Humble pieces of advice regarding building a proper home cinema.

If more people had the chance to enjoy a good movie at a decent home cinema, I bet that more people would consider getting one. Unfortunately, I know many shameless people that are happy to watch a glorious movie at a very low picture quality and listen to it through the TV’s built in speakers. They just want to see the movie as soon as it is released, but for me they don’t actually watch a movie, they burn a movie. Sometimes when I am kindly invited at their houses, I silently beg not to see a good movie under these circumstances. It will be just a nice plain spoiler.

And it doesn’t have to be an action block buster movie. Even a Woody Allen film deserves to be enjoyed at a home cinema; 30% of his movie's essence lies in the music soundtrack.

So, if you really like watching movies at home, do yourself a favor and get a proper home cinema. It doesn’t have to be an expensive one, even a decent soundbar can give you pleasure.



Do yourself a favor, get a home cinema.

I consider building a home cinema a simpler task than building a proper stereo system for music reproduction. Home cinema can be based at impressive sound and impressive sound is easy to be achieved, especially with today’s DSPs (Digital Signal Processing). A small AV (Audio Video) amp, 5 small speakers and a big active (meaning with a built in amplifier) subwoofer will do the job. When you watch a movie you use both your sight and hearing senses, so you are not a very strict "judge" like when you are focusing solely to one sense. You can see a comparison between the tasks of a stereo and a home cinema system at this older post.

So, let’s see some suggestions in order to build and adjust a proper home cinema.

You can start by connecting your media player analog outputs at your stereo.

If you have a stereo at the room where you watch movies, you can simply place your TV in the middle between your stereo speakers and connect the analogue outputs of your media player or your TV to your stereo amp and feed it with the 2ch stereo soundtrack of the movie. Even though this is not considered a home cinema, it is a major no cost upgrade from listening to a movie with your TV’s speakers. Hint: Back in the late 80’s when the home cinema thing had just begun, I had connected two surround speakers to my stereo amp the way you see at the picture below.


In addition to your front speakers, connect to the same stereo amp two surround speakers as shown above and you will get a surround sound.

This way I was passively extracting the surround channel of Dolby Pro Logic without a decoder. Yes, this thing works and no, it will not harm your amp.

You can get a soundbar.

A soundbar is a simple solution that will not require filling your room with speakers and cables. It is a plug-and-play solution that can potentially give impressive results. There are soundbars that come together with a separate subwoofer, please prefer them.



A soundbar provides a better sound with no fuss.

The secret of getting a good sound from a soundbar is in the placement and in the type of room you have. Most of the soundbars will try to give you a surround effect that is based on room reflections. If a soundbar is placed at the horizontal center of a wall in a symmetrical rectangle room, it can make you swear that there are surround speakers in the room.


Since the soundbar uses your walls in order to create the surround effect, it will benefit from a symmetrical placement in a rectangle room.

For less than perfect placement and room shapes that are not rectangle, there are soundbars that come with two wireless surround speakers; this setup will work nicely at most types of rooms.


A Sonos set of a soundbar, a wireless sub and two wireless surround speakers.

Last but not least, for rooms that an absolute minimum disturbance is a must, there are soundbars with detachable battery powered wireless surround speakers, so you can forget about power supply cables for the rear speakers.

JBL offers a nice solution that is absolutely free of wires regarding the surround speakers.

You can get an all-in-one home cinema system.

I used to snob them, but I have listened to some of them playing wonderfully. They are small and they can also be damn pretty. But keep in mind that most probably you will have to use cables. Cables are good, they are reliable and offer better performance than wireless but they have to pass from one point to another…

The real thing: Home Cinema Audio Video amp + separate speakers.

Toys for the boys: take a look inside a dedicated home cinema amp.

I call it the real thing because it allows you to “play” more with the system, to add & upgrade components in the future and to choose the exact amp and the exact speakers that you like.

Even though I avoid making suggestions regarding specific brands, I have a strong personal opinion for the home cinema amp: Yamaha. This is a performance based suggestion, meaning that I consider that Yamaha offers the best actual sound performance. There are other brands that offer fancy functions and better looking auto calibration systems, however they just won’t sound the same. But enough about that, you can go whatever way you like for your very own reasons.

You can build an economic home cinema by getting a small AV amp, small speakers and a powerful active subwoofer. You declare to the amp all the speakers as small, meaning that all the low end from all the channels will be taken care by the sub. That is why you can get away with a small amp and small speakers – none of them will have to worry about the demanding and power hungry low frequencies. By the way, you can start without a center speaker if funds are limited. But please do use a powerful subwoofer; low end is very important in home cinema. Even if your front speakers are big, keep in mind that the nature of the low end in movies is totally different from the bass in music. Let an appropriate sub do the job. As usual, a proper sub for movies will cost less than a proper sub for music – plus proper subs for music are rare. You see, music demands control when movies demand volume in bass and volume is cheaper to have than control. Plus you have an AV amp with some DSP aids helping you setting the whole thing up. If you want, you can read more about subs at the end of this post.

