Two Ways To Optimize Your Home Theater Experience

So, you finally took the plunge and decided to invest in a home theater. Soon, you will be enjoying your favorite blockbuster from the comfort of your own recliner. 

You will be amazed by the quality of the sound and the clarity of the picture. You will revel in having a truly great entertainment center in your home and will be looking forward to impressing friends and family members. 

With a new home theater system, you will be able to do all of those things—if you optimize it.

What we mean by that is relatively simple. Many people simply plunk down their cash at the nearest big box retailer, bring home the boxes, unpack the stuff, plug it in, run to the couch and make it there just in time for the opening credits.

True, home theater installation doesn’t need to be complicated. A decent system can be installed quickly and easily. 

However, simply unpacking the gear and plugging it in really won’t produce the kind of results you can get by optimizing your system. 

Additionally, a few small moderations will transform that mess of wires and boxes into something far more attractive. 

There are a lot of things you could do
to optimize your home theater

Really, the options are pretty limitless. Nonetheless, there are at least three things you can do that we know to be proven effective. 

By making sure you have your speakers properly adjusted and positioned and housing the home theater in a great entertainment center you can make your system more functional and enjoyable.

Speaker placement is one the most commonly overlooked ways by which one can boos the performance of their home theater system. 

Most of us are not audio experts. As a result, we are prone to placing speakers where we think that make the most intuitive sense or where they are most attractive. 

Unfortunately, intuition isn’t always consistent with great sound and a convenient location may do nothing but make your top of the line speakers sound suspiciously like Dixie cups attached by a piece of string.

Seriously, we look at the speakers and we point them in our general direction. We understand the concept of stereo, so we separate them a bit. 

That is all there is to it, right? 

Hardly. There are some other factors, too. 

Things like vertical listening windows, toe-in, proper distancing and more. The first thing you should do after opening your speakers is to check and see if the manufacturer has any tips for placement. 

If they do, you should follow them. If they don’t, you will need to experiment with changes in height, distance and angle until you find the best possible sound.

Speaker positioning can also make
a noticeable difference...

Many home theaters are under performing a great deal simply because owners are not familiar with these concepts. A little background reading or trying to find a quick guide to valuable home theater systems can make one sufficiently informed, though.

Yes, your attention is directed to the screen from opening credits to the final black screen. However, when you aren’t watching or if you just happen to look around for a moment at any point during a movie, you don’t want to be greeted by a mess. 

Some home theaters are installed in a hurry without consideration of aesthetics. The end result is generally a stack of components and a tangle of visible wires. The living rooms of these home theater owners resemble the back room of an electronics repair shop more than they do a great living space.

There are alternatives to simply creating a mess. Home entertainment centers produced by major furniture manufacturers have improved greatly over the last several years. 

Not every home entertainment center is a pressed wood, faux maple piece from a discount retailer. High-end manufacturers are making beautiful housings for home entertainment systems. Even bargain manufacturers are turning out exciting models, often featuring the sleek efficiency and clean lines of modern design.

A home entertainment system—even an inexpensive one—represents an investment. It makes sense both to showcase that investment and to protect it. A great entertainment center can help in handling both tasks. 

By making sure you have your speakers optimally positioned and by housing your home theater system in a great entertainment center, you can optimize your home theater, making the at-home movie experience even more enjoyable.

We've put together a comprehensive guide to buying and installing your new home theater. If you'd like to check it out, visit A Guide to Home Theater Selection and Set-up

We wish you every success with your new home theater and know that it will give you many hours of pure enjoyment.