How to buy surround sound? What's a receiver?

Question

I need to understand surround sound more before i buy any. What is the difference between a "receiver" or just buying "home theater in a box". When does surround sound work with cable television? Satelite speakers are cordless right? How much watts do u really need for decent surround sound? Someone help me and tell me everything you know! thank you

Answer 1

don't buy a home theater set, rather buy your components separate and if you need to save money splurge on the speakers and save on the other components. I bought Bose speakers and they sound amazing. Spend the extra money on the speakers, buy the fronts and center first and the rears later if you can't lay it out all at once.

Answer 2

A receiver is an electronic device that has multiple functions: Pre amp,tuner, and amplifier. The Pre amp serves as the processor; CD, phono, tape, video, DVD, etc.
The tuner is simply the radio portion. The amp takes a sound and amplifies it to be heard through the speaker system.There is nothing but a receiver, no speakers with it , it must be purchased separately.
A home theater in a box comes with a receiver,DVD player, and a speaker system, everything put together in a box for surround sound.
Surround sound will only work when the cable company broadcasts it in surround sound. If a channel send its signal for surround sound and the cable company does not send the signal through , then you would not get surround sound.
Most satellite or rear speakers are not wireless or cordless.
How many watts you need depends on the size of your room and how loud do you want it to play.

Answer 3

This is hard to answer... there are many choices out there.
They all have a 'receiver', maybe called a different name. That's what the sound signal goes into to process and send it back out to the speakers. Being most of the required components are already there, most make it a FM /AM tuner also.
Surround works 100% of the time with cable but only stereo stations will give you full surround sound. Otherwise, sound comes out of all the speakers, just not in stereo.
You can get satelite speakers w/ cords or cordless.
Wattage varies depending on brand and price range.
Normally you don't need high wattage because of the quality of the speakers and the size of the room.
Go to a retail store for a demo and talk to a knowledgeable salesperson.

Answer 4

a receiver is basically an amplifier with a radio tuner built into it-yes surround sound will work with cable tv-some satellite speakers are cordless-others arn't- as for power (watts) how big is your front room-you can buy and modify systems up to infinite wattage (within reason) my own is 1700 watts-the best thing to do is to buy some home theatre magazines-they will tell you all you need to know. and welcome to home theatre.

Answer 5

This site will give you some info on what you need to know about surround sound systems. I am sure others will inform you as well. Go to Circuit City so you can sit down and actually listen/experience what they have....awesome place to go.