Tips and tricks to make your stereo sound amazing!
Do you fancy having a stereo which may have cost you less than $1000, which sounds more like an $100,000 stereo? Of course you do, who doesn’t? In principal it can be done, although it requires a lot of patience and dedication to this task. Patience will save you a lot of money, and the outcome will be truly out of this world.
In general, depending upon how much time you are willing to spend on the process and how much money on the materials. We all have various budgets, although simply by spending less on the equipment doesn’t mean you are compromising on the sound quality. We have come up with the best possible ways to ensure you are the envy of your neighbors with the best stereo on the block. Here are the best ways for you to achieve a high-end audio system without the impressive price tag.
Where to put it:
As many may know, the room the stereos are placed can either makes the speakers sound great, or can make them sound abysmal. The room acoustics are very important when setting up the stereo, as they affect the sound achieved from the speakers. If you have a room with a lot of hard surfaces, like tiles, high ceilings or glass then the sound received from the stereo would be very poor indeed. The sound would reflect creasing a poor bass with distorted highs and midranges. Whereas if you have a softer decorated and furnished room, with carpets, soft furniture and a lower ceiling then the sound created would be a great deal better.
The speakers also need to be placed in the correct place to guarantee a better response with excellent highs and mid-ranges. In general rooms have a tendency to retain standing waves which can amplify bass frequencies dependent upon the width, height and length of the room. From this you will tend to get a heavy sounding bass. To avoid this, you will need to ensure that the speaker placement is done correctly, with will not increate the standing waves. The size and shape of the room will determine the best place to put the speakers to achieve the best possible sounds.
From this you will need to find the best place the listener will achieve the greatest of sounds. The placement of the speakers, and the sound released will create a triangular shape from the speakers to the rest of the room. Your listening position should be in between the speakers and approximately one-and-a-half times as far as the distance between the speakers.
Speaker wires are very important in order to make the best out of your speakers, if you don’t have good speaker wires, then the result will be rather disappointing. In this case premium speaker cables tend to work a great deal better than the cheaper variety of wiring. As many know, you generally get what you pay for in many cases, and this is one of those occasions whereby premium wiring deliver adequate currents to the loudspeaker; in which case do not consider anything less than 12 gauge.
Build a better home stereo system:
For many people a standard receiver and speakers are enough to get them through the day. Whereas others, look for amplifiers and equalizers to truly push the sounds into another world. Amplifiers and equalizers allow people to control and adjust the sound quality, whether you want to hear the booms in your
home theater or simply to hear your favorite music in true sounds. The majority of receivers have a built in amplifier which can reach a high range of decibels, enough to get the neighbors banging on your door; however many feel that such an amplifier just isn’t enough. When searching for an amplifier, you will need to ensure it will be compatible with the receivers, something you will need to research the power requirements of the speakers to know what you need; if you do get an amplifier which is simply too powerful for the speakers, then they can become damaged. Many home audio amps can produce more than 100 watts, which would mean that if you match the 100 watt amp with 75 watt speakers, then you can risk damage to the speaker membranes. Likewise, if you chose an amplifier which gives out 50 watts then your 75 watt speakers will be unpowered, which will mean you will have to crank up the amplifier just to hear a very faint noise.
If you are looking to get yourself a very loud amplifier to match your out of this world
home theater seating, then you would be suggested to look for the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), which measures how much distortion you would expect from the amps. In order to get the best of the best, then you will be looking for a THD rating of 0.01% (or as close to). Once you have decided on this you will need to keep your eyes peeled for the range the amp can produce. Again if you are looking to reach the best sounds possible, then you will be looking for a 20,000 HZ (if you wish to lose your hearing), or perhaps a 15,000 HZ at the most. If you are watching a movie, sat on you
theater seating the range of 200 HZ may be enough to give you the sounds you need.
The last thing you will need to keep in mind is adding a graphic equalizer which can increase and decrease audio signals. The ones to look out for are stand alone which would mean that you will have full control of the audio signals. In general the more bands your equalizer has, then the more control you will have over your home stereo. Having 30 bands means that you can select 30 various frequencies, whereas 20 bands means just 20 frequencies. The better the equalizer you get, then the more it can minimize any problems caused by the amp, although it won’t fix any of the problems.
How to make your home stereo sound amazing:
Now you know the equipment you need to better the sound of your stereo, you now need to know the extras which can put the sounds into another world.
• First you will need to look at the power connections. If you have four connected by a brass jumper. If you do then you will need to remove the jumpers, strip the wire down then thread the wire through the posts on the positive and negative sides (the wires cannot touch). You do this because the wires act as a better conductor than the brass, you will notice a difference immediately.
• Keep your speakers at ear level rather than up high, and kept on something sturdy like cinder blocks (wrap them up in wall paper and they look beautiful as well).
• Set the bass and equalizers to 0, if you turn it up high it doesn’t always make the best sounds.
• Warm you amps up for at least an hour before listening; this will guarantee the best sound because the amps will already be warm.
• Remove grilles and grille clothes from the speakers.
