Tips on Building an HT speaker system

[cadolfan]

Can someone help and direct me on the best way to build a HT speaker system.

It seems that the first place to start would be a good set of front speakers. Is this correct? Do they necessarily need to be placed in front of you? I wanted to place them on the sides of my sofa. Is that okay?

Whats the next speaker that I should get? Surround?

[joel2762]

Well in a basic 5.1 setup There's FRONT Right and Left. REAR Right and LEft. and FRONT Center. usually placed on top or below the tv. No puting front speakers next to sofas.

[cadolfan]

Thanks,
I just picked up a a harman kardon AVR325. I'm new at this I think it is 7.1 or has 7 channels. Does that mean I can have 2 front, 2back, 1 center, 1 surround, and 1 sub contected?

[This Guy]

you have front left and right, center, surround left and right, back surrround left and right, and a subwoofer (.1)

-Joey

[cadolfan]

you have front left and right, center, surround left and right, back surrround left and right, and a subwoofer (.1)

-Joey

what's the difference between surround left and right and back surround left and right? will two floor main speakers give me surround sound?

[Bryan]

Easiest way to think of surround left and right is to think of them as side left and right. Back surround left and right are your rear channels. If you only have two speakers now in your setup make them the main left and right speakers. If you have two additional speakers, be them bookshelf or floorstanders, make them the rear surround speakers. With a total of four speakers you can have surround sound but not with only two. An example of a 7.1 setup using what I have would be:

nOrh wood 5.1 - Left and right main speakers
nOrh ceramic 4.0 video package - Center, side surrounds, and rear surrounds
SVS 20-39PCi

[Woochifer]

Start with the front two and work from there. The main reason for going with the front two is because any two-channel sources that you use will make use of the front L and R speakers. When doing your auditioning, just make sure that you listen to the matching center and surround speakers as well and see how well the sound matches.

The main speakers absolutely should directly face you. Side placements will make your music or movies sound like everything's occurring off to the side with nothing happening in front of you. The surround speakers should be mounted above ear level and point towards one another slightly behind the listening position.

Which speaker you get after the mains is debatable. Some would argue that the center speaker should come next. I personally would vouch for the surrounds, since those are the ones that impart the spatiality and directional cues in movie soundtracks. The center channel can get split into the L and R front speakers and should sound okay. But, the results can be variable, so a center speaker should be there in a full surround setup.