middle Atlantic is geared more toward equipment layout. Even if you don’t end up purchasing one of their fine equipment racks, the space and dimension options of rack tools can be very useful for space planning.

If you’re planning a home theater system with a DVD player, A/V receiver, and a cable box, these tools might not really shed any more light on system design than a piece of paper could. But as more and more home theater systems approach the complex to ridiculous in intricacy, so does the need to fully plan them out ahead of time.

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