HOW TO Set Up a 5.1 HOME THEATER Surround Sound Speaker System in 2020

50 Comments

1. jimmy presley on January 30, 2021 at 9:02 pm

   When using ARC. What input on the receiver will be used?

   
   
   
2. Denny Bailey on January 30, 2021 at 9:02 pm

   Speak up!!!!!!!!!!!

   
   
   
3. RVB _Drölf on January 30, 2021 at 9:05 pm

   Thanks you, for this great video. I’m receiving my Bose Surround Speakers 700 (the Omnijewel Ones) for my Soundbar in a few days. I thought, I’d need to put the speakers behind me. Thanks to your video and the 360 degree sound of the jewels, I can just put them next to my seating are and still enjoy their sound. I hope, that my 5.1 system is going to sound as good as I hope it to be. Thanks again for this great video!

   
   
   
4. ExoDus on January 30, 2021 at 9:05 pm

   I have exact same AV receiver paired with Q Acoustics 3020i and Samsungs 2020 7 series tv. All cables are plugged in correctly, everything is working but the sound is so lifeless and flat, it has no BASS at all.
   Can somebody tell me why is sound from the tv so bad? Do I need better HDMI cable?
   Note: I’m using ‘High Speed HDMI with Ethernet’

   
   
   
5. Ryan Coté on January 30, 2021 at 9:07 pm

   This video has helped me so much! I have had a 5.1 Sony receiver for 2 years now and always felt that the sound quality was never up to snuff. After watching you video I found that my speaker setting and frequency settings were horribly off! I’ve adjusted them per your advice and wowzah what a difference! Thanks so much!

   
   
   
6. Mark Dibble on January 30, 2021 at 9:09 pm

   10:46 not just for us, but to protect equipment too.

   
   
   
7. sue Williams on January 30, 2021 at 9:10 pm

   Awesome sound system

   
   
   
8. Madici on January 30, 2021 at 9:11 pm

   the speakers are literally 1000 dollars now big sad

   
   
   
9. Richard Adams on January 30, 2021 at 9:12 pm

   awesome vid for beginners, appreciate the time, and the outtakes were too funny

   
   
   
10. Samuel Ribas on January 30, 2021 at 9:12 pm

    Very nice video!! Thanks for sharing this. I’m about to start setting up a 5.1 with future plans to have a 7.1. Would be awesome if you could do a same type of video covering 7.1 or even 7.2 options. Thank you!!!!!

    
    
    
11. Liu Tungwei on January 30, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    Andrew, I really love to watch your videos. Your sharing is clear and straight to the point. You are one of my most favourite and best Youtubers.

    
    
    
12. A L on January 30, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    You are only using Amazon Basic speaker cables? You are leaving so much bass on the table! I paid eleventy thousand for mine, best money spent! You can totally hear the tonal variation and warmth through them! 😂 All joking aside, glad to see a common sense approach to getting great sound and not wasting money on silly things! Keep em up.

    
    
    
13. MADagain on January 30, 2021 at 9:13 pm

    Dudeee use a denoiser on your dialogue… but besides that, very helpful video

    
    
    
14. Keila on January 30, 2021 at 9:14 pm

    I feel like I can never hear what’s being said on my tv, and I have to have to so loud sometimes. I want to be able to watch tv at a lower volume so people across the house won’t hear. I’m thinking surround sound will be better since there will be two speakers closer to where I’m sitting ?

    
    
    
15. Andrew Mitchell on January 30, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    Looks like your door trim was installed backwards

    
    
    
16. Travis Thompson on January 30, 2021 at 9:15 pm

    I think the hardest part is picking out output of the thing your listening to. Dolby Pro Logic, DTS, Bitstream….I have a hard time figuring out what to pcik

    
    
    
17. Fariz Alibey on January 30, 2021 at 9:16 pm

    Hey Andrew. Is LG LHD756 home theatre worth buying?

    
    
    
18. Carl Wilson on January 30, 2021 at 9:19 pm

    Anyone else think he says ‘sub-woofer’ funny/oddly? 😜😛 #goahead

    
    
    
19. Javaid Khan on January 30, 2021 at 9:19 pm

    Great video. Thanks

    
    
    
20. knuckles1006 on January 30, 2021 at 9:19 pm

    There may be complete audio newbies watching this video, so mentioning the need to phase the speaker wires correctly. And also how to know if the subwoofer is out of phase and using the phase switch on the subwoofer to correct it.

    
    
    
21. Moony The Loony on January 30, 2021 at 9:23 pm

    I’m going to throw in what I do to hide my wiring and resolve the speaker footprint in a small family room.

