We are going to go over the four main types of sound systems available right now and give you their strengths and weaknesses so you are able to decide which format best matches your room and sound preferences.

One option is a component surround sound system this type of system generally offers the best sound and give you the most flexibility as far as placement and other options go but is typically more expensive type. There are several options with these systems which can consist anywhere from 5-7 speakers that make it so versatile for speaker placement. Some of these options are stand alone speakers, in-wall speakers, or in-ceiling speaker. These are also the best option for larger room because they do the best job of filling the room with sound. It is also a little harder to set up this type of speakers to get optimal sound because you have so many options, no to say they will sound bad, they just won’t sound as good as they can.

Another good option is stereo speakers. A stereo set up works really well in smaller rooms and allows you to get left and right audio that sounds significantly better than your TV’s built in speakers. They also offer a much easier set up then a surround sound system. To set these speakers up all you need to do is connect the speakers to the left and right ports of your home receiver and connect your receiver to the television. You just set the speakers to the left and right of the TV so setting up is a piece of cake and you won’t have speaker wire running all across the room. This option is also really good because it allows for later expansion by adding a powered subwoofer or more speakers if money is running little tight.

One of the newer options is flat panel speakers or sound bars. This type of unit takes up almost no space and when pair with a single subwoofer can deliver fantastic sound and they can be wall mounted to work really well with flat screen TVs. The really cool feature available on these speakers is that they can give you the surround sound experience but you only need to set them up in one location by creating a three-dimensional sound field. Another feature that is really convenient is that for most units you do not need to purchase any extra cables because they generally come with all of the cables you will need. You can also get away with not getting a home theater receiver.

The final option that you have is to purchase a home theater package. These systems come pre-packaged together to give you optimal sound and are generally smaller than bulky component surround sound systems. They also offer a wide range of really neat features and capabilities ranging from built in blu-ray or DVD players to iPod docks to the ability to stream movies via Netflix. It is also the easiest and cheapest way to get true surround sound in your home. They won’t fill a room the same way that component speakers will but they do a great job in small to mid-sized room.