Who Says Best Receiver Says Best Speakers!

You have just invested in a beautiful, brand new home theater receiver? Bravo! But are your speakers up?

Here are some tips to make sure you get the most out of the new brain at your entertainment center.

Which speakers to choose from?

Each brand of speakers has its particular characteristics: how it "projects" the sound forward, in a more or less directional way, how it reproduces the high or low tones, etc. I can not recommend too much to ask for a demonstration in store before making your choice since it is a matter of taste.

Here are some general tips:

If you listen to a lot of music, choose front speakers (ie, left and right channel) in column format rather than small shelf speakers. Bass rendering and rich sound will be much better.

On the other hand, for pure home theater, it is the central channel which is the most important since it is from there that the voices of the actors come. Then make sure your center speaker is at least as powerful as the left and right speakers - preferably even better.

The shelf speakers usually give you a good result for the home theater, especially if your system also includes a right of the subwoofer.

And most importantly, make sure the impedance of your new speakers, measured in ohms, equals the output impedance of your receiver. Having the same impedance measurement at both ends of the connection will allow you to take full advantage of all the power (in watts) of your receiver and speakers; otherwise, you will disable any of your devices and you may get a disappointing sound.

Note that it is sometimes possible to adjust the impedance of its receiver or speakers to get the best possible result. Check in the documentation of your devices.

Check the type of connectors

Most receivers and speakers that are not part of an all-in-one home theater package use dual outlets, with red and black connectors, like what you see right now on your right.

This is not always the case, however. I already owned an entry-level receiver that only offered regular stereo RCA jacks, those that are connected to white and red analog wires. I also had a PC receiver/decoder that was connected to its speakers with a single digital wire similar to the headphones on my iPod. Finally, I also "inherited" a few years ago a fairly high-end all-in-one system that used proprietary connectors - and when one of the loudspeakers failed, I have never been able to replace it since the manufacturer has abandoned this type of connectors there are chandeliers.

In short, check the type of connectors you need, it will help you choose your speakers and, if necessary, audio cables to connect all your devices.

Choosing the right audio cable

If you buy black and red speakers, you may be able to sell them without an audio cable to connect to your receiver. (In fact, I never bought midrange or high-end speakers that came with the cables of my life!)

If this is your case, you will need to buy a roulette cable audio. In most cases, a 16-gauge (16-gauge) cable should do the trick; however, if you plan to install your speakers more than 10 meters away from your receiver, a cable of a better rating could give you better results by preventing the electromagnetic "noise" from disturbing the signal. But beware: when it comes to audio cables, the lower the number, the better the cable! A 12-gauge cable is therefore superior to a 16-gauge cable, and so on.

Connect your speakers to your receiver

There are usually two ways to connect an audio cable to a receiver or a speaker:

You can use banana plugs and insert the bare ends of your cables. The operation is not very difficult and it will make your life easier if you often have to plug and unplug your speakers.

You can also unscrew the black and red plugs on the sockets, insert the stripped ends of your cables in the holes provided for this purpose, and tighten the plugs. You save a few dollars, at the cost of a little less versatility.