Surround Speakers

What are surround speakers? They are the part of our home theater system and their purpose is to “surround” us with sound energy in the sides and rear of our video presentation. The left, right, and center speakers fill up the front of the room. The sunwoofer provides the “bang”

Surround sound speakers take the airplane that is flying over from the screen to the rear of the room and follows the video image with sound to produce the acoustical sound trail needed to fool our brains. As the plane flies overhead, the sides and rear channels are “handed” the signal from the front speaker system and move it from side to rear or even side to side as in a car crash. In order for this image to track correctly, the surround speakers must have their amount and rate of room reflections controlled though proper room treatment techniques.

A balance of sound diffusion and sound absorption techniques are needed to creat the correct ambient sound “image” at the viewing/listening position from the surround speakers. One must minimize room boundary reflections, so that the surround speakers can have a defined image across a wider surface area than is required from the front channel speaker system. Once we have used the correct amount of absorption and in some rooms over absorption, we add diffusion to spread that more defined signal out across a wider area along the sides and rear of our rooms without any more energy loss.

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