    Furniture can be your friend when hiding the wires. That’s the Golden to remember IF you have some furniture you can use to your advantage.

    For starters:

    I have a 65 inch wide cabinet which hides all the wiring regarding all of the front speakers and both subwoofers. That knocks out 5 audio connections leaving only the surround speakers to deal with.

    That’s a lot of lengthy wiring.
    And it’s important to pre-plan the wiring pattern. In other words, where and under what furniture will be best to run these wires to your receiver?

    I ran both surround wires to the center of my couch position and straight under my cabinet and Connected them to the receiver and threw a 5×7 area rug (got it from Home Depot) over it and I’m done.

    Can I tell when walking over the carpet that the wires are there?
    Yes. But only if I step on that section but that does not bother me. Otherwise you can’t see em.

    The wiring leading up to the back of the TV can be hidden by picking up a paintable molding kit that will hide the wires and when painted the same color as the wall, it’ll blend in very nicely.

    This does not mean you won’t know it’s there, because you will, but the molding will tastefully blend in and look neat in the process. They can either be attached to the wall with a peel back adhesive (pre-installed) which is the simplest option or one that uses small wall anchors.

    I didn’t mention the subwoofer wires because my two front speakers have built-in side firing subwoofers.

    That’s because one very popular issue besides hiding wires with home theater has always been the speaker footprint. Some people don’t mind it while others mind it a lot.

    The sound bar addressed this pretty well, but the old-fashioned design still sounds better in my opinion and it offers the option for growth with an upgrade or addition of speakers without having to replace everything.

    In my case with a planned out budget I opted for front speakers that have built-in subwoofers from Definitive Technology.

    It does cost more (look for sales) but it solves the foot print issue and the placement issue at the same time. I only know they are there when I hear them. So that’s one way to hide the additional subwoofer cable and electrical connection at the same time in a small family room.

    
    
    
22. Slamm Andrews on January 30, 2021 at 9:25 pm

    Hi Andrew,
    First off, great channel and great video. There are a couple of technical points that your viewing public should get right.

    1) With -20 dB pink generated you should read the following values. 85 dB (L, C, R) 81.5 each for LS and RS. This was for compatibility with the old Dolby 4:2:4 conversion that would read the optical analogue audio track off of the film print. The LS and RS should be 85 dB combined. This is because with the 4:2:4 there were only a total of 4 audio channels derived from the 2 track optical. (L, C, R, S). To keep levels the same when Dolby digital came out, the LS and RS combined add up to the same value as what a mono S played through all the same speakers.

    2). With the above bits corrected the subwoofer (or LFE) should be at 89 dB (C weighted)

    3) As you state at the end of your videos, “the only person that has to like the sound of your system is you.” However, this is the way that Dolby has us set up our mix stages.

    
    
    
23. DeSanderMan on January 30, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    My attic is 2.9m wide (9.5feet) x 4.2m in depth (13.8 feet). I bought a pair of Klipsch RP8000’s, a RP-504C Center and a still have my Optoma hd142x projecting a 1080p image on a 100 inch screen. Now i just need to choose a sub. I don’t want to break the bank, or wake up my neighbours, but I do want a bit more punch than my Sonos Sub in the livingroom. What is a good choice for me? Please help guys. Any advise would be great.

    
    
    
24. Pablo Zamora on January 30, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    Please make a video for a 7.1 home theatre setup 😀

    
    
    
25. David RojoRed on January 30, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    I’d like to know what happens if I have a basic stereo receiver (Sony STRDH190) without any setting available neither for subwoofer setting nor tone testing. I’m guessing just playing with volume level and crossover control directly on the subwoofer until it sounds right?

    
    
    
26. Silk Lion on January 30, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    All I want is your TV board

    
    
    
27. Michael Broad on January 30, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    Thank you Andrew for removing all the ambiguity surrounding this subject. A very straight forward presentation and the delivery was perfect and clear. I’m not so intimidated now.

    
    
    
28. Jørn Maron on January 30, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    is a brilliant video, very helpful video. Thanks

    
    
    
29. Brandon Mata on January 30, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    Supper supper help full helps me understand soooo much better and helped a lot thanks.

    
    
    
30. Darrin Ray on January 30, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    Great video thanks Andrew !
    I need to update my AV receiver to something that sounds good when I’m playing music, currently running an old Sony pre amp with a 6 channel NAD.
    I think they are about 20 years old 🤔
    Would like to stream some music or even play some music saved on my phone too !
    Keep up the great work mate 👍

    
    
    
31. adon ellis on January 30, 2021 at 9:37 pm

    Where did you buy those cables because they seem like they are very good?