Of course, having big speakers and a bigger amp will be better but not everybody wants to spend the money or have a room or a wife that can harmonically host 5 big speakers. But if you are lucky and can go this way, my advice is that good speakers are a better investment; the AV amp can easily become obsolete as new formats and new generations of DSPs chips arrive. So, spend the extra more at the speakers, not the AV amp. If you want, invest also at a good power amp that will provide the power for the front main speakers.

Adding power amps to your home cinema can only mean good.

This way you have invested at the solid foundations of a good power amp and speakers that you can keep for a long long time. Your AV amp can be a small economic model that you can easily upgrade any time you want. Just make sure that the AV you choose offers line out for the front channels; we need to drive the power amp with these outputs.

Now, as you have noted I talk about 5.1 setup. As you probably now you can go 7.1 or 8.1 or even 9.1 – meaning you can install 9 speakers and one subwoofer. But to be honest, if your living room is not a football stadium, 5.1 is enough. The only reason to go 7.1 is only because you can; you can install it and you can afford it.

I would prefer to go 5.2, meaning having two identical subwoofers. This way, each sub will have to reproduce half of the demanding low end energy, behaving much better. Placing the subs at different points can help you deal with static waves – but room acoustics is another subject so let’s just say that two identical subs sound better than one. Also, prefer an AV amp with two independent sub line outs so you can adjust each subwoofer independently. Or go 5.2.2, meaning having two Dolby Atmos ceiling speakers and two subwoofers. But when I hear about how nice a rear center speaker is, I start laughing while I am walking away from such a pointless conversation.

A little hint about Dolby Atmos (the new format with height speakers placed at the ceiling above the listening position or special front / rear speakers that also fire sound to the ceiling). My first home cinema was with Dolby Pro Logic which included a dedicated power amp and proper large speakers for the surround channels. I had placed the surround speakers high (around 2.2 m above floor) looking a bit downwards at the listening position. First thing was that I had base coming from the surround speakers – if you remember, at the Dolby Pro Logic era everybody was saying that the surround channel did not included any low end info. Second thing is that I remember that I had a Dolby Atmos like experience, helicopters and jets were certainly flying above my head. So if you can, just place your surround speakers high enough and give them a downwards looking angle, you will have a 50% or more Dolby Atmos experience without paying for it. Just let me say that Dolby Atmos is not only about a kind of "height surround", it is also about object based surround but this is another story.

Almost all of today’s home cinema amplifiers have an auto calibration mic. It is a good point to start your sound calibration, it often provides excellent results. However, don’t be afraid to trust your ears and also make manual adjustments. My personal preference is to make an auto calibration, then bypass all the EQ DSPs and make all necessary adjustments by ear. I don’t like additional sound programs and I prefer sticking to the original Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack. I also have loved the “Pure Direct” option at my Yamaha; it does make a difference in sound by making the signal path as straight as possible, minimizing unnecessary DSPs and shutting down the circuits that are not needed.



Don't be afraid to perform a manual calibration to your sound.

Let me come back to digital EQ correction: it is not to my taste. I can hear it degrading the sound, most probably because in my case it creates more problems than what is solves. If due to nasty room acoustics you have to use it, I would suggest limiting yourself to the LFE channel and by only bringing down peaks and not bringing up dips at the frequencies you have suck outs. That is, if for example at X Hz you have a +Y dB peak you can apply a -Y dB correction but if at X Hz you have a -Y dB dip, don't apply a +Y dB correction. Just deal with the peaks and let the dips out of correction that would overdrive your amp and speakers.

Sensible speaker placement helps a lot. By sensible, I mean basic things like that the center speaker is indeed at the center. Again, room acoustics is another subject so I will limit myself by saying stick to the plan below as much as you can and then let DSPs take care of the mess - if any.

A typical 5.1 sensible speaker placement.

Still, a good home cinema will not play music like a dedicated stereo system will. Have you ever tried listening to your vinyl through a home cinema amp? So, time to meet the ultimate solution:

A system that will be equally capable for music and for movies.

Well, actually this is a system in a system, meaning that the best way to do this is to add a home cinema at an already good 2 channel stereo Hi-Fi system. For this setup, please read the last paragraph of this post.

The most useful accessory for a home cinema.

Or should I rather say a necessary accessory? Soon you will find out that in order to watch a movie you will have to: turn on the AV amp, turn on the media player, choose the correct input at the AV amp, turn on the TV, select the correct HDMI input at the TV etc.



Universal remote controls can make your life much easier after you learn to program them.

I got fed up and I explored the wonderful world of universal remotes with macro programming. Now you just press one button and voilà! You can just start watching your movie.

