There are many decisions these days one has to contemplate and one of these decisions may be what to get for an HT system. Many brands exist in the real world and each brand offers something different than the others with a different philosophy and overall theory of sound. While we respect these other brands, how does one come to the conclusion to choose one over the other, especially if you have never physically heard the brand(s) you're pondering? We'll offer some inside non-bias advice on where to begin, what to look for and when to run.

The first objective is to start with a decent home theater receiver or going with separates that'll enable a better sound quality that may fit your liking. Receivers are a one-stop shop, while separates consist of 2 units that require more than one shelf in your rack and often cost more than a receiver. With separates, one piece of equipment does the processing capabilities, while the other does the amplification.

You'll next want to choose the speakers that suit you best or sound the best to you. Once you choose a brand, you'll want to stick with that particular brand and/or same series for all speakers across your HT setup. This will enable a proper timbre-match and assure what you're listening to is the way the recording studio intended it to be. Timbre-matching is also crucial for generating those subtle yet effective sounds, and having a powerful amp will only make these sounds more life-like.

Depending on whether this system will be used for movies, music or both, you'll want to choose your front main speakers for this application. If you have a somewhat large listening room, going with towers may be the best option. If the space you're in is relatively small, going with bookshelves and placing them on stands may be the way to go. Not only will you generate a fuller response with towers, the bass will be greater and reaching a lower frequency will naturally happen due to a larger cabinet size.

It's been often said that the most important speaker in a home theater setup is the center channel. This is because about 60% of the information in a movie comes through this channel. Once you have this speaker chosen, the rest is downhill. The larger the center, the fuller vocals will be. This allows the volume of each channel to remain the same and an overall sense of balance.

Information being sent to the rear channels is often in the form of treble and midrange. Because of this, it's not as important to have as large of drivers in these speakers as that of the center and front mains. Dipoles are usually recommended, as they present a larger than normal response, having one tweeter in each cabinet with a reversed polarity. This will make surround sounds or background sounds seem farther away than what you'd expect; similar to a small movie theater in terms of size. Keep in mind the reversed polarity in dipoles is not listening-appropriate for SACD or DVD audio. This type of setup would be more inclined to having a direct design speaker, like a bookshelf or small tower speaker.

A subwoofer is needed if your primary choice of movie type is action/adventure films. Without a sub, explosions just won't sound the same. Even better would be the existence of 2 subs; one in each corner of the room. This would provide an equal bass response or pressure, and wouldn't necessarily have to turn up one sub to its threshold, as you would then have 2 subs distributing the bass load. The most common type of sub is the port-hole design. This design allows the internal cabinet pressure generated by the driver to be released through the port hole. This allows the driver to obtain greater depths of excursion and lower frequencies.

The second type of sub is the sealed enclosure design. This type of sub is most versatile and can produce tight, accurate bass for music, and also have the ability to obtain the depths for movies. The cabinet withholds the pressure produced by the driver, resulting in time-aligned bass of which can be matched with the upper frequencies in your favorite song. Here you would have the opportunity to add more bass to music without it sounding like it's unnatural or not part of the song.

The third type is the passive radiator whereby you have an active driver with at least one or more inactive drivers that work in unison with the active driver to bring you an overall lower frequency response. This design is efficient in a way where the cabinet size can be on the smaller side, but still have the ability to generate some serious bass. These type of subs work fairly well playing music with only minimal delay, but come alive in the sub-low frequency world for movies.

So what about speaker wire? Depending on how far your speakers are going to be from your receiver/amplifier will determine how thick of a gauge you'll need. Another factor to consider is the amount of wattage and current your amp is providing. Generally, any length over 25 feet should be 12 gauge or thicker. The thicker the gauge, the more electrons can flow from your amp to your speakers.