Speaker setup

Built in TV speakers #

Your TV already has some speakers but…

External speakers #

Sooner or later, you realise that the sound just from speakers built in your TV is as flat as your TV. Unfortunately it is a side effect televisions getting more compact. I would say that nowadays it is highly recommended to get some sort of additional speakers to your AV system.

Channel based audio #

This is the most classic way of storing sound.

Stereo #

Stereo is also known as 2.0. It consists of two channels: left and right. If positioned correctly, it will allow you to receive sound from two directions (from the left and from the right).

Surround #

You might probably know something described as 5.1 - this means there are 5 surround channels and 1 subwoofer.

In home cinema, assuming a regular shape of the room this would look like this.

In a regular cinema/theater some channels need to be duplicated in order to provide better experience.

If you have content with audio stored using Dolby Digital (DD or AC-3) or DTS technologies, sounds will be hardcoded to particular channels. Assuming the speaker setup matches the same guidelines as creators, we might achieve immersive effect of being surrounded by sounds. It is possible to place sounds around the audience.

In reality, it is difficult to have the reference positioning at home, without having a dedicated “cinema room” and actual positions of the speakers will never be perfectly in the right spots.

If sounds are positioned using a predefined mix of channels, deviations from the “expected” speaker placing will affect the perceived position of the sound. It possible to minimize the imperfections with some extra calibration and still get good effects.

Positional based audio #

This is conceptually different approach from the classic channel-based described above. Sounds are positioned in the 3D space. The proper mix of audio channels is not predetermined- it will be calculated at playback time depanding on the available speaker setup. With a proper calibration, this approach will provide very consistent surround results even without a perfect positioning.

There are currently two main standards that implement this concept:

• Dolby Atmos and
• DTS-X

You will still get the best results with nicely separated and positioned speakers in a dedicated “cinema room”, however this solution will also provide a much better surround sound with your existing non-perfect setup.

If you do not have a full 5.1 setup, you will still benefit from the fact that audio channels will be calculated to match the combination of your speakers.

Please always keep in mind that a well designed configuration with speakers mounted to match the reference placement (preferrably 7.2.1 - 2 extra speakers mounted in the ceiling) will always sound better as it gives a great start for the “channel assignment” algorithms to further improve the perceived sound position.

Soundbar #

I believe this becomes the most typical scenario nowadays. Maybe you do not want the deal with multiple extra speakers but you are not fully satisfied with the sound coming just from your TV. There are different types of soundbards, you can read more in the soundbar section

Smart speakers #

Maybe you do not even want to buy a soundbar, but you love music and you already have a smart speaker that can play some tunes using streaming services like Spotify / Apple Music / Pandora / Tidal.

There is a new feature introduced in Apple TV 4k (gen 2) and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max that is based on eARC which allows those two devices to behave like a soundbar.

I believe this will become more and more popular solution that is why I have created a dedicated page about smart speakers and theater mode.