Buying a costly stereo system is not always necessary to get excellent quality stereo listening experience. Even a mid-ranged stereo system can blow your mind off if properly placed and operated. It happens many times that a high-ranged audio system does not give satisfactory performance due to poor design or acoustics (listening environment) of the room or some other factors. So, if you are facing the same problem, you just need to make a few modifications in the interior decor or design of the room or adjust the location of the stereo system to excel the performance of the same. Thus it is very important that apart from buying a stereo system of a reputed brand, you also care about your home acoustics and some other essential factors as stated below.
Choose a room with excellent acoustics
Big spacious rooms are totally inappropriate for a 7.1 channel audio system as the sound produced by it will be echoed too much giving it a blurry effect. Thus, small or medium sized rooms should be chosen to place your stereo system to make it sound best. Try to choose the rooms having non-parallel walls as this will help the sound waves to play around well, thus avoiding echoing as in parallel-walled rooms.
Place your speakers in a proper position
Choose the positions of your speakers according to their size and the nature of sound reproduced by them. The tweeters (the smallest speakers) should be placed in the front, the tower speakers in the middle and finally the woofer or sub-woofer (the bigger ones giving the bass output) in the last place. Try placing your speakers (the tweeters and tower speakers) at a height of about 4-5 feet from the ground level to enhance the quality of listening. This is because the height given above is that of an average human ear from the ground. Thus it is quite obvious that placing your speakers in a height (not the woofers) will better your listening experience.
Place your woofer as close to the ground as possible
This speaker delivers the main bass output and performs best near the ground. You can also hide it under your bed or sofa for good results.
Buy a quality sound receiver
Do sufficient research on the internet before you go to buy one. A technically trained salesperson can also help you in this matter. Go for the receivers having high output power. You should choose a receiver having multiple music playback systems assimilated together such as the DVD player, FM Radio, USB connect player, internet radio, etc. This will increase the flexibility of music playback on the stereo system.
Go for good quality wires for interconnections between the speakers
Low quality wires having high resistance increases the ambient load on your system, thus consuming more power and affecting the net performance of the speakers. Use good quality copper wires of maximum 1.5 square mm. gauge for connecting your speakers. Of course this wonât be an issue in case of wireless models.
Properly place the furniture in your room
Abruptly positioned furniture may cause in blurry sound effects and excessive echoing. For example, place your sofa in the middle of the room instead of keeping it against a wall to avoid the echo effect. Placing it in the middle of the room will intersect the path of the sound waves and disperse them throughout the room giving you a pleasant listening experience.
Maintain optimum distance between two consecutive speakers
Keep them about 5-8 feet apart from each other in order to avoid mutual interception and cancellation of their sound outputs.
Make arrangements to absorb sound reflections
Rooms having a fine wall finish or a shiny polished floor, produce considerable echoes due to reflections of the sound waves, which can bitter your love to listen good music. Take every possible step to dampen such sound reflections. Rooms having rough walls, matted floor, and thick curtain covered windows, etc. are exactly suitable for placing your stereo system.
Adjust the sound/equalizer setting of the main audio receiver
After you have set up the entire system with the speakers, go for the final adjustment part. Play a music you are familiar to and start adjusting the equalizer in the main receiver. Some receivers have analog control panel while the others provide digital on-screen control. The frequency gradually increases as you go towards the right. The lowest frequencies decide the bass output while the higher ones decide the treble output. Adjust the settings according to the comfort of your ears and enjoy the music.
