TVs come with their own inbuilt speakers, but if you want to enjoy the same surround sound quality you get at the cinema you will need to get some additional speakers. This TV speaker system is often called a home audio system or theatre system.
Voice Matching:
It is imperative that all your speakers produce the same tonal quality, they must have matching harmonics or the sound may appear disjointed. To ensure that this does not happen it is best to buy speakers from the same group and manufacturer. If you decide to add to speakers you already have, buy speakers from the same manufacturer and contact the makers to make sure they are compatible.
Most TV speaker systems have the following speakers:
1. Right and left front speakers.
2. A centre channel speaker.
3. Surround speakers.
4. A subwoofer.
The speakers are linked together to produce that cinema quality sound experience in your own home. There is an enormous choice of speakers on the market, to make an informed choice it is important to know what each of the speakers do, so that you know which system will give you the sound quality you require.
Right and left front speakers:
The right and left front speakers of a TV speaker system, make a soundstage wide and creates an exciting and more realistic listening experience. As well as producing the musical score and acting as stereo speakers, these front TV speakers also reproduce most of the special effects.
There are many different types of TV speakers that can be used as front speakers, floor standing, satellite speakers and bookshelf speakers to name but a few. Tower speakers give good low frequency response, however they do take up quite a bit of space. Satellite speakers are often wall mounted so take up less space, however, they need be used with a subwoofer, although they are small they give a big sound. Bookshelf speakers can produce a good sound, they are compact but do not reproduce as much bass as their larger counterparts. Satellite and bookshelf speakers are compact and can be placed on furniture, specialist stands or wall mounted.
Tube TVs can be sensitive when additional speakers are near them. If you have a tube TV make sure you buy front speakers that have video shielding so that they will not interfere with your TV. Remember to make sure your right and left front speakers are voice matched to your other speakers, particularly your centre channel speaker.
Centre channel speakers:
Over 50% of the soundtrack is delivered by the centre channel speaker, this includes most of the dialogue. It keeps the sound linked to the action on the screen, it is therefore vital to have a good quality centre channel speaker so that your TV speakers will be well balanced.
When positioning your centre channel speaker make sure you place it immediately below or above your TV screen, if you place it to one side it will adversely affect the surround sound experience. If your TV is wall mounted and you don’t want to put your centre speaker on a stand there are wall mountable, or in wall, centre channel speakers available.
Like most speakers, centre channel speakers come in a wide variety of sizes. As well as the size of your TV you should also think about the size of the other speakers that you have in your TV speaker system when deciding what size of centre channel speaker to buy. If you have tower speakers you will need to have a big centre channel speaker to maintain a surround sound effect.
When you are looking to buy a centre channel speaker, it vital that it is voice matched with your front right and left speakers. The easiest way to do this is to buy all from the same manufacturer, otherwise be sure to check their compatibility.
Most centre channel speakers are video shielded, if you decide to get a speaker that was not designed to be a centre channel speaker, double check that it is video shielded.
Surround speakers:
Surround speakers deliver atmospheric sounds, like wind and rain. They work alongside the other speakers to produce directional sound effects, like cars whizzing by, and help you to feel as if you are in the middle of what is happening.
Ideally the performance capability of your surround sound speakers should be the same as that of your front right and left TV speakers. Many people use satellite or bookshelf speakers for their surround speakers these can be either wall mounted or placed on stands.
Some expensive surround sound speakers sometimes have a “dipole” or “bipole” switch which is sometimes known as a “solid/diffuse” switch. The speakers have 2 high frequency drivers which fire either in phase, known as bipole, or out of phase, known as dipole. These speakers use reflected sound which makes a wider sound field, this allows greater flexibility in speaker placement.
Powered subwoofer:
Powered subwoofers will enrich music as well as special effects. Many DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks have a deep bass channel (known as LFE or low frequency effects). This bass channel gives a fuller, lifelike and larger sound, allowing loud sound effects like cannon fire and thunder to fill your room. Most speakers cannot produce this level of bass by themselves and need a powered subwoofer speaker to give this level of bass impact.
The larger your room the more watts you need in the amplifier, also the bigger the driver is the deeper the bass tends to be. As low frequency sound waves travel in all directions you have more flexibility in where you can place your powered subwoofer speaker, placing it by the wall or in the corner will noticeably increase the bass impact. Make sure your speaker is video shielded if you want to place it near to a tube TV.