I'm a newbie, looking for some advice. I'm buying a new home and it has built in speakers, surround sound, 1 room upstairs and 3 rooms downstairs. Each room as "A Bus" power/ volume controls. I'm assuming that the house is wired in 2 zones. One zone upstairs and one down, I think this because there are 2 connection hubs. plus the surround sound. Anyway I'd like some suggestions on compontents. I'm looking to be able to use surround, down stairs, and upstairs all at the same time but with the potential to listen to different things on each.
Also, I'd like some advice on where I can learn more about home AV stuff.
trekguy
02-12-08, 10:40 AM
Begin by visiting the Dolby Labs site (http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/home.html) to get some background information about the Dolby Surround and home theater equipment.
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/primers/the-primers/ also has good info.
There are different surround sound systems on the market, but Dolby Digital 5.1 is currently the most common on DVDs and HD broadcasting. The naming conventions for surround sound identify the number and type of audio channels. 5.1 for example indicates a left, center and right front channels, left and right side surround channels, and a LFE (low frequency effects) channel. 6.1 and 7.1 setups add one and two back surround channels.
With movie and TV programming most of the information is in the front (especially the center) channels.
To listen to surround sound you need a surround source (DVD, HD broadcast), a device with a Dolby decoder, and amplifiers and speakers for each channel. The typical home theater receiver has the decoders/sound field processors built in and has amplifiers for each channel. The LFE channel is normally fed to a subwoofer with its own amplifier.
If you want to play different source material in different rooms each room will need its own decoders/amplifiers or receiver. Note though that some 7.1 systems can be configured to use the two back channels for a separate "zone". In that case you can have DD 5.1 in the main room and two channel (stereo) in the second zone.
Thanks for the info thats a great starting point. At least I've now determined that I need a 5.1 surruond system.