While it’s absolutely true that there is no “one size fits all” approach to building a perfect home theater, there are certain elements that every cine-phile should invest in to create that rich cinematic experience that they’re after.
Sizing Up That Perfect Television
Obviously, one of the most important components of a home theater is your television (or, in certain cases, a projector). There’s a theory out there that says you should always just get the biggest sized screen that you can afford, and while that’s certainly nice, the actual process is a bit more scientific than that.
To fully take advantage of those 1080p and 4K UHD TV sets, your average viewing distance should be about one and a half to two and a half times the size of your screen. So if you know you sit about six feet away from your TV, this means that a 50” set would suit your environment perfectly well. If you sit 10 or more feet away, you would want to go with something a little bigger – a set in the 85” range would likely be perfect. In that case, 85 x 1.5 would be 127.5 which, when divided by 12 (the number of inches in a foot), would be 10.63, or a little more than 10 feet.
Expand That Sense of Immersion With Superior Sound
Likewise, no home theater is complete without a fully immersive sound system – although this, too, will vary largely depending on your room and other environmental factors.
At a bare minimum, you should invest in a quality 5.1 surround sound system and receiver. That gives you five speakers (three up front and two to the rear), a subwoofer and a quality receiver to connect all of your various devices to.
If you have drop ceilings and can easily hide wires (or are working with a significantly larger budget), you can even invest in Dolby ATMOS height speakers to deepen that cinematic experience you’re going for. This adds at least two (although possibly four or more, depending on your preferences) speakers above you to handle height-related effects like rain or even helicopters, thus closely mimicking the experience you’d get if you were down at the local multiplex.
Equipment, Equipment, Equipment
Finally, all home theaters should have a number of important pieces of equipment to really bring everything together. In addition to the surround sound receiver outlined above, you should invest in a disc-based player (if you have a 4K TV, a 4K UHD player is a must) and a streaming box like a Roku or Apple TV.
Both of these devices will make sure that you can continue to play all the DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K discs you already own (in the case of the player), while also preparing you for the streaming world we’re about to enter (in the case of the Roku or Apple TV). From that perspective, all of your content needs will be taken care of.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure that the non tech-related areas of your home theater are accounted for – that means comfortable seating like loungers, auto blinds to help set the mood and other decor choices like dark paint for the walls and acoustic treatment to help preserve that rich audio experience. Once you have all of these areas covered, you’ll truly have the type of home theater that will make your friends jealous – exactly the way it should be.
If you’d like to find out more information about the necessities of any quality home theater, or if you just have any additional questions about your Tucson audio needs that you’d like to discuss with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact Cathey’s Audio Visual Entertainment today.
