Shopping Tips

Basics

Stick with Reputable Brands and Retailers
Be wary of deals that seem too good to be true — especially online. While megastores can offer a big selection and big discounts, specialty retailers may have dedicated home theater demo rooms and can offer much more personal service.

Consider Spending a Little More than You’d Planned
Like anything else, in home theater you get what you pay for, and spending more now will very likely yield a system that will make you much happier in the long run.

Bring Demo Discs You Know and Love
There are big differences in the recording quality of CDs and DVDs, and you’ll get a better handle on a speaker system’s sound if you bring your own discs to the store. Try to use a recording with mostly acoustic instruments since it’s easier to compare the sounds of these instruments and the human voice with their real-life counterparts. The Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up DVD is excellent for evaluating a system’s audio and video performance. Also, try to listen to everything at the same volume, because what’s louder always seems to sound better.

Take Your Time
Don’t let anyone rush you. Sure, you’ll probably want to buy something right now, but resist those impulses. This is especially true when you’re buying speakers — there’s no way you can make a good decision in a few minutes.

Remember: Speakers Will Sound Different at Home than at the Store
It would be easier if all rooms were the same, but they tend to differ a lot in size, shape, and acoustical characteristics — so how and where you place the speakers has a lot to do with how good they sound. While some retailers carefully set up speakers for the best possible sound, many stores simply line up dozens of models on a shelf where they can’t even come close to performing at their best. Ask if the store will let you return speakers if they don’t sound good in your space at home. That way you can try different setups to make sure you’re happy with the sound.

Don’t Neglect the Boring Details
Make sure the speakers will fit into your room the way you intend. Sounds obvious, but...

And make sure you have enough cable and the right mounting hardware or stands. Once you get your gear home and are ready to set it up, you’re not going to want to go back to the store to get more speaker wire or a mounting bracket you forgot.

Auditioning Speakers

Listen for a Natural Tonal Balance
Acoustic instruments and vocals should sound realistic, without overemphasizing or underplaying any part of their range — especially the midrange and treble. (Most small speakers can’t put out much bass, and that’s why we use subwoofers.) An instrument with a wide frequency range, like a piano, shouldn’t change character between its low, middle, and high registers. If a violin sounds like chalk on a blackboard or a singer sounds like he’s blaring at you through a bullhorn or from the end of a tunnel, you’ll be reaching for the aspirin rather than the remote.

Listen to the Quality of the Bass
It should be tight and detailed, not boomy with a vague “one-note” quality — unless, of course, you’re listening to “One-Note Samba.”

Listen to a Variety of Music
You’ll want to check out loud and soft passages, passages dense with detail, and the very beginnings of musical notes. A good speaker system will have a wide dynamic range, will let you distinguish “inner voices” in orchestral music and overlapping sound effects in movies, and will let the initial pluck of a guitar string or crack of a snare drum come through with realistic presence.

Listen to How the Satellite Speakers and Subwoofer Blend
The individual speakers shouldn’t draw attention to themselves but instead produce a spacious, seamless, coherent three-dimensional sound field over a wide listening area. In particular, the subwoofer’s top range should dovetail neatly with the bottom end of the satellites. If there’s a gap between where the satellites leave off and the subwoofer kicks in, music will tend to sound thin.

Listen for the Qualities of Imaging and Space
An instrument or vocalist should come from a precise location in the sound field created by the speakers, not be as hard to locate as an altruistic contestant on Survivor. (You’ll need some discs you know have good imaging to check this.) And a movie soundtrack should convincingly envelop you, while music played with surround processing should sound like you’re in a real performing space.

Listen to Movie Dialogue and TV News
Since most speaking voices will be placed in the center channel, pay attention to the sound from the center speaker. Do the voices sound clear and natural?

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