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Design Guide:
5.1 Home Theater Systems

5.1 home theater systems remain the most conventional setup, even though the presence of 6.1 and 7.1 systems on the market continue to increase. Until the movie publishing houses and manufacturers start producing more of the 6.1 and 7.1 variety of DVD's, then we don't expect the popularity of these systems to wane too much.

Are you looking to purchase a 5.1 home theater system or get one up and running? Curious about what you'll need and how to lay out your surround sound speakers? In this article, we'll provide you with the foundation from which you can begin to build your home theater system.

What exactly is a 5.1 Home Theater System?

Simply put, a 5.1 home theater arrangement consists of five discrete channels of audio plus one additional channel. The additional channel (the ".1) refers to the use of a subwoofer in the system. For the other five channels, your system will consist of one front center speaker, two front surround sounds speakers, and two back surround sound speakers.

What is the speaker layout for a 5.1 home theater system?

While there are differing and dissenting perspectives on the placement of speakers in any system, we recommend the following arrangement illustrated in the graphic below.

First, you'll notice the centering of the subwoofer to the video source as well as in relationship to the rest of the room. While this isn't always practical (could be impacted by the type of furniture you're using to house your media components), it does make the most sense. You want the reverberating bass coming from your subwoofer to channel directly to your listening audience. Preferably, you'll want your front surround speakers in close proximity to your center channel, since these three speakers drive most of dialogue and other sound when watching movies, playing games, etc. We recommend placing the speakers at a height around 2-3 feet above the listening position in your room. Obviously, this isn't always possible with the logistical constraints you're often faced with.

Typically, the back surround sound speakers are placed perpendicular to the listening position that is the farthest from your video source. You can change the angle of these speakers to point in such a way that everyone will benefit equally if you have multiple listening positions. Remember, these speakers deliver most of the ambient sound (i.e, natural sound, sound effects, etc.) from movies and other video programming, so you don't want these speakers to dominate any of the others in the system.

Ideally, you should position any speaker in your home theater room to direct its sound directly to the listening positions. If you have multiple listening positions, you can split the difference by pointing the speakers at the location where the majority of your listeners will benefit.

Lastly, don't forget to calibrate these all speakers in your system! Mix things up as you're tinkering with the sound to determine what works best in all of the listening positions in your home theater room.

5.1 Home Theater System → Design Guide