How To Choose The Best Stereo Receiver For Your Needs

Writen by Thad Pickering

It used to be a lot simpler to find the best stereo receiver for your needs since most people only used receivers for their home audio system, but today the addition of video devices and the multitude of audio/video sources makes the choice more demanding. So here are a few tips to keep in mind as you shop for a stereo or digital receiver.

First of all make sure that the receiver that you choose to be the brain of your home entertainment center will be able to support all the devices that you intend to use with it. These days video and audio can come from a variety of sources including camcorders, digital video recorders, DVD players, cable or satellite boxes, video game systems, cd players and so on. You will need to have corresponding inputs for however many devices that you intend to use. So plan ahead and make sure the receiver you buy will fit your needs that way. You will have to pay more for a digital receiver that carries a plethora of input connections, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Also be sure that the connections for both audio and video match between your components and the receiver. Most devices can support a standard composite cable connection, but for your best video sources you will probably want some S-video connections that produce a better screen picture with more detail. On the audio side, if you are using surround sound as many people are these days, make sure that the audio connections from your components match the inputs on your receiver. For digital equipment it is usually either an optical or coaxial connection, but whichever it is, be sure that the connections on both ends will match.

Then be sure that the receiver will be sufficient for your room size. Most rooms will take about 50 watts per channel to power the speakers sufficiently, but larger rooms may require 75 watts per channel and very large rooms can use 100 watts per channel to fill the room up with sound.

You also will need to match the receiver to your speakers too as some speakers use different ohm ratings to accomplish their sound purpose. An ohm has to do with how much resistance there is to the current being sent from the receiver. If you match an 8 ohm receiver with a set of 4 ohm speakers you may damage your receiver because of all the overwork that it has to do to keep up with the current demand from the speakers. So just make sure that you match the receiver requirements to the speaker set that you have.

Finally, don't assume that price is the definitive guide for quality. Many reviews of the best stereo receivers have concluded that high quality equipment does not always cost more, so read the reviews, shop around thoroughly and follow the suggestions given above and you can make a good stereo receiver purchase.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including audio and video. You can find free stereo receiver reviews and the best stereo receivers by visiting our Home Theater website.

Home Audio Furniture For Beginners

Writen by Kevin Willard

There are many choices in home furniture for a home theatre. Some choices are better for your needs than others. In order to get the best furniture to meet your needs, you should have a clear idea of what you need, seek out a reputable company, and have clear knowledge of what all options are.

The most important concept in buying furniture that many people often overlook is the idea that the furniture should be not what's best, but what is "best for you." The most expensive furniture does not always yield the highest satisfaction. However, furniture that was purchased after a well-thought-out decision will often leave the buyer with a higher degree of satisfaction. Remember, while it is a good idea to take other's opinions into consideration, the important thing is that the furniture works for you.

In order to know what you need, you should have an accurate idea of what goals you want to achieve with your home theatre system. If your goal is a state-of-the-art home theatre experience, then your furniture should reflect your systems. Comfortable chairs and high-quality tables can enhance the home theatre experience. Consider every detail, including the color of the furniture. The most appealing home theatre systems often have a color scheme that is very pleasing to the eye. Always get second opinions when deciding on colors. Depending on the type of speakers you have, you might also want to have something special to hold the speakers in. Some of the best home-theatres have surround sound. This effect can be achieved by spreading the speakers around high quality furniture. Depending on what you want, you can decide beforehand how much money you are willing to spend on your home theatre arrangement.

Additionally, before one goes to make a purchase, the layout of the room should be measured accurately. This can be done very simply with measuring tape. You could possibly mark spots on the walls where the furniture will go. It is always a good idea to draw plans and view multiple arrangements. Some furniture takes up a significantly higher amount of space than other furniture. Therefore, knowing how much room you have to work with can make the furniture choice much more efficient and enjoyable.

The final thing that you should consider before buying furniture is the company. There are lots of furniture companies out there, and some of them have lower quality furniture, and bad service. The best companies will be willing to invest their time in order to help you create the best home theatre possible. It is always a good idea to get recommendations from friends about a certain company. Some companies may offer bad advice or try to convince you to spend more money on furniture that will not best fit your needs.