    
    
    
32. Ava Sandiford on January 30, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    I watched you today for the first time, as I was actually searching for a video on ‘how to set up a Bush soundbar to a LG tv’ and came across you explaining ‘how to set a home theatre, using the Marantz (?) systems and was must be impressed. I have now subscribed to your channel for future reference, and it has certainly given me food for thought regarding home theatre installation in the foreseeable future. Thank you from a new subscriber

    
    
    
33. David Hall on January 30, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    I have followed your guide up until the setting up on the TV. I now have a problem with the link to the TV as it doesn’t see the AVR and I can’t get the sub woofer set up and it’s difficult to set it all up when you can’t use the TV to set the system up.

    The equipment I have are as follows

    Techwood 43AO8UHD 43" Smart 4K Ultra HD TV (This TV has a ARC HDMI socket)

    Bang & Olufsen Beogram 1700 record player with an adaptor with the speaker plug to phono to a phone to HDMI adaptor 1080/720 to hdmi cable (mini AV2HDMI up scaler 1080p) to the BD input on my Denon AV Reciever

    Denon AVR-1312

    Subwoofer Advent A51BCSB09

    I am using banana connectors and phone connectors as required.

    I do have an annoying hiss in the background and I suppose that could be down to the connection between the turntable and the HDMI input

    If you can adise and maybe I need another subwoofer and if you can suggest anything to help with the comms between the AVR and the 4K TV I would be grateful

    
    
    
34. Rossano Pedimonte on January 30, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    great job. thumbs up, my man.

    
    
    
35. Amir on January 30, 2021 at 9:42 pm

    I would like to know which stands are used in this video. They are neither the Kanto nor the Solidsteel in his description.

    
    
    
36. JD PAN on January 30, 2021 at 9:43 pm

    Thank you, Andrew. For layman like me, this video is easy to understand and follow.

    
    
    
37. F1 F on January 30, 2021 at 9:44 pm

    Shouldnt the cable length for all speakers be the same as opposed to short lengths for the front 3?

    
    
    
38. Richard Botha on January 30, 2021 at 9:45 pm

    Your videos are the best imformative. Keep up the great work. I’m debating between these two. I like some of the features of the Yamaha. But all the old school input options of the Marantz keep attracting me. Any advice. Yamaha RX-A2A vs Marantz SR-5015.

    
    
    
39. Andrew Robinson on January 30, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    QUESTION OF THE DAY: What’s your favorite home theater system? What movie do you recommend for home theater testing?
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40. Mc ef9 on January 30, 2021 at 9:49 pm

    Very clear and thorough video. Thank you

    
    
    
41. Gilberto Ang on January 30, 2021 at 9:49 pm

    Nice explanation loud and clear

    
    
    
42. A Martin on January 30, 2021 at 9:51 pm

    Great clear video! If using Dipole, where is the better placement for these?

    
    
    
43. George Manos on January 30, 2021 at 9:53 pm

    Thanks for the installation advice, ordered a Yamaha system and will use your recommendations.

    
    
    
44. Roman Sanchez on January 30, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    I laughed out load when I heard you pronounce sub woofer. “Sub Wuffer” I needed a chuckle today keep up the good work.

    
    
    
45. Kenneth Dias on January 30, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    Both my Yamaha and pioneer Av receiver came with mic s that plugged into the front panel then you pushed a button and the receivers calibrated to the room and location of the speakers

    
    
    
46. Mertcan Dogan on January 30, 2021 at 9:56 pm

    Andrew!!!!! I NEED your help! I know very little about speakers but loved your videos and bought 2 Jamo S 809 tower speakers and a center speaker. I hooked them up to a Pyle AV Receiver and there is a very annoying constant humming going on. Receiver is hooked up just to one outlet socket and I can’t get it to go away no matter what I do. Please HELP!

    
    
    
47. James Turner on January 30, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    This is a brilliant video. I set my 1st 5.1 up about 9 years ago and at that time the thought never occurred to watch a YouTube video to check that I’d done it correctly. I have a new 5.1 arriving tomorrow so thought I’d do a bit of research this time before setting it up. I learnt so much from this video .. thank you!

    
    
    
48. amjad ali on January 30, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    Excellent. In a very precise and simple way you explain home theater setup.

    
    
    
49. Silky Sifaka on January 30, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    Please stop pronouncing "subwoofer" properly as it has made me very much uncomfortable. Subwoofer should always be pronounced as "subwolfer" as I was taught by my mother and father. Note: I was raised by wolves so I am be a bit biased however my request still stands. Ok thanks.

    
    
    
50. Kevin Barto on January 30, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    Very informative thank you very much.