How to buy Hi Fi Speakers?

When looking into purchasing Hi-Fi Speakers for your home theater surround sound system, you’ll want to focus on a few key aspects to guarantee that you get the most bang for your buck. This guide will take you through those key aspects, showing their relevance and importance to the total package.

Surround Sound Formats

Dolby Digital and DTS are two of the largest players in surround sound format. What this means is that nearly all movies will come in either one or both of these formats. There are several other formats as well that are not used enough to merit a purchase, so by choosing utilizing Dolby Digital or DTS you’ll be able to enjoy the highest quality your speakers can produce.

While Dolby Digital is more prevalent a format, it isn’t always offered in 5.1 surround due to how the soundtrack was recorded.

Active Vs Passive Speakers

The core difference between active and passive speakers are that active speakers have a built in amplifier. This amplifier allows you to plug nearly any device into these speakers and operate them. Passive on the other hand, rely on a stand alone amplifier to power them. If you enjoy plugging your MP3 player or computer into your speakers, active is the way to go, however if you prefer the quality that can be enhanced by using a stand alone amplifier (although more costly), passive is the way to go.

Stereo And Multi-Channel

If you’re only planning on using two speakers, you can still benefit from having a quality Hi-Fi setup. However, instead of spending extra money for features you won’t be utilizing now, you may want to invest in a system gear specifically towards stereo over multi-channel. That way your 2 speaker system give you a greater value then using only 2 channels on a multi-channel system. If you’ve got the room however, a 5 speaker setup will provide you with a lot more depth overall.