Home theaters come in all shapes and sizes depending on the room, personal desire, budget, and a host of many other factors. Most would assume that unless you have a big screen and surround sound you don’t have a home theater. That’s simply not true. You could have a 27-inch TV, sit in the optimal viewing range, and use a pair of stereo speakers to bring home theater nirvana to your room.

A large screen and surround sound improves the experience, but good stereo sound can bring you into the action too. You might be surprised how well just stereo sound can bring the movie experience home.

The message here is don’t prevent yourself from having a home theater just because of a preconceived notion of the bare minimum is a bar that’s set too high. 

My first home theater consisted of:

• A budget Sony receiver with Dolby Pro-Logic (offering a whopping 20 watts of power for the surround and center)
• A 27-inch Magnovox TV which actually kicked out some decent color quality
• Full-range budget speakers with a 12 inch woofers to bring the bass home
• A hi-fi VCR (this was a good 4 years before the DVD revolution)
• Cheap surround and center channel speakers

My experience before that had been with my dad’s home theater of who always had a stereo connected to the TV and VCR, and went from stereo to the very first Dolby Surround Sound (we’re talking only surround speakers, no center channel).

The point is that through all those different setups of different shapes sizes and capabilities, I enjoyed my first home theater just as much as I enjoy my dedicated mega-home theater today. I may even have enjoyed my first home theater more since it was indeed the first that I owned, constantly tweaked, and upgraded bit-by-bit with money from part time jobs. There was a lot of love and learning done to get the most from my system and improve it as my budget allowed.

Nevertheless, a home theater can be had with at the very least a 27-inch TV, a set of stereo speakers run by a receiver, and a DVD player. From there you can build, tweak, and modify your system to whatever your desires are.

Screen Size
The bigger the better is always true, but add good sound to any screen size and it just brings you into the action so much more. About the smallest you can go is 27 inches as TVs that size have and optimal viewing range of 5-6 feet. Any closer and you’re really on top of the TV. Once you go widescreen the screen size for movies really looks big, and detailed to boot.

When upgrading, be sure to check out all the new and old technologies. Forget any preconceived notions that rear projections TVs are blurry or not bright. Even CRT rear projections can get pretty bright and clear. The latest digitally driven rear projections can get really bright; mostly too bright, but you can turn that down for the most part.

The once unheard of, and often overlooked, for those on a tight budget looking to get a big screen is projectors. DVD resolution projectors are available from $1,000-$1,500 and can down-convert HDTV signals. These things can look really good, plus you can easily get a screen size of 55-92 inches with projectors in this price range. No Plasma or LCD flat screen can beat that price/size ratio.

Surround Sound?
Do you need surround sound to bring a home theater to life? Not exactly. If you do opt to go with a stereo setup, the idea here is to go with a good pair of mid-priced speakers ranging from $200-$500 a pair. Unless you have a subwoofer, look to get some full-range models with at least 10-12” inch woofers to handle a decent amount of bass.

If you have a subwoofer you can get much smaller and higher quality speakers that may allow for easier speaker placement and setup.

With all speakers the key to good sound is placement. If you don’t get floor-standing towers get some speaker stands to get your speakers’ tweeters to ear level to get the best sound. View the speaker placement article for more information.

Over time, you can always add surround and center channels.

Theater Room vs. Living Room
The main function of the room your home theater resides can have a great influence on what type and size of the gear you can handle, want, and need. If you room needs to do double duty as a living room, and is of moderate to small size, getting a big rear projection TV may not be in the cards for you, in fact a stand with a Plasma may even take up too much space. A wall mounted flat screen or a projector could be the option to make smaller rooms and living rooms look like there’s enough room for hanging out with big screen excitement and make the home theater less overbearing in the room.

A theater room is a size-is-no-object dedicated environment for the main function of movie/TV watching (and music listening for you audiophiles out there). If you have a dedicated room for home theater, you’re truly among the privileged with the ability to fit any size components, TV, and speakers your budget, time, and desires allow for.  Not all dedicated rooms will be big enough to fit anything, but since the room doesn’t have to serve another function, like a living room, setting everything up in the optimal locations can be done much easier with a little research and tweaking. Read the On Setup section to learn how to get the most from your system.

Setup is What Makes the Difference
Without properly setting up and calibrating your home theater big or small, you will simply not getting everything your home theater can provide. Why listen to lesser sound or image quality because you didn’t want to spend the proper time setting everything up.

Almost every TV looks like crap out of the box. Once you live with a calibrated TV for a few weeks you’ll wonder how you ever lived without one.

Speakers need calibration too. Get your balance right, and setup all channels to provide an nice even soundfield, and you’ll be amazed at how much more enveloping and natural your home theater sounds. Audio calibration will bring you into the action of the movie much more than an uncalibrated home theater that emphasizes the sub or surrounds speakers too much.

Regardless of size… setup and calibrate your system.

Summary
Home theaters big and small can be very exciting and satisfying. The same setup tweaks applied to smaller systems are applicable to expensive home theaters as well. A properly setup and calibrated home theater that cost $2,000 can sound better than an uncalibrated home theater that cost $10,000.

Don’t listen to those that are “keeping up with Joneses” for home theater advice or direction. Get what you want, for the room you need, and fulfills your home theater goals. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.