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Digital Home DIY: Step-by-step guides that make home tech projects easy
Calibrate your speakers
You have your home-theater speakers hooked up--but that's just the beginning. You'll need to customize your speaker levels to match the acoustics of your room. A simple calibration session can give you a better-sounding home theater in less than 15 minutes.
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1
Optimize your system's sound
Every room is different. Leaving your home-theater system set at its default levels means you're not getting the best sound quality possible from your setup. The calibration process takes just a few minutes, but it will elevate your system to its true sonic potential.2
Hear all five channels
Surround sound isn't a misnomer. A properly calibrated system will let you hear the heavy-caliber weapons, X-wing fighters, orc armies, and caped heroes from every corner of the room. Without it, you may be getting only warmed-over stereo.3
Out of phase means out of luck
Yes, those red and black terminals on your speaker binding posts are color-coded for a reason. You can still hear the soundtrack if you mismatch them (positive to negative and vice versa), but the surround effect will be completely fouled up--the aural equivalent of putting your pants on backward.
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