Accumulating the right number of speakers for your home theater sound system is rather important. Can you have 4 front speakers in your home theater?
Using 4 speakers implies that you would use two front left and two front rights to maintain a balance. With this, you eliminate the center speaker which is critical for dialogue and action in a movie. 4 speakers can be applicable in a surround sound setup, However, it is not ideal to have 4 front speakers.
The sound system setup is all about physics and balancing out the audio waves that create your audio experience. Let’s take a closer look at why this might not be the right choice as well as a few alternatives.
How Many Speakers Do You Need for a Home Theater?
You might decide to have a good festive season with your friends, there are several things to consider. You need to have snacks, streaming services, drinks, and other fun-related tools. However, there is one major fun too that when omitted the season cannot be complete. What’s this so important and favorite too?. When setting speakers, you need to make sure that the speaker setup in the home theater is ready to stream an unmatchable quality of sound. This will enable your friends here the sound in a clear and quality way.
When investing in a high-performance home audio system, the fun begins with taking steps to ensure it sounds its best. The multitude of audio settings and parameters within an AV receiver or processor can seem daunting, it’s not that difficult with some basic knowledge and an assist from the SVS Sound Experts.
However, there are some pretty standard rules of thumb that you will follow when setting up your sound system. What is critical here is to create a balanced sound system.
Why is a balanced sound system so important? When using a balanced number of speakers in your sound system, the audio hits from all angles.
Rather than paying more focus on the front left of the room with an overpowering front left speaker, you can keep your focus on the screen and take in the audio effortlessly. First, you will want to focus on the number of front speakers in your home theater room.
3 front speakers are the ideal number of speakers. This is because you can have one speaker for every channel of a standard left, right, and center audio system.
More than this can get a bit more complex- especially if you attempt to use an even number like 4 and have to balance the sound without a center speaker.
The center speaker is responsible for most of the auditory processing in your favorite movies. You cannot afford to remove this speaker channel from your sound system.
Keeping the center speaker means you need to have a balanced number of speakers on the left and right sides. This cannot balance if there are no 4 front speakers.
None of the options can provide the best requirements, however, you can consider eliminating the center speaker is going to rob you of clarity and precision found necessary during dialogue and action in movies.
You can choose to use 3 front speakers and then add in more in the rear right and rear left with 5 speakers, or you can even add in 2 more for a 7 speaker surround sound system including the center-left and center-right as well.
You can always add more speakers if your system is capable of supporting this with power and audio connectivity. But, one speaker you are not going to want to forget is the subwoofer.
Why is a Subwoofer Important with Your Front Speakers?
Whether you are using a complex or a relatively basic sound system set up in your home theater, including a subwoofer is almost non-negotiable- at least by the standards of any audiophile that you come across.
The sound elevation is the sole purpose is to emit low-frequency audio signals. In case of no subwoofer, you can rely on your front speaker’s woofers to hit the low bass tones that are not possible to replicate compared to a sub.
When focusing on the number of speakers that are important in your home theater, you are not going to want to forget to include a subwoofer in your system. It is important the way that it can carry out the low bass to choose not to include it.
So, you can use 3 front speakers (front, center, and right) in addition to 1 subwoofer for a 3.1 sound system setup. you can also add a few more speakers for a surround sound effect as you create a 5.1 or a 7.1 system.
The additional subwoofer can help to heighten the experience of the bass tones. This can be a great way to incorporate a subwoofer with your 3, 5, or 7 (not 4) front speakers.
What is the Difference Between Front Speakers and Surround Speakers?
As you take a closer look at how each speaker works, you might be wondering what the difference between these speakers is anyway.
Their differences make them work well. It is important to understand the importance of speakers and the reason for their making.
Front speakers generally consist of the left, center, and right speaker channels that play the mid-to high-frequency audio signals. Contrarily, surround speakers are an addition to front speakers. They create a full-scope audio experience immersing the listener in a way that the audio sounds in all directions.
Realistically, this has a lot to do with how speakers are designed to work together in a sound system.
The more speakers added to a home theater sound system, the more placement becomes the key in optimizing the design and overall function of each speaker.
Keeping balance as a front proponent of creating your sound system, you can find the perfect number of front speakers to place in your home theater- typically 3, 5, or even up to 7 in addition to a subwoofer for bass.
Which Setting is Right for My Speakers?
Even most physically large speakers can’t reproduce low frequencies nearly as well as a dedicated subwoofer. When many large, so-called full-range speakers try to deliver deep bass, they can sound distorted and overworked. Even worse, attempting to reproduce those subterranean tones requires a huge amount of amplifier power. When an AV receiver is driving full-range speakers to play low frequencies with authority puts a real strain on the amps. It also robs the midrange drivers and tweeters of power. They need to create an expansive soundstage with a massive dynamic impact.
To avoid this problem, it is far better to include a powered subwoofer in just about any home theater speaker system and, in most cases, designate all your main speakers as “small,” regardless of their physical size. That way, all frequencies below the crossover point are sent to the subwoofer rather than the main speakers. (The crossover frequency is another parameter you can set in the AV receiver and normally defaults to 80 Hz.) The powered subwoofer has an amplifier. The amps in the AVR are free to give the midrange and high frequencies depending on the power they need to sound their best.
It’s All About the Bass Management
Most movie soundtracks are mixed in 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. The “.1” subwoofer channel carries much of the deepest bass. Things like explosions, revving engines, and sonic action you can feel in your chest and throughout your body. The main channels often have very low frequencies. They are much better served from the subwoofer rather than the main speakers. It is therefore recommended that all the main speakers as “small,” which sends the low frequencies in all the main channels to the subwoofer. If you have any questions about making this adjustment, or if something just sounds off after changing your speakers to small, we courage you to contact our SVS Sound Experts. No matter what brand or model of loudspeakers you own, we can help.
Proper bass management also means specifying a different crossover point for each speaker channel. For example, you can command the AV receiver to send more bass to speakers that can easily handle it by specifying a lower crossover point for them. Also, you can specify a higher crossover point for speakers with a more limited bass extension. The AV receiver sends less bass to them. It is mainly handled within the auto-calibration process but not uncommon to adjust crossover frequencies after calibration has been run. For more information on the topic, check out Speaker and Subwoofer Digital Bass Management Tips.
As an example, the SVS Ultra Tower speakers feature dual opposing 8-inch woofers and can play below 30 Hz. They would most likely be used as mains and sound best with a crossover frequency around 50-60Hz. Conversely, the compact Prime Satellite speakers don’t have the ability to play nearly as low. They would likely serve as surrounds or Dolby Atmos height speakers and sound best with a crossover frequency of 90-100Hz.
