Your Guide to Choosing the Right Home Theater Setup

If you're passionate about movies and TV shows, the entertainment you enjoy on your home theater system is part of your identity. Finding the perfect sound is a matter of choosing components that suit both the space you have available and your personal tastes.

Fortunately, there is a tremendous array of options in home theater audio. With a little guidance, you can assemble the ideal setup for your needs.

Thinking small: The best compact home theater

For some of us, space is at a premium, and it's important to select a home theater system that achieves the right fit in your home without giving up on quality sound or a cinematic experience. Compact options like sound bars or bookshelf speakers are capable of providing compelling sonic results with a small footprint.

Combine a high-performance sound bar with a subwoofer and a pair of wireless surrounds, and you have an instant home theater. For example, the Polk MagniFi MAX SR achieves the wider soundstage of a surround system without overtaking the home theater space you've designated. Polk Patented Stereo Dimensional Array (SDA) technology conveys an expansive soundstage and detailed stereo image, providing the clarity and dimension of a larger component system.

Filling the room: The best surround sound home theater

If you really want movies to sound their best, you need a full surround sound setup. However, that still leaves plenty of room for customization. If you build around a versatile AV receiver with plenty of channels and HDMI hookups, you'll be able to adapt your system to the viewing area and upgrade over time. Choose the number of speakers and subwoofers and where you place them based on the shape and size of the room.

Polk's Signature Elite Series offers a range of options, so you can pick a combination that makes sense for the acoustic environment. A slim center speaker fits easily under your television and can be mounted on the wall. Embrace the full dynamic force of floor-standing tower speakers, or maintain a smaller profile with a couple of high-definition bookshelf speakers. Whatever assortment you bring home, every speaker in a Polk series is timbre-matched to ensure the sound from every channel blends together beautifully.

Keep in mind the importance of the right subwoofer to bring depth to your home theater's sound and maximize the impact of your favorite films. A front-firing subwoofer like the DSW PRO 660 is made to project sound effects with full force from many different positions in your viewing area. To achieve the most even spread of lower frequencies, however, you may want to incorporate two subwoofers, which cuts down room resonances.

Whatever your home theater needs, Polk Audio has speakers to fill the room with the nuanced, powerful sound that your favorite films and shows deserve.