What do I need to make my Home Theater complete?

There are several ways to make a system work,but really only one way to do it right.Of course you need a TV which in my systems work as a stand alone monitor.The speakers inside TVs are horrible so we try to avoid them at all costs.Then since you are not using the TVs speakers you will need a set of speakers.There is a review of my current favorite TV here. How many and where do they go?Well if you want true surround sound you need 6 speakers minimum.In the front near the TV you have a three speakers(left,right,center).These are the most crucial since most of your sound comes from here.And if you cant get rear speakers using the front three will work.Then you have two rear speakers somewhere behind the seating position.These provide directional sounds and fill the room in music modes.The last piece is the sub woofer.The placement of this is not as crucial and can go almost anywhere in the room. A 5.1 speaker system can go for as little as $300.00 up to as much as you want to spend.A good guideline is to spend an equal amount on the speakers and receiver.

The next piece in the puzzle is the devices that provide content,like the cable box,DVD/Blu-Ray player and Video game systems.These are less important to how the overall system works,but don't make cheap choices as you wont get the most from your system.I will cover these items next Tuesday.

The most important piece in current systems is the A/V receiver.It used to be that the receiver just amplified the sound and sound sources.Today's receiver acts as an amplifier , audio processor and video processor.What this really means is that everything gets plugged into the receiver and all switching of devices happens with the help of the processor.Some of the current generation of receivers also improve audio clarity and video processing with the help of some pretty slick software.Good receivers start at the $600.00 to $2000.00 range for Denon which I use on my medium grade systems.For high end I use B&K which go for 3-5k and really are some of the best products on the market in my opinion.

So all that is left is a remote and all the wires to connect the system.I covered remotes here and will cover wiring in the near future.Speaker selection is a whole article on its own that I will try to tackle soon.This probably leaves more questions than answers,but gives you a rundown on the basics.