Home theater system question?

Question

i see all different kinds of home theater system...one thing i dont get is what does channel mean....for example some systems are 2.1 channels or some are 5.1 channels....what are channels?

Answer 1

Channels are how many speakers you need for the audio amplifier. Few years ago you just had 2 speakers with left and right audio. Now days the audio usually has 6 speakers. Left and right front, center channel in front for people talking, left and right rear for sound coming from behind the viewing audience, and the sub woofer for heavy bass sound (and explosions). The sub can usually be placed anywhere in the room.

Answer 2

The 2 in 2.1 stands for Left and Right as in there is a left channel that will have sound coming out of it and a right channel that will have sound coming out of it. The .1 stands for a subwoofer, it's optional. The 5 in 5.1 stands for Left, Center, Right, Rear Right, and Rear Left. All the channels that you'll hear sound out of (the .1 is the same). Of course to hear sound out of all 5 channels, you have to have the speakers hooked up to all 5 channels in the receiver.

Answer 3

movies and some music dvds are recorded so the sounds are split up to designated speakers .On movies for example they soundtrack is recorded to imitate the real world.a car chase would have the sound travel in the room to assimilate real life.on 5.1 sounds are set up to pan across or around a room say in the direction the car is going,on 2.1 you get right/left and sub.5.1 means that sound is desidnated to 5 areas,front center/left front/right front/left rear/right rear/sub 2.1 is divided up left/right/sub.

Answer 4

Your speakers are the first number and your sub woofer is the .1  so if you have five speakers and one sub woofer it is 5.1 six speakers would be 6.1 and seven speakers 7.1

Now come the biggest ?  most movies are not made in more then 5.1 surround sound.  So if you get a 6.1 or a 7.1 your just pulling power from the rears.  

basically your wasting money in my opinion to go with More then 5 speakers.  I have six and the sixth  one i don't even have hooked up.  

when you get your speakers get a movie like cars and use the THX sound feature and it will help you work out any problems in your system.

Answer 5

back in the day 2/channel left and right  that was it  ( now 7/1 ) lft,front rt/frnt, center sides rears and subs