Choosing 5.1 Speakers

Having good set of 5.1 speakers can vastly improve the enjoyment of films in your home, but which speakers are classified as good 5.1 speakers and what is ‘5.1’.

This article will look at what options are available to you and a little bit about what 5.1 surround sound is. This is article is aimed at people just getting in to home cinema equipment, so if you’re after some in depth information this may not be the article for you.

5.1 means that there are 5 speakers in the system, and each speaker allows a full range of frequencies to be played through them,  an additional channel (the .1) is reserved for low frequencies, so the .1 is a subwoofer. You will have no doubt come across 2.1 speakers and 7.1 speakers and the same explanation applies. The 2.1 has 2 full range speakers and a sub woofer and the 7.1 speakers has seven speakers and a sub woofer.

A 5.1 speaker system is known by the majority as surround sound and the two terms can be interchanges. 5.1 is Surround sound is widely acknowledged as be pioneered by Dolby Laboratories. Nearly everyone is familiar with the Dolby Digital logo thanks to it showing at the beginning of almost every blockbuster movie shown in the past 15 years. The first 5.1 sound format was announced in 1991 and from then on was adopted widely throughout cinemas and theatres across the world. It wasn’t until the beginning of 1995 that a consumer solution was announced that allowed 5.1 playback and so the ‘suround sound’ boom began.

This may seem obvious that firstly you need a source i.e. a DVD player, or games console, you then will need a decoder. The decoder can be part of the DVD player or and AV Receiver (Audio Visual Receiver – sometime called an AV Amplifier) can handle this part of the process. The AV Amp will have connections on the back for 5 speakers and a subwoofer. So fundamentally you need:

• A 5.1 Source – DVD / Console
• A decoder – Sometimes in DVD player but usually in AV Amp as well.
• An amplifier – To amplify the decoded surround sound.
• Speakers – To hear the sound.
• What does each of the speakers do?

The front left and right speakers reproduce the majority of the sound effect and musical sound track of the film. They also reproduce the left to right and vice versa movement across the screen. The central speaker is reserved for speech, the two rear speakers are for ambient effects that engulf you in sound. The subwoofer handles all of the low frequencies, explosions and bass lines etc.

Surround sound in the home was once reserved for the wealthy, but there are now a lot of surround sound kits available. There are some great deals available that package together DVD players, amplifiers and 5.1 surround sound speakers all in one.

If you’re serious about creating a home cinema though you should may be looking at choosing the individual components of your system.

So let’s assume that you have a DVD player, AV Amp and all you need is the speakers. Firstly you’ve got to evaluate how much room you have, and if your system will be staying in that room for along time. This may seem like a strange question but let me explain.

I had a full setup of B&W 600 series speakers, floor standers (603’s) as the left and right speakers, bookshelf speakers at the rear (601’s) and a centre speaker (LCR60). With this setup I didn’t need – nor could I afford – the subwoofer. At the time I was in a rented property with a massive lounge (25 x 18ft) and the set up sounded great. I then brought a property with a lounge that was much smaller (15 x 12ft) and the speakers seemed to be almost ‘suffocated’ because of the small room. Needless to say I was gutted, but a valuable lesson had been learnt, if you’re not in a home that you intend to stay in try to buy a setup that has some degree of flexibility in it.

So the full size speakers had to go, and it became clear that a satellite and subwoofer system may be the way to go, before I go on I’d better explain what a satellite and sub system is.

A satellite speaker is a smaller speaker typically with a 3” cone or smaller in it, there are five of these for the 5.1 system, and then a subwoofer. The smaller speakers do not play the full range of frequencies – the low frequencies (bass) are handled by the subwoofer. You may think that you’d loose that ‘surround sound effect’ but not so. Your ear can’t accurately determine where low frequency sounds come from and so a sub woofer can be placed anywhere in a room and you can’t really pin point where it is from the sound.

This type of system offers greater flexibility over full size speakers for the following reason:

The frequencies handled by the sub woofer can usually be adjusted via the sub.
The volume of the sub woofer can be independently adjusted.

These two features mean that you can match the sound of your system to your room. So if like me you think you will be moving on in a couple of years and ‘sat and sub’ system may be the option best suited to you.