If you're doing the same thing, here's some advice to follow. DO realize that speakers are most effective at ear-level. If you're a stickler for sound, the floor is not the best place for them. DO know that subwoofers are omnidirectional, meaning that they project in all directions at once. They can be placed anywhere it's convenient, such as behind a couch or in a corner. DON'T put speakers in a corner. Every room surface near a speaker will reinforce bass tones. If they're going to be near the floor, keep them away from other surfaces like walls and the sides of hard furniture. DO look at your speakers construction for placement clues. If they have unfinished backs, they're meant to rest against a wall. If not, they're designed to sound best a few feet from the wall; sofinding the best floor spot for them could be a struggle. DON'T annoy your neighbors. If you live above somebody else, re-think the idea of resting your speakers on the floor. Each building has it's own weird acoustics (especially the old ones), so you might unknowingly amplify the sound for them. DO realize that carpeted floors will absorb some sound from your speakers. DO know that hardwood floors are very susceptible to the vibrations cause by speakers resting on the floor, causing sound anomalies. DON'T use speaker spikes. While they'll help reduce the effects of vibration, they might scratch your wood floors or leave holes in your carpets. DO know that the most important thing is that all speakers (except the subwoofer) have an unobstructed path to listeners' ears. They're fine on the floor, but not behind a couch or chair.   ... View more

There's a new contest running at Hi-Fi, and here's how to enter: * First, you've got to get to this community. Then you have to sign up and become a member ... of course, it's free to sign up.  * Go to the contests link at the top of the page and upload a picture of your home theater. * We'll select our favorite, by category. * Who wins?  We'll let the community decide by voting with their kudos feet. * Content window: Last week through January 10,m November 6, 2009! Grand Prize: Each category winner will receive a Berkline 090 power recline home theater seats, with Buttkickers!                     There are also other prizes for honorable mentions. Have fun and we can't wait to see what you have to show us! ... View more

    A strikingly good looking home theatre system with wonderful black spherical speakers is what Orb Audio's Home Theatre system seems in first glance. The black handsome looking speakers on a stand appear as an embellishment in the living room. In first impression one would mistake them to be Bluetooth Speakers but this Orb speaker system consists of Satellite speakers that resemble base balls of size a little more than 4 inches.   Speakers are carved out of tenacious carbon steel and tinted with dark black mattef color that makes them magnetically stylish. Assuring high quality sound and excellent bass effect, these speakers prove their mettle as a charismatic sound system. All wired connections are possible through connectors behind the speakers. It offers a 30 day trial period in online purchase. What more can one asks for? You can't go wrong by just trying them out... ... View more

    If you’re in the market for a new surround receiver you’ll no doubt find a bevy of new bells and whistles awaiting you, especially if it's been a few years since your last upgrade. Aside from things like HDMI switching, iPod docks, satellite radio integration and automatic calibration there are new speaker configurations and volume balancing technologies available.   Starting off with Dolby, as any discussion of surround sound should we have Dolby Pro Logic IIz, which builds on the venerable Pro Logic IIx by adding two “front height” channels. The additional front channels are intended to give a more realistic sense of height in the sound stage. For example rain would sound as if it was falling from high to low as opposed to just reverberating in a horizontal plane.   Moving on to THX’s Loudness Plus we get into the volume balancing part of the equation.  Loudness Plus is designed to make reference level (0 db) a little more practical in real-world listening environments. Or to quote THX directly: “THX Loudness Plus automatically adjusts the front-to-back speaker level relationship as you turn the volume level down”. In that same vein Audyssey’s new “Dynamic Volume” and “Dynamic EQ” are designed to make sure subtle details aren’t missed at low volume levels.   That was super quick gloss-over version of these new features and formats and if you’re in the market for a new AVR definitely research each of these features in more detail as they offer the potential for significant sound improvement over previous generation AVR’s. ... View more

You'd think that setting up a pair of loudspeakers would be a piece of cake: Stick 'em where they look good, and be done with it. It can be as simple as that, but to get the best sound from your speakers, you'll have to do a bit more work. Because speakers interact with the room in which they are placed—you know, sounds bounce off of walls and floors and get sucked up by furniture and stuff—paying attention to the placement of your speakers within that room can make a big difference in sound quality. With your speakers optimally positioned, your system will sound better. And, in my experience, better sound leads to discovering more music.   And more music leads to more fun...   So, where should we begin? John Atkinson has made speaker setup a bit easier with his essay, "Getting the Best from Your Loudspeakers." JA takes the time to go over some of the basics—things even the most experienced audiophiles should keep in mind—and he does it in a way that makes setup interesting and fun. (Not insignificant!) To follow along, you'll need JA's Editor's Choice Sampler & Test CD, a suite of signals that'll guide you on your way. And in addition to JA's essay, you'll find several other articles related to loudspeakers and speaker placement, so you can learn even more. ... View more

I have one of those home theater in a box setups. I installed it myself and everything was working fine at first, but now I'm having problems with both audio and video.   Are there some simple things I can try before I pack it up and send it back? It's still under warranty. ... View more