You don't have to be an electrician or an acoustics expert to get great surround sound from your home theatre system. Just follow the steps in this tutorial to setup your home theatre speakers for optimum sound.
In this quick tutorial, you will need the following items:
- Wire stripper
- Wire cutter
- Sound pressure level meter (if your system lacks an auto-setup routine)
- Speaker cable from 16 to 12AWG (between 1 mm2 and 3.3 mm2)
Note: U.S. speaker cables, such as made by Monster, use American Wire Gauge (AWG), where the lower the gauge number, the thicker the cable. Meanwhile, European and Australian speaker cables label their products by the cross-sectional area in mm2.
We recommend thicker cable if the speakers are a long distance from your amplifier, and for the best sound, ensure that each stereo pair of speakers has cables of equal length.
Speaker placement
Arrange the speakers in an arc, at least 30cm from the wall and at near-uniform distances from the sweet spot (eg the couch). Align the front and centre speakers' tweeter or high-frequency driver at ear level with vibration-damping spikes, stands or a wall-mounting kit. For a surround sound system, it's generally recommended that you opt for models of the same brand and make, for optimal timbre cohesiveness and seamless sound panning.
To recreate a diffused surround sound field, the rear and side speakers should be installed 30 to 60cm above ear level. This arrangement works best for movie soundtracks, though you may drop the height difference in the case of multichannel music such as Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio -- these materials are encoded in the studio with directional surround effects in mind.
Take some time to experiment for the ideal subwoofer placement, bearing in mind the bass reinforcement benefits of installing it in a corner. Having said that, do ensure there is ample space clearance for the speakers' ports and to avoid tight quarters. The latter usually results in boomy and bloated bass, instead of a nimble, tight and deep delivery.
Toeing in or out of speakers
This "toe in/out" technique varies the imaging of the left and right front speakers. Toeing-in focuses sound towards the sweet spot, while toeing out -- with speakers parallel to the walls -- spreads it over the entire room.
Experiment with different angles for the best effect, but the general consensus is that the former is ideal for a small group of viewers. Stick to the latter if the home theatre system is setup for your family needs.
Stripping cable
While it may seem to be a trivial step, it's important as proper termination ensures optimal electrical contact, minimises corrosion (e.g. copper oxidation) and may pre-empt short circuits.
Split each cable into two leads and strip off the insulation, leaving a 1cm-long strip of bare wires, taking care not to lose any strands along the process. Straighten before twisting the strands in a uniform direction and trim the excess with a wire cutter if necessary.
Take note that some cable strippers have different notches to cater for different insulation thickness.
Amplifer's side binding posts
At the back of your amplifier or receiver, insert the bare wire tips into the hole on the side of the binding post and tighten firmly. Most speaker cables come with one marked strand, and this makes it easier to connect positive (red) to positive and negative (black) to negative on both the receiver and speakers. Mixing up "+" and "-" means you will put your speakers "out of phase", which will sound really strange.
Do exercise caution to ensure there are no loose strands touching either the back plate of the receiver or other cables after installation, as short-circuit prevention is not standard on all equipment. Damage resulting from such improper installation may not be covered under the manufacturer's warranty.
Speaker's side binding posts
Repeat the same exercise for the speaker's binding posts, and adhering to the polarity conventions and safety precautions discussed earlier.
Some higher-end speakers also ship with two set of posts to facilitate bi-amplification and wiring for enhanced performance (theoretically speaking, of course). These are factory wired with metal "jumpers" that bridge both sets of red and black posts for conventional mono-amplification setup. Hooking up the speaker cable to any of the posts in the same group is fine, provided firm contacts are established between the two.
Software adjustments
Skip the following manual surround sound software setup if your A/V receiver or processor offers automated audio calibration like Pioneer's Multichannel Acoustic Calibration System a.k.a MCACC. However, completists may prefer to do the tuning by ear themselves.
The three speaker parameters used in calibration are: speaker size, volume balancing and sound delay.
- Speaker size: Set the type of speaker deployed for each audio channel. While there is no standard convention used throughout the industry, most of the terms used are self-explanatory. E.g. Small for satellite/bookshelf speakers and large for their floorstanding counterparts. Unless you want your subwoofer to take up the slack, it's best to set your speaker size to "Large" regardless of which type of speakers you have.
- Volume balancing: In a nutshell, this is used for balancing out the varying loudness of the audio channels. Think of it as a workaround to compensate the differences in sound made between the speakers deployed throughout the setup. Use your ears or a sound pressure level meter to make adjustments for each channel.
- Sound delay: This is usually measured in metres, and is the distance from you (and not the receiver) to each of the speakers. By keying in each individual distance the receiver is able to compensate for different sized lounge rooms and ensure the sound from each speaker reaches you at the same time. Refer to your user manual for adjustment details.
Banana plugs
An alternative to bare-wire tipped cables are banana, spade, and pin plugs. Attach these to your speaker wire for easy corrosion-fee connections, but make sure to pick a plug that fits your equipment.
On a separate note, two variants are available in the market: screw-on and soldered. Go for the former for a no-fuss termination unless you are comfortable with handling a soldering iron.
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