5.1 Home Theater System for Your Home

A home theater, media room, or a family room suited for entertainment gives you a wide range of products to choose from. I should know!! After getting my first home theater setup, it took six years to decide on what I wanted next!

It has been a fun adventure and I enjoy my current setup. I’m looking forward to eventually getting new toys when the time comes. For now, I just want to share a few ideas as you work on your very own 5.1 home theater system. Your 5.1 home theater system can be as expensive or as inexpensive as your dreams and budget can handle. I’m not even talking about your connections (speaker wire, audio/video cables, HDMI, etc) as they can be expensive on their own. Don’t fret; I will talk about them in my next post.

Two ways to get you started in your 5.1 home theater system. One, the home theater package in box, and two, the component purchase where you purchase a brand of speakers for your fronts, center, and surrounds (usually the same), a subwoofer (can be the same depending on your tastes), and a receiver. The home theater package in a box will contain five speakers, a subwoofer, and a combo audio/video receiver /DVD like the Sony BRAVIA Theater System (DAVHDX576WF)
or a standalone audio/video receiver like the Sony HT-SS2300 Component Home Theater System.
The speakers will come in various sizes from small cubes to floorstanding. When I started with my home theater package, it helped me become a better consumer. I was able to avoid the traps of “you have to have this or that.” I knew the sound, style, price point I was looking to move to and how to translate the technical specs.

The other way is to start by purchasing the fronts, center, surrounds, subwoofer, and a receiver. Identify your budget and visualize how the look and feel of the room will change once you have located the best shopping deals and made your purchase. Your look and feel will range from small cubes, bookshelf, towers, in-wall, slim design, removable grilles, and ceiling speakers for everything. Yes, there are even in-wall subwoofers. Did you expect the large number of choices? WOW!

For your receiver, go for something that will be 5 or 7 channels. Though most material is not “coded” for 7.1, you can utilize a 7.1 receiver for 5.1 home theater and use the other two channels for stereo in another room or an advanced concept of bi-amping. Minimum of 85 watts per channel and it would be nice to see all channels driven. 100W per channel will be great. Ensure you have enough inputs for what you will need. A minimum of 3 HDMI, 2 components, 3 composite, 3 s-video, upconvert and upscale to HDMI, 3 optical, and 3 coaxial digital. The Sony
STRDG920 7.1-Channel Audio/Video Receiver and Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1-Channel A/V Surround Home
Theater Receiver are two good receivers for anyone starting out. Once you are set up, I hope you will add these movies to your shopping list:

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Blu-ray or DVD)
• Star Trek (DVD)
• Terminator: Salvation (Blu-ray or DVD)
• G.I. Joe (Blu-ray or DVD)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Blu-ray or DVD)

I am looking forward to the explosions that will fill my home!!

If you get out to a big box to listen to speakers, keep in mind some the best shopping deals have been found at Amazon. To further assist your quest to find hot deals online, I recommend My Shopping Genie. I have My Shopping Genie installed on my PC and last week I saved $35 dollars on an 11 DVD purchase with free shipping too.

Happy shopping and enjoy your 5.1 home theater!!

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