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The process of setting up multi-channel audio speakers in home theater systems is fairly tedious and manufacturers have invented new products and technologies such as wireless surround sound speakers or surround sound wireless headphones recently to help simplify the installation. I am going to look at some of the most recent technologies which were developed to make setting up home theater systems a snap. I will point out what to look out for when making your buying decision.

While in the past setting up a TV has been quite easy, the emergence of multi-channel audio has made setting up home theater systems much more difficult by requiring a number of external speakers to create surround sound. While the traditional 5.1 format requires 6 speakers: a front center, two front side speakers, two rear speaker and a subwoofer, the more recent 7.1 format add two additional side speakers.

Thus setting up a home theater has become quite difficult and long speaker wire runs are often undesirable for aesthetic reasons. Several technologies have emerged to simplify this process.

The first approach is creating so-called virtual speakers by applying signal-processing to the audio and introducing phase shifts and special cues to those audio components that would normally be broadcast by the remote speakers. Since the signal processing is based on how the human hearing detects the origin of sound, the audio components which underwent signal processing can be mixed with the front speaker components and broadcast by the front speakers. The viewer is in effect tricked into believing the audio is originating from a location other than the front speakers.

The advantage of this technology is that only a few speakers are required and no long speaker cable has to be run throughout the viewing environment. The drawback though is that each human will process sound differently due to the different shape of each human ear. The signal processing of these virtual surround systems is based on a standard model which was measured with a standard ear. However, virtual surround will not work equally well for every person.

Wireless surround sound products are another method for simplifying home speaker setups and usually come with a transmitter component that connects to the source as well as wireless amplifiers that will connect to the remote speakers. The transmitter will often have amplified speaker inputs as well as line-level inputs and have a volume control to adjust it to the source audio level.

While some wireless speaker kits come with a wireless amplifier that connects to two speakers, other products offer individual wireless amplifiers for each speaker. The most basic wireless systems use FM transmission. FM transmission is prone to noise and audio distortion. More advanced systems employ digital audio transmission to perfectly preserve the original audio. To make sure that all speakers are in sync in a multi-channel application, make sure that you pick a wireless system which has an audio latency of a few milliseconds at most. A high latency would lead to an echo effect. This effect would degrade the surround effect. Wireless kits often use the 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz frequency band. Some products also use the 5.8 GHz band. These products have less competition from other wireless devices than products using the crowded 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz bands.

Another method, which is often called sound bars uses side-reflecting speakers. The audio that would normally be broadcast by the remote speakers in instead sent by speakers at the front. These front speakers send the audio at an angle. Then the audio is reflected by the side and rear walls and appear to be originating from besides or behind the viewer. The effect largely depends on the shape of the room and interior design and not work well in many real-world scenarios due to different room shapes and obstacles in the room.

You can get additional information about audio transmitter products from Amphony’s website.

Set your music free with a new digital audio player, or MP3 player, as they are commonly known. With an MP3 player it is easy to shuffle your songs in any order and you can hold your entire music collection the palm of your hand. But where is your music actually stored?

It was common in the past, for MP3 players to use an internal mini hard drive to for data storage. Having a mini hard drive means the MP3 player has lots room to hold music files. The Apple iPod Classic MP3 player has up to 160GB storage and Archos also has players with similar capacity. One of the drawbacks though, of using mini hard drives in MP3 players, is that they make the players more bulky and heavier. They also demand more power to run, so potentially decrease the battery run time.

More recently MP3 player manufactures have started using flash memory to replace mini hard drives. There are now very few MP3 players that use hard drives. Instead they have an inbuilt flash memory chip and often have a slot to hold a second flash memory card, thereby increasing the player’s memory.

Flash memory players have several advantages, they can be much smaller and lighter. Flash memory uses much less power than a hard drive, so batteries last longer. The player can also access your files more quickly from flash memory than from a hard drive.

While flash memory is popular, there are some drawbacks. Flash memory has much more limited storage, usually between 8GB to 16GB, when compared to hard drive, especially when compared to the 160GB models from Apple and Archos. It can also be expensive to purchase additional memory cards to add to the player.

There’s more to an MP3 player than just music. Almost all MP3 players now come with a color display in a range of different sizes. The smallest are usually 1.8 inch and they can be as big as 4.3 inch or 5 inch. This has transformed MP3 players into videos players too. While watching full length movies on 1.8 inch screen may not be practical, it’s still fun to watch short video clips or music videos. The larger screen MP3 players can come with 16:9 ratio screen, and it’s a perfect way to watch movie.

Learn more about MP4 players. Stop by David Morris’s site where you can find out all about anMP4 player and what it can do for you.

If you are looking for front home theater speakers than I am guessing you want to buy separate speakers instead of satellite speakers. Satellite speakers come in packs of 3 to 8. This might be a better option for some then just buying the front home theater speakers. Why? Because you would be able to be sure that all of your speakers would work together as they should.

A couple of things should be considered when you are looking for the right speakers. We are going to take a look at those and then you will be able to make an informed decision.

#1 is the warranty

A very important factor that you want to look at is the warranty that the manufacturer offers. This warranty can ( in my own opinion ) show you a lot about the quality of the speaker system or speaker.

You will need to look at each speaker’s warranty individually because there are many different warranty ranges. The warranty ranges on the speakers are vary but the most common length is 3 months. I would throw out anything that offers less than 3 months.

#2 Placement and Fit

Another factor in your next speaker purchase would be the placement and fit of the speakers. Even if you have the best sounding speakers you can not enjoy them if they do not fit in your entertainment center or if they can’t go where you wanted them to be placed.

Sometimes when we get excited about our purchase we don’t think about this factor but you need to remember this one. When you buy online the website that you purchase from usually has the dimensions of the speakers and you can check them easily there.

Now that you know a couple of things that will help in your next speakers purchase,make sure that you read through some reviews on whatever speaker or speakers system in which you are interested. Get the best advice on buying.

Looking to find the best deal on front home theater speakers, then visit www.cheapspeakersreview.com to find the best advice on cheap speakers for you.