And How to Ensure You Get the Best Home Theater Installation in Marietta, GA
At Sound Sensations in Marietta, GA, we know there’s a lot that goes into planning a home theater setup. From deciding on a layout to choosing audio and visual equipment, taking time to choose the right options for your needs and preferences really pays off.
In this guide, we’ll look at some of the first things we consider when performing home theater installation in Marietta, GA, or Atlanta. For a professional installation of your own, please get in touch with us today.
Examining the space you have to work with
The home theater choices you should make depend heavily on the room you’re installing your home theater in. You might be installing a home theater in a separate room that’s designed solely for home entertainment, or you could be looking to beef up the home theater system in a room that’s heavily trafficked, like your living room.
The shape of the room makes a big difference to the sound. Square rooms result in odd harmonic distortions if the speakers are not set up correctly. Rectangular rooms are easier to kit out.
Windows also make quite a difference to the home theater experience. For one, they introduce light into the room that can distract and annoy viewers, and they also reflect sound, which can make for odd distortion effects. Window shades can help.
Sound dampening
If you’re worried about the amount of noise your neighbors will hear when you’re playing the latest blockbuster on your new home theater system, you need to consider sound dampening. Regular drywall is typically fine, but you’ll want to break up your wall space with furniture or other decor.
You can also consider sound dampening materials that modulate low and high frequencies. Beyond keeping the sound in the room, they keep the sounds from the rest of your house or outside from disturbing you when you’re watching your favorite shows.
For flooring, we typically recommend carpeting. Even wall color is important—darker colors reflect less light so they’re not likely to distract you.
Sound decisions
Arguably the most important decisions you need to make about your home theater system revolve around sound. Most home theater systems have a 5.1 speaker setup, which means there are five full-range speakers and a single low-range speaker, aka the subwoofer. These speakers are placed strategically around the room for a surround sound effect.
Speaker placement isn’t as simple as it seems. In an ideal situation, you want each speaker to the same distance from your ears. If you’re going to install speakers into the wall, it’s important to make sure the sound setup is right before you make a costly mistake.
You’ll need to individually tune each speaker’s volume to get the sound right. Consider that there’s also a delay depending on how far each speaker is from your ears. You can’t just increase the volume of speakers that are further away. Ideally, you want a sound system that allows each speaker to have an individual delay so that the sound reaches your ears in unison from all speakers.
The central front speaker is one of the most important. For most movies, this is where you’ll hear dialogue from. With a poor central front speaker (or a stereo setup), you’ll notice that dialogue in movies is muffled or quiet whereas action and music are loud.
With the subwoofer, you have more leeway on where it will be located, as the deep bass will permeate the room.
Viewing distance and screen size
It’s tempting to think that bigger is always better when it comes to screen size, but in fact you need the right size and distance from your screen so you’re not straining to see every part of the image. Typically, you want the diagonal width of your screen to be between 1.5 and 2.5 times smaller than the distance to the screen. Check a viewing distance calculator online to get the right measurements.
Viewing height is also important for comfortable viewing. The center of the screen should be at eye level. This seems like an obvious choice, but many people incorrectly install their home theater screen at a higher elevation because it looks impressive, but they haven’t considered how uncomfortable it can get.
Home theater installation in Atlanta
For professional home theater installation in Marietta, GA, contact Sound Sensations. Our professional installers will ensure your new home theater setup is inexpensive, impressive, and enjoyable to experience.