Buying furniture for a home theatre can seem like an extremely daunting task. However, it can be efficient and enjoyable if you take the time to educate yourself about what options are available, what exactly you are looking for, and what are the best companies out there. Well-educated decisions are always more rewarding than decisions made with a severe lack of knowledge. If you inform yourself, your home theatre system will surely be the envy of your friends and family.

Kevin Willard is a home audio enthusiast. To learn more about home audio furniture, visit http://www.sjgreatdeals.com/

Ltb 51 Personal Home Theater Headphones Review

Writen by Kyle Kolbe

When you have a family, you constantly have to deal with differing sleep schedules. Toddle_o_Geek goes to bed by 8 PM, Wife_o_Geek passes out by 10 PM and I like to stay up till whenever. Those times when I stay up late or even when my wife is enjoying some other form of entertainment in another part of the house (usually Desperate Housewives) I can't raise the home theater's volume to a level where I can hear a Eastern Bloc commando sneaking up from my back left speaker. LTB Surround Headphone ads crept into my periphery vision while reading home entertainment magazines for the past few months. Curious, I checked out their website and immediately decided I couldn't afford their nice wireless surround headphones. A few weeks ago, after reading one too many reviews involving wireless audio that mentioned hiss, I abandoned the wireless headphone idea likening it to leisurely riding a bicycle down an expressway, not pleasant. A scouring of a few online forums (they're never wrong) led me back to LTB. Maybe I could afford some wired surround headphones.

My LTB 5.1 Personal Home Theater Headphones and AC3 amp (included) showed up about a week later with 2-day shipping (I always place online orders on Thursday evening, which ruins any chance for the immediate consumer satisfaction I was hoping for. when will the weekend join the rest of the week for shipping schedules? The weekend is so stuck up.).

The headphone set hooks up to your AV receiver, or directly to a DVD player, Xbox or PS2 through either the optical or coaxial digital audio output (only Dolby PCM and Dolby PCM supported, sorry DTS you get static). Since I switch all of my audio and most of my video through my Onkyo TX-DS989 AV receiver, I wanted to use its coax digital output to the LTB's by switching on Record Out. The 989's manual warned that the digital output would only pass the two front stereo channels. I was hoping whoever wrote/translated the manual was wrong (they were) about the digital output and that it passed a full Dolby Digital 5.1 signal.

After inventorying the boxes contents, I rummaged through my spare cable bin (I have lots of spare cables after moving everything downstairs and needing different cable lengths for connecting all the electronics in the new built-in cabinet to each other and out to the projector and loudspeakers half a room away) for a decent digital coax cable, my best spare was an old MIT (I've gone through many digital cables trying to tame a static breakup in loud male voices on movie soundtracks, I think what finally fixed it was my Anthem MCA 2 separate amp). Hook up is easy enough, just run the coax between the AV receiver's digital output and the LTB's AC3 amp (this is a tiny piece of kit that you can hide anywhere, a little larger than your typical USB 4-port hub, with a wall-wart power plug and inputs for digital coax and optical and an analog stereo passthrough). With the old standby philosophy, power on peripherals before the main unit, I first powered on the LTB AC3 amp and then the Onkyo, selected my source, pushed the front panel Rec Out button, started a movie and slipped on the headphones. I only heard hiss. I pressed the LTB amp's only controls, plus and minus buttons, to no effect. I switched the unit off and on again (as always suggested by the IT Crowd's Roy) and the headphones blasted my ears with the sounds from Zathura, the last DVD I watched that I remembered having some directional surround effects in the meteor shower in the living room scene. I guess the LTB needed to have a chance to lock into the signal.

The LTB shipped with a remote for adjusting volume and mute (it has both left and right volume adjustment but only one side actually did anything, maybe this was their "universal remote" that does more with their other headphone offerings) which were the same buttons on top of the amp. At first listen, I just used the on-amp controls to adjust volume, but I couldn't find a level that I liked. On the maximum setting the headphones will make you deaf and on the next notch down they were too soft and the movie lost all sonic impact. I then turned to the remote's finer volume adjustment. It seems the on-amp controls are a gain trim from the raw Dolby Digital signal and the remote volume adjusts from there. I liked to listen on the highest gain and then adjust one remote volume press down from there. This level was still slightly too loud but I got used to it the longer I listened.

