The term Home Cinema covers a wide range of products today with anything from a Soundbar marketed as delivering, “The Cinema Experience”.  The last time I was at the cinema ( to see the Avengers film ) the experience was a far cry from the BlueSound soundbar I have under my TV to enhance the sound.  For living room or family den systems a good quality speaker set up with a large television will more than entertain you.  I offer a huge array of products to perfect surround sound in a family space and make the most or your movies, games, TV viewing and music. If you are looking to renovate your living room or upgrade a current system and would like to chat through the best product for you please do get in touch.

If you are searching for the cinema experience at home then there are a few essential building blocks to ensure every movie enthrals you. A dedicated space is a must, watching a film in a cinema is free from distractions so a room where you can spend a couple of hours uninterrupted is what to aim for. If you have the dedicated room the next thing to look at is a flat wall for the projector and screen to work on. I recommend a fixed screen rather than a pull down or electric screen – if the room is a cinema then you would expect to see a screen on the wall. The bigger the screen the better as well – rarely have I seen a screen that is too large for a room – it is normally poor seating positions that upset the experience.

With a large screen we can hide the loudspeakers behind the screen to maximise the size of the projected image and again keep the room free from distractions.  It is not a given that you cannot use hi-fi speakers in a cinema but that normally crosses over into a multi-purpose room. Hi-Fi speakers can perform in Home Cinema but a lot of the time a you are investing in a nice cabinet that you won’t see and bass performance you won’t use. A high quality in-wall speaker sitting behind a screen at the correct height will deliver the volume and accuracy required for movie playback at your seating position and can be significantly easier on the wallet.  Bass is the next thing and a pair of subwoofers that can dig deep and play quickly and accurately will cement the sound in the room. Room size will dictate the size of speaker and the size of subwoofer but I recommend investing a good slice of the budget on the bass performance, 12” drive units will as a general rule be a good starting point for the subs at the front of the room. I have had lots of customers contact me as they are not impressed with their cinema sound and it is very often a slow, fuzzy and indistinct sound with no impact as a result of weak bass performance. It doesn’t help that manufacturers are not held to account on the specifications they publish for performance, claiming a sub reaches 25hz doesn’t mean much in the real world if it is captured at -10db.

Speakers are next on the list and in 2019 the current popular surround sound formats you will find on your movie will use eleven speakers. You can deliver a good cinema sound with five speakers ( three at the front and two towards the rear ) but adding another two to this low height sound field and including four speakers in your ceiling will lift the performance in key areas such as immersion and refinement. In the cinemas I have been building over the last few years this is the configuration that most rooms work to. We can increase the number of speakers depending on the room size and the number or rows of seats and there are other configurations to consider but for the sake of simplicity in this article eleven is the number to work to.

To drive the speakers we will need an amplifier and again room size will dictate the power required. The amplifier handles the processing of the sound from the movie and the video signal as well. In larger or higher performing cinemas this sound element is normally split into two or more boxes – a processor section and a power section. With the use of active speakers ( the amplifier is within the speaker cabinet ) a processor will be at the centre of the system. The latest designs have fantastic processing power to analyse and adjust the sound output in your room to ensure a more accurate sound at your seat. The video is then also handled in an additional video processor to maximise the image on screen. There is a good selection of amplifiers that house all of these elements in one box but very few of them that can actually deliver on the promise of a cinema sound. A movie soundtrack is often very complex with an original score, dialogue and the crash bang of an action scene all within the mix at the same time. Powerful amplification to control a speaker is essential to maintain order in the sound and the involvement for the audience.

Equipment aside there are a few other areas to consider , a comfortable seat would be my suggestion. Two hours for the average movie is not long but if you are uncomfortable and constantly adjusting your position you are unlikely to be engaged in the film. Minimising other distractions and the light within the room will help to focus the attention on the screen. A totally black room is not for everyone and with projectors becoming brighter not essential but a dark colour around the screen and on ceiling really helps.

With everything in place it all comes down to the source you watch, the best image and sound quality currently available for watching a film is on a physical disc or a Kaleidescape Movie player. Using a high quality source component makes the most of your complete system and delivers the full home cinema experience.

If you are considering building a cinema at home or looking to maximise the performance of your current set up please get in touch to discuss what The Sound Counsel can offer you. We have been concentrating on delivering the best performance within budget for small, medium and large cinema rooms for over fifteen years.