Home Theater Speaker Setup - How to

One of the questions that are most asked by people who have just bought their first surround sound system, or have upgraded their aging home theater in a box (HTB) to a more robust system is “How do I setup my speakers for best performance?”

There is no quick answer and there are many theories and competing ideas. If you purchased your system from Allwired Technologies and also contracted us to install your system, you will not have to worry much with all the theory as we will properly setup your speakers for you.

Bowers & Wilkins, one of the world’s renowned speaker manufactures, provides many helpful documents regarding speaker setups. We suggest that you follow their guide for the best performance. We also recommend that you have a professional with the right equipment calibrate your speakers and receiver for your room.

B&W’s home theater setup guide:

“Assuming you’ve opted to buy speakers from the same manufacturer for every channel in your home theater system, a fundamental requirement for great sound, the next important thing is to position the speakers correctly in your room. The ITU (International Telecommunications Union) standard for multichannel recording and playback is one recommended standard for speaker placement, often employed by studio engineers when mixing surround audio for both movie and music use, and as a broad guideline, it’s effective. However, the ITU stipulations can be impractical for many homes. For example, it demands identical speakers be used in each channel, including the centre channel, which is difficult to do if your system has floorstanding speakers for left and right front channels.”

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