What is Surround Sound System?

A surround sound system is one outstanding way of improving your overall digital experience. These systems are a great way of enhancing the way you watch movies, play games, listening to your favorite playlists, and other entertainment applications. A surround sound system is technology where the sound coming from an audio source is being split up and delivered to several speakers dispersed around the room. With this kind of set-up, you will be able to experience viewing a movie at home similar to movies in theatres. The sound of the speaker comes from different directions, thus the listener receiving all these sounds would feel the high quality of the sound. In contrast to stereos where only 2 speakers are being used, surround sound can use up to 5 to 7 speakers. This explains the quality of sound one would expect from a surround sound system.

The configuration of the speaker that you want for your room is one of the most important considerations to make if you want to set up a surround sound system in your room. Today, there is an array of the most common speaker layouts that you can choose from. The names of these layouts are often based on the number of speakers used in the set-up.

The 2.0 configuration is also known as the old stereo. This is the most basic set-up that uses two speakers at the side of your television for example. With a good amplifier and pair of speakers, they can provide a relatively good sound quality. The 2.1 layout is similar to the stereo mentioned above, but it has a subwoofer. A subwoofer is a large speaker that is dedicated to reproducing the low bass frequencies and makes a huge difference in the quality of the sound.

The 5.1 configuration is a surround sound set-up which uses 5 speakers placed all around the position of the listener to make the listener feel as if he is in the middle of the action. The speakers are placed in the left and right, center, surround left and right while the subwoofer also gets placed in a particular location. These configurations are already considered to be the most commonly used set-up in home theatres.

The 7.1 layout has a total of 8 speakers-7 speakers plus 1 subwoofer. The set-up is similar to that of the 5.1 configuration with the addition of 2 speakers placed behind your seating position. The 7.2 speaker, on the other hand, is the same with the 7.1 except that it has two subwoofers instead of one. The main reason why these surround sound systems have two subwoofers is that they can easily spread the bass frequencies around the room more evenly, thus making the sound more realistic.

Now that the lists of the different configurations and layouts have been discussed, the choice of which one to select would entirely depend on the type of room as well as the audio needs. On top of this, you also need to carefully consider the budget as these devices usually do not come at a bargain budget price.

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Vladimir