Is Your Surround Sound Delivering that Promise?

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couple of years ago, when we dabbled in the surround sound industry for the first time, there were a lot of different concepts sailing by. For starters, an average person thought that surround sound is all about buying multiple speakers and then setting them up in a line!

Trust me on this; even today if you were to go to your friend’s house, chances are that all of his speakers would be set up in a straight line, which is in fact totally ridiculous. Then again, there’re some bright headed folks who think that buying an All in One Yamaha Sound system will give them the true surround sound experience because there are like 10 small speakers in that device.

The fact is that they don’t really know what surround sound really means; what it was meant for, and vice versa. As much as we like to say that surround sound has become the next big “standard” in our homes and by our Blu-ray systems, do you think that we actually know about the ins and outs of home theater products?

What Was The Original Promise of Surround Sound Products?

Take the word “surround” and incorporate it technically in any good speaker series. Maybe you can take Bose Cinemate GS Series ii as an example. Basically for any speaker setup, there has to be:

• A subwoofer for bass management and deliverance.
• Front channel speakers
• Center channel speaker for dialogues only
• Rear speakers for background noise

On top of that, you actually have to set is all up in a special manner that relates to your spacial settings. For instance, placing the woofer directly against a corner will produce a low frequency and rather boomy sound effect. Placing it in the open will kill the bass.

So what’s The Present State of Surround Sound?

If you must know, at this stage, surround sound is only a toddler. The more kids and soccer moms we have who’re more than interested in just hearing loud music, the actual ethics and decency of owning a surround sound system are dying.

Oh, and the manufacturers are just producing products like a hamster powered cartwheel. The only best way of purchasing a long term and highly efficient sound system is to ask the vendor for a demonstration. Through the demo thing, you’ll come to realize the effectiveness of any surround sound home theater.

However, also keep in mind that those demo guys have got speakers set up in a padded environment. It’s not necessary for your face to melt with the same frequency the way it used to melt in the shop.

The Bottom Line:

It’s an open question gentlemen; what do you think? Do we really deserve these products? What’s the future of surround sound? Let me know.