How do I install surround speakers?

Question

I have a 37 inch LG T.V. and I want to purchase these speakers to complete my living room. But I am not sure what else I need... do I need to buy an installer? I don't havee too much money to spend this is about at my limit.

Here's the link to the speakers if its any help...

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Channel-Theater-Speaker/dp/B0002WTK4S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video&qid=1214195100&sr=1-1

Also are these of decent quality??

Thank you!

Answer 1

Polk Audio is a decent speaker company.  If you're just looking for something to get you into the world of surround sound, I think they'll do fine.

However, you will also need a home theater receiver (also called AV receiver or just AVR)  The AVR serves 3 main purposes:

1: Provides power for your speakers.

2: Provides decoding for surround sound.

3: Provides a centralized switch for your devices (DVD player, game console, satellite box, etc.) - if you want.

The primary purpose of the receiver is to handle audio, so looking at the types and number of audio connections is one of the more important features to look for.  Surround sound requires either an optical audio or digital coax connection.  These are found on DVD players, blu-ray players, video game consoles and HD cable/satellite boxes.  Things like your CD player, iPod, VCR, or older devices only use the stereo red and white RCA cables.

Some receivers can also handle video inputs, but this is just so the AVR acts as a switch, allowing you to easily change from one device to another with a minimal amount of fuss.

Answer 2

Nice choice, Polk is a fine speaker maker, and this is an especially sweet deal. Now, you do know that you don't plug the speakers into your TV, right ? You connect them to the speaker outputs on a home theater receiver, for these, a 5.1 unit at least. If you have one, fine, if not you need one.

Heres a nice one from amazon for about $200: Yamaha RX-V363BL 500 Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver.

With that, or any home theater receiver, you plug (Using RCA plugs and SVHS wires) your input sources (TV, DVD player, VCR, whatever else) into the receiver, and the speakers connect to the speaker out terminals on the receiver using good speaker wire (16 guage). The input sources feed into the receiver, the speakers and TV receive signals through their connections so that they can play what you source, and so on.

Its pretty easy stuff to do, and any electronics store can show you how to do this in about 10 minutes. The URL below is a site with basic installation guide tips. Googling on home theater setup will find you plenty more like that one.

On receivers, Yamaha and Onkyo are among the best brands at this and higher price levels. The Insignia model is rather... low end. The extra $50 bucks will be more than well worth it.

Answer 3

Nice, all you need now is an digital amplifier.  

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...