Common Mistakes When Setting Up a Home Theater System

[gene]

From selecting components in the wrong order to inappropriate gear for the venue, this article enlightens us on the most common mistakes when setting up a home theater system. To get the most bang for your buck when assembling an audio/video system, it’s important to make each piece of equipment and the room all work together. Simply buying good equipment isn’t enough. Some rooms are multi-purpose and have inherent compromises, and some errors are egregious. Here are, in no particular order, some of the more common mistakes made when conceiving and integrating an AV system into a home theater.

Read: Common Mistakes When Setting Up a Home Theater System

Share your common mistakes and please post pictures too!

 

[TheWarrior]

Excellent read!

I have been saddened by my lack of 'subwoofage' as of late, but this does remind me to get my friggin coffee table out of the way!

 

[Alain Singapore]

A lot of common sense here.

It is difficult to get rid of the coffee table in a living room. Covering it with stuff (remotes!)improves the situation.

I tried a pair of cheap super tweeters some time ago on a low end AV system and the result was quite pleasing. Since then I moved to mid range point source speakers and the super tweeters went into a closet. Difficult to get the logic behind speakers with tweeters facing the wall and sending reflected sound out of phase.

One part of the chain you did not mention is the conversion from digital to analogue signal and the quality of the files. May be it has been discussed to death here already.

Still surprising to see how few people get it, most don't care. What is a real concern though is to see quite a few professional integrators building crappie rooms.

 

[ski2xblack]

One part of the chain you did not mention is the conversion from digital to analogue signal and the quality of the files. May be it has been discussed to death here already.

No, the DAC is not a concern.

Yes, the production quality is a constant issue. The dynamic range database is your friend when shopping for music. Great music often transcends poor production quality. Some production flaws can be corrected with a bit of home re-mastering in Audacity.

 

[corey]

Thanks for the article. I plan to add 'subwoofage' to my vocabulary, and your point on coffee tables is well taken. Kind of hard to much about the coffee table as my wife keeps referring to my theater room as our living room.

I'm not sure if adding separate amps for my front channels would do to much as my fronts & center are 95dB and 96dB respectively, and crossed over at 80hz. My AVR-3100W does have pre-outs, so if anyone wants to send me some amps, I'd be willing to give them a try

 

[GO-NAD!]

Excellent read!

I have been saddened by my lack of 'subwoofage' as of late, but this does remind me to get my friggin coffee table out of the way!

I got SWMBO to bend quite a bit, when I did my HT install. One thing she would not bend on was the coffee table.

 

[shadyJ]

Lots of good stuff in this article. One thing I wish I had known when I built my own home theater was the "Choosing a video display or screen that’s waaaaay too big for your room and seating" section. That is what I did, and to get acceptable black levels I had to go to extremes with darkening the room. I am still not 100% happy with the brightness, but it is not bad, better than most commercial cinemas anyway. The advantages of an very large display is with some gaming though. Playing a racing game or a flying sim on a big picture is pretty sweet. Some first person perspective games benefit from it too, especially horror games. Not so much online shooters though.

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

I got SWMBO to bend quite a bit, when I did my HT install. One thing she would not bend on was the coffee table.

Okay, I'm not touching that response...

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

A lot of common sense here.

It is difficult to get rid of the coffee table in a living room. Covering it with stuff (remotes!)improves the situation.

I tried a pair of cheap super tweeters some time ago on a low end AV system and the result was quite pleasing. Since then I moved to mid range point source speakers and the super tweeters went into a closet. Difficult to get the logic behind speakers with tweeters facing the wall and sending reflected sound out of phase.

One part of the chain you did not mention is the conversion from digital to analogue signal and the quality of the files. May be it has been discussed to death here already.

Still surprising to see how few people get it, most don't care. What is a real concern though is to see quite a few professional integrators building crappie rooms.

Good comments. One of the most frustrating parts of my career with manufacturers in the industry was getting dealers to at least try to get things right. For almost 25 years I tried to get them to match the electronics with the speakers, deal with room acoustics, control ambient light, remove crap from in front of the front soundstage, etc. Many consumers didn't really care, and many interior designers messed up installations by putting a greater value on their artistic statement rather than having form follow function. It wasn't always the dealers' fault, but most dealers won't fight hard to get the system to be as good as it can be. Ultimately, the consumer loses. I've been in half-million dollar rooms that don't make sound and pictures nearly as well as my system that's 1/10th that amount.

 

[hk2000]

"If you actually prefer a zoomed or stretched picture, I am respectfully asking you to leave America as soon as possible."

