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16
Home tHeater
It had long been the practice of stereo buffs to
connect their television to a stereo system. The
advantage was the use of the larger speakers and
more powerful amplifier of the stereo system. Even
though the sound was greatly improved, it was still
mono and limited by the broadcast signal.
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s two new
home movie formats became widely available to
the public: VCR and laser disc.
By 1985, both formats had developed into very
high quality audio/video sources. In fact, the sonic
performance of some video formats exceeded
audio-only formats. Now, with theater-quality
sound available at home, the only element missing
was the “surround sound” presentation found in
movie houses.
Fortunately, Dolby and DTS encoded DVD’s
emerged with the same surround sound
information encoded on home releases as the
theatrical release. Additionally, new high-
resolution home-viewing formats such as Blu-ray
as well as high-definition content provided via
cable or satellite have evolved which include multi-
channel encoded audio that is virtually master
tape quality. All that is required to retrieve this
information is a decoder and additional speakers
and amps to reproduce it.
Home theater is a complex purchase and we
recommend that you consult your local MartinLogan
dealer, as they are well versed in this subject.
Each piece of a surround system can be purchased
separately. Take your time and buy quality. No
one has ever complained that the movie was too
real. The following list and descriptions will give
you only a brief outline of the responsibilities and
demands placed on each speaker.
Front Left and Front Right
If these speakers will be the same two used for
your stereo playback, they should be of very high
quality and able to play loudly (over 102 dB) and
reproduce bass below 80 Hz.
Center Channel
This is the most important speaker in a home
theater system, as almost all of the dialogue and
a large portion of the front speaker information is
reproduced by the center channel. It is important
that the center speaker be extremely accurate and
mate well with the front speaker, and that it is
recommended for use as a center speaker. This is
not the place to cut corners.
Surround Speakers
We recommend (along with the film industry) that
the surround speakers play down to at least 80
Hz. Surround speakers contain the information that
makes it appear that planes are flying over your
Figure 15. MartinLogan peakers as front, center, and
surround channels, and MartinLogan subwoofers in the
front corners as the 0.1 (effects) channel.
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