5.1 For Small To Medium Room Size

Before deciding to buy home theater system, you will be faced with which one to choose between 5.1 and 7.1 multichannel receiver.

It is relatively crucial decision for your own satisfaction, but really, it is not the only one.

Many people out there found that almost every ads recommends 7.1 multi channel rather than 5.1.  That kind of advertising built an image that 7.1 is much better in every way than 5.1 multichannel home theater system.

The question is, is it really true? Will it be the most suitable one for your needs?

Before moving on to the topic, lets first learn about the meaning of each digit on multichannel home theater receiver. Simply put, practically the first digit represents the amount of speaker, while the second digit represents the amount of subwoofer. so in other words, 5.1 multichannel receiver consists of 5 channel of speakers and 1 subwoofer. The same thing goes with 7.1 that means 7 channel speakers with 1 subwoofer.

5.1 multi channel receiver is the minimum requirement for surround sound needs. There are five channel speakers with 1 subwoofer channel: front left and right channels that is used to deliver the majority of the audio content, the main dialog is delivered by the center ones, lastly, the surround sound effect is delivered by the left and right surround sound speakers.

For budgetly limited person, 5.1 multichannel is the best choice. With this 5.1, the lowest price is very possible for surround sound home theater. One of the best and recommended product for limited budget is Onkyo HTS3300. You can find more about Onkyo HT-S3300 review from a well known and reputable retailer such as Amazon.

Aside from budget consideration, you have to consider your room size. For small room size you might want to consider the 5.1 multichannel receiver better. Using 5.1 receiver in big room won’t give maximum result for surround sound effect, so does using more than 5.1 receiver in small room won’t have much effect neither.

But the limitation above is not always right. 5.1 multichannel receiver can still finely perform in a bigger room size. But you should consider about its output power or also known as watt per channel of your audio video receiver. The consideration of how much watt per channel required is really relative. For simplicity, try to increase the output power from 30 to 50 percent increase over RMS power in amplifier power. In other words, if your speakers output capacity are 100 Watt, then your amplifier has to have output capacity up to 150 Watt.

And the conclusion is, a 5.1 home theater receiver is minimum requirement for a joyful surround sound effect and it is suitable mostly for small or average size home theater room.