Have you ever walked out of a movie theater so impressed by the audio experience that
you forgot all about the 30 bucks you just dropped on popcorn and soda and could only
think about how you wish the sound could surround you at home?
So you run down to your local big box store and start looking for home theater equipment
but pretty soon you're thrust into a disorienting vortex of numbers and dots like 7.1 and 5.1.2.
So let's break down what these numbers mean. The first number you see in a surround setup simply refers to the number of channels.
Usually this refers to the number of regular speakers in your system.
So a conventional 5.1 system will typically have 5 speakers.
Front left, center, front right, surround left, and surround right.
Each channel can receive a separate audio signal. So if you're watching a movie that has its audio encoded in 5.1 surround, the source
will likely send dialogue to the center speaker while the other speakers will play audio relative
to the action on the screen for a more realistic and immersive experience.
By contrast, a 2.0 system simply indicates a plain old straight forward stereo setup
with a left and a right channel only while 7.1 indicates two additional rear channels
above a normal 5.1 for greater immersion.
But what does that point 1 mean? The second number indicates a low frequency effects or LFE channel which would be reproduced
with a subwoofer. To see the woofers on a regular speaker typically aren't large enough or powerful enough to
accurately reproduce very low frequency or low end sounds, which is why subwoofers are
so often paired with speaker sets. If you've ever used a subwoofer, you'll know it only reproduces sub bass, so it's
broken out as a separate 0.1 to indicate that it's not a normal speaker.
For an even better experience, you might see 0.2, maybe even 0.4 to indicate that the system
supports two or more subwoofers for extra bass or for a little more spatial accuracy.
You won't always see a third number to describe a surround setup, especially as that convention
is a little newer, but if it is included, this indicates overhead or height channels
such as ceiling mounted or in-ceiling speakers.
Three numbers typically indicate that it's a system that supports an object-based surround
sound protocol like Dolby Atmos or DTS-X, where sounds are recorded as individual objects
in 3D space instead of simple channels, and if that sounds confusing, never fear because
you can learn all about Atmos in this video. Okay, now you know what the numbers mean, but there are a few other points to keep in
mind before you rush out to buy a new home theater setup.
Remember that the numbers represent channels, not speakers, and while each channel does
usually get one physical speaker unit, a major exception is the ever-popular soundbar.
It's quite easy to find 2.1 soundbars that contain two separate sets of drivers for your
left and right channels as well as a built-in subwoofer, so even though 2.1 might make you
think of three separate speakers in the box, that isn't always the case.
Similarly, the third number is present in setups that have no actual overhead speakers.
Instead, there are upward-firing speakers that are either built into soundbars or sit on
top of your existing speakers that bounce sound off your ceiling to simulate sounds
coming from above you, with mixed results.
Another important tip for the best experience is that the source material should be encoded
in a way that matches your speaker's setup.
Although object-based schemes like Atmos can scale to different numbers of speakers, all
the way up to 64, there's lots of content that's specifically encoded for 5.1 or 7.1.
Don't worry if the encoding doesn't match your setup exactly because, for example, modern
receivers can easily down-mix the 7.1 signal to work on just two surround speakers if you
have a 5.1 setup, or up-mixing a 5.1 signal to a 7.1 home theater can also be done with
software trickery like Dolby ProLogic 2X, which is found on most modern receivers and
can analyze the audio signal to figure out what sound should be coming out of what speaker
and when. You could forget all of this stuff and just use the speakers built into your TV.
I mean, they, they at least function, right?
So thanks for watching guys, if you liked this video, like it, subscribe, and hit us
up in the comments section with your suggestions for topics that we should cover in the future.