What about the picture?

Ok so we got a great sound – what about the picture? Well, this should be another post, but let’s say a few things.

Size does matter, so if you can get also an 1080p (or even 4K) home cinema projector. I say also because you also need a TV, even an entry level one, for everyday use. BTW make sure your AV amp offers double HDMI output and can handle the video signals that you feed him (for example, can handle 4K HDR signal), so you can connect both the TV and the projector. Believe me, you don’t want to start (trying) using an HDMI splitter / switch. Your life is most probably already complicated enough.

If you go for a projector, have it permanently installed in a way that harmonically integrates to the room and can be used at a touch of a button. Otherwise, you will get tired moving things around each time you want to see a movie and you will end up hating your projector. It is better to get a more economical projector installed correctly by a good installer than getting an expensive one that is not permanently installed.

Again, if you go for a projector you will soon realize that the market has two technologies: LCD and DLP. Performance wise, both technologies can provide amazing picture quality. Go choose a projector, not the technology. I just consider DLP more reliable over time and this is limited for the picture engine, not the projector chassis. However, I have to point out that if you have astigmatism wear your glasses and have a look at a DLP projector in order to find out if you see any artifacts called “rainbow effect”.

For goodness sake, don’t buy a projector that is intended for business use, stick to a genuine home cinema projector!

If you go for a projector you might need also to get a projector screen. I say you might because a good flat white wall can also be a good start. Projector screens are also a separate subject on their own and I urge you to make your own research. I will just make a few suggestions:

• Get an electric one. It is not because of the prestige (oh, you integrated the screen down command at your universal remote control, how sexy!) it is because a manual screens will soon become stretched and will look like your grandpa’s old underwear that is hanging at the laundry rope.
• Get a big screen, don’t be afraid. I am not pushing you to overdo it, I am warning you that people at the beginning tend to choose a screen smaller than what they should and could choose.
• Get a screen with a gain no more than 1.1. Screen gain represents how reflective a screen is. The higher the number, the brighter the picture will appear. But you don’t want a picture that is too bright at a home cinema, you want whites to appear like whites with full details and not as burned whites. You also need deep black and a high gain screen won’t help. Last but not least, high gain screens are directional like an LCD monitor, meaning that in the front you see a bright picture but as you move sideways picture becomes much darker limiting the viewing angle.

Last idea regarding a projector: To be honest, if you have the funds, there is no reason not to go for a projector except from installation issues. Installing a projector at the ceiling of a finished living room can be tricky and fuzzy. However, there is a solution that minimizes the installation fuzz: a short throw home cinema projector (that is, a projector that creates a big size picture from a small projection distance) that can be placed on a furniture, close to where your picture is projected. Short throw projectors have some limitations on their performance mainly due to their complicated lens, meaning that if you can hang a normal projector on your ceiling, you don’t prefer a short throw projector. But still, they can look good and help you getting the full home cinema experience. Just need to note that they are very “sensitive” to the screen they project; the screen surface has to be perfectly flat, even a slight curve will make projected flat lines appearing curved.

A home cinema short throw example from LG.

 If you still have to be limited on a TV, you have my sympathies. Again, size does matter. Don’t be afraid, get a big one! Regarding technologies, for movies I strongly suggest you to go the OLED way – be aware, OLED is totally different than LED (LED = LCD with LED backlit) or QLED (again, LCD panel with quantum dot LED backlit - Samsung is amazing at inventing new impressive names for "new" old stuff). Don’t go with the flow, they are wrong and always preferred the impressive & artificial type of picture. Just remember that the flow made the best TVs in the world eventually to disappear - time for a Pioneer Kuro and Panasonic ZT tribute. If you still want to go for LED (LCD) just don't invest much. For the shake of the argument, I need to say that LCD TVs have more brightens (but still, we need a TV with a natural looking picture and not a lamp) and are better for long periods of usage where picture performance doesn't matter.

Last but not least; cables. Regarding analogue cables you can read my opinion inside this post. Regarding the HDMI cables, let me tell you a story. When I was designing my own home cinema, I chose a rather expensive high speed double shielded flat HDMI cable from a well known brand. After all, cable had to travel to my projector through some pipes and it was 12m long. I didn’t want to degrade the picture quality! At one point latter I got a 3D full HD projector to review. I needed another very long cable to connect to this projector so I remember that I also had an old 12m long no name HDMI cable that had cost me just 20 Euros. Remember, it had to deal with Full HD 3D picture signal. Did it work properly? Unfortunately yes, it did. I am not saying that bad cables do not exist; I have seen cables locking at 720p and refusing to lock at 1080p. All I am saying is that a proper HDMI cable does not have to cost a fortune. Also, the HDMI sources have become better and stronger over time, meaning that they are no longer greatly affected by the cable.

Happy listening and watching!

Chris