That is one of the most annoying things I have to deal with on a daily basis. All the people I know watch a stretched out picture and seem oblivious to the distortion, if all of them heed your request, we'd end up with a lot of empty spaces! The worst part is, a lot of people got so accustomed to the stretched picture, they think it's normal!!!!!

 

[GO-NAD!]

Okay, I'm not touching that response...

Ha! The innuendo was completely unintentional - well spotted! I'm surprised one of the usual reprobates didn't pick up on that. They're losing their touch...

 

[3db]

Ha! The innuendo was completely unintentional - well spotted! I'm surprised one of the usual reprobates didn't pick up on that. They're losing their touch...

Nahh its just too easy now

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

"If you actually prefer a zoomed or stretched picture, I am respectfully asking you to leave America as soon as possible."

That is one of the most annoying things I have to deal with on a daily basis. All the people I know watch a stretched out picture and seem oblivious to the distortion, if all of them heed your request, we'd end up with a lot of empty spaces! The worst part is, a lot of people got so accustomed to the stretched picture, they think it's normal!!!!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who cringes when he sees a stretched picture. I was in a theater at a Parade of Homes a few years ago, and the home had a basic, poorly-done theater. On the 16:9 screen, they were showing "Top Gun" (is that enough of a cliche?) and the display was set to "stretch," with black bars above and below the picture. I asked the "audio-video guy" if he could fix it, and he looked at me like I was a Martian. "I don't see anything wrong with the picture," he said, defiantly. My wife grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the room...

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

Ha! The innuendo was completely unintentional - well spotted! I'm surprised one of the usual reprobates didn't pick up on that. They're losing their touch...

Sir, are you calling me an UNUSUAL reprobate?? Harumph!!

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

The current "super-tweeter" fad had escaped me until just recently. More than 50 years ago (I am a seasoned citizen) an older friend of mine had a pair of Ionovac tweeters sitting on top of his AR-3 speakers. The ARs (wonderful transducers) had a laid-back treble, and the Ionovac added sparkle. Today's speakers usually have fairly flat response to at least 17 kHz, and I see no reason for a super-tweeter, as explained in the article. My theater speakers use Scan-Speak Revelator R-29 ring-radiator tweeters (with the distinctive pointy thingy in the center) and they're flat to 40 kHz. My hearing disappears above 14 kHz, so a super-tweeter would be superfluous.

 

[Montucky]

RE: "Ceiling speakers for theater"
SO SO true, and thank you for pointing that out. Funny timing. I just started a thread about that very thing on another AV forum. Just like you, it just irks me to no end to see that on million+ dollar Parade of Homes houses. The builders I've talked to are SO proud of their absolutely terrible, terrible 5 channel in-ceiling set ups. Just makes me cringe. Especially knowing the home owner paid $$$mucho$$$ for a setup that would be utterly smoked by a $200 5.1 speaker package. Shame on you, clueless builders!!!

 

[myriad1973]

I couldn't help but laugh out loud with some of those pictures, especially the cheap Pyramid piezo tweeters out of some jalopy atop of some nice Infinities! LOL

 

[Paul Scarpelli]

I couldn't help but laugh out loud with some of those pictures, especially the cheap Pyramid piezo tweeters out of some jalopy atop of some nice Infinities! LOL

Yeah, that's like asking for a bottle of ketchup at a gourmet restaurant.

 

[Ferd Smurf]

Well, I have a few of those flaws in my room but in my defense I want to say the fireplace mantel is unusually low, only about 40" high so the 70" TV is at a good height. Plus there is absolutely no where else it could go.

I do have a light colored ceiling but I also NEVER watch in a fully darkened room, there has to be a little light so I don't knock over my wine glass. I've never been distracted by reflections off the ceiling. Now that I know to look for it I'll probably be completely distracted.

Somehow I've managed to get by for 30+ years with one subwoofer. Perhaps because it is the size of a small refrigerator (12 cu ft) and has a real subwoofer driver (JBL 18" 2245), I've never felt the need for more subwoofage.

I'll have to do some testing with & without the coffee table, maybe one with a slatted or woven top would help? Maybe we could have an Audioholics test of audiophile quality coffee tables?

 

[elwaylite]

Speaking of room treatments, am I correct in that some should go "behind" the front towers? This room is a rectangle and our couch and chair is directly across from the display and speakers, against another wall that looks exactly like the one behind the display. I assumed the panels should go on the wall behind us, but was told they should go behind the fronts first.