The next issue I ran into had to do with headphone cable length, it's only 4 feet long. For my initial tests the cable was pulled tight between my head sitting in my home theater's sweet spot and the LTB Amp in my cabinet, to the point where any simple gesture would pull the unit off the shelf. LTB does sell a 13 foot extension cable through their online store, which I now have (you can't just use any old mini-plug extension cable because the LTB cable has a special mini plug and surround that delivers all 5.1 channels to the multiple drivers in the headphones, they have a chart that points to the different bits of mini-plug and which channels they send).

The LTB's listening experience is much more exciting than regular stereo headphones, but no where near the experience of a properly set up 5.1 loudspeaker system. Last night I skipped my way through Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (though all the prequels are terrible, they are impressive home theater demonstration material, I wish Lucasfilm would re-release Phantom Menace with proper color decoding (since it was shot on HD cameras I have to assume it looks great in the Rec. 709 color spec, but through the DVD production got badly switched to SDTV's Rec. 601 (if you're curious about what the hell I'm talking about head on over to the AVS Forum) and without edge-enhancement)) looking for obvious active surround scenes. This Star Wars installment had plenty of fly-by's, laser gun chases and light saber swings to really push the LTB's performance to their limit (you can easily skip every other chapter in the first two-thirds of the film without missing anything, just following Obi-Wan Kenobi's detective adventure (Behind the Scenes: George Lucas's direction: Okay, Ewan, you can play this scene like all the others, just pretend you're an 8 year old playing Star Wars over walkie-talkies with your teddy bear./ Ewan: Right, so this isn't the scene with my contractual full frontal nudity?/ George Lucas: Yeah, we have to talk…)). The first major fly-over, the queen's silver wing ship that tended to blow up as the passengers are safely exiting, had major bass flowing out of the ship's engines and actually broke up a little in the headphones. Other than this difficult effect, bass performance was exceptional and definitely engaged and grounded me into the movie. Aided by the bass extension the headphones presented a wide front sound stage. The surround effects were less obvious, and ideally, they should be subtle and not overpower the direct action in the fronts. I never felt that effects came from far behind me, like they can with properly spaced and calibrated surround loudspeakers. Laser beams, characters stiffly delivering lines off screen and John Williams score all just arrived near the back of my ear, not the back of my head. Despite this, the headphones still presented a very clear auditory picture of the action on screen.

I switched over to the Xbox and started up EA's much hyped first person shooter, Black. Playing games where the only sound effects were bullet casings plinking on pavement from your full-auto AK-47 fire and enemies yelling at you in Russian, instantly annoyed Wife_o_Geek, so I had to turn it down so low the bastards snuck up on me and click-bang-game over. The LTBs were the best solution to this situation: silence for my wife and personal, loud combat chaos for me. The LTBs increased the immersion into the game with directional effect cues and, again, solid and exciting bass performance. So much bass I would cringe on the last trigger pull before exploding the nearest propane tank (destruction bonus).

Comfort is an issue you may have with any Surround sound headphones while playing games and watching movies for long periods of time. The LTBs are the most comfortable large, enclosed headphones I've ever worn. They did not pinch any nerves on or around my ears. The padded headband did cause me discomfort after two hours.

Geek with Family highly recommends the LTB 5.1 Personal Theater System Headphones. With easy set-up, an upgraded over stereo sound, good LFE/bass performance and extended comfort you should definitely try them out if you want to enrich your late night private movie, game or whatever time, without waking the rest of the house.

Father, Husband and Geek. My geeky interests have not changed since I was a kid. I still love comic books, anime, role-playing games, console video games, indie rock, imported toys and mecha models, bad American and great British sitcoms, and all the tech that let's me experience these hobbies to their fullest. Now that I'm married with children, I've had to strike a balance between supporting and pleasing my family and feeding my geekery hunger. Lucky for me, my wife is very accomodating and even geeks out with me on occasion (the ladies love Joss Whedon's "Firefly"). My two year old likes anything that moves on the front projection screen and makes noise, so far she is easy to please. Geekwithfamily.com exists to enrich the lives of fellow geeks and the friends and family who put up with them.