How to create the best home speaker system for your living room

By Mark Myerson on Jul 19, 2019, 5:12 pm EDT under Buyer's Guide,

Good sound is about more than the equipment you choose. Here’s our guide to building the best home speaker system for your living room — from buying your system through to optimizing your speakers.

How to create the best home speaker system for your living room

What are the best speakers currently available? Go visit our sound section to see the latest and greatest in audio technology.
What does the surround sound number mean? It refers to the split between full-channel and low-frequency speakers. For instance, 5.1 means five regular speakers and one subwoofer.
Which is better for wireless sound: Bluetooth or Wi-Fi? For the best possible quality, pick Wi-Fi. It has more bandwidth than Bluetooth.

Listen to any audio sales rep, and they will confidently inform you that their speakers are the best. But in reality, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to sound. The best home speaker system in one room will sound terrible in another. Likewise, choosing the wrong settings can hold back high-quality speakers.

To help you create the perfect home setup, we have put together this helpful guide.

How to create the perfect home speaker setup

When considering audio tech, it’s best to think about any speaker system like a football team. You can spend vast amounts of money on individual star players, but they may not work well together on the field.

Try not to mix and match

Similarly, it’s always advisable to invest in complete speaker systems. While it is possible to combine several brands, they may not operate in harmony.

Think carefully about where to place your speakers

In addition, it’s important to think carefully about the room that will contain your speaker system. Placing speakers in a corner is a bad idea; the two walls will reflect the sound, causing a “booming” bass and a distorted low end.

Try to keep all your speakers at least one foot away from any wall and ensure the whole system is symmetrical.

If possible, tune your speakers

The surfaces of your living room can also have a significant effect on the acoustics of your home speaker system. Sonos Trueplay and Bose AdaptiQ will tune your setup to any environment; Google Home Max offers a similar feature.

The best home speaker systems

Of course, your choice of equipment is still important. Here are five of the best home speaker systems available right now:

Logitech Z606 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System

If you have limited space to work with, this compact system from Logitech should do nicely. It offers 5.1 surround sound with 160 watts of power and Bluetooth connectivity.

Price: $129.99 USD

: Logitech Z606 is small yet powerful

Vizio 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos Home Cinema System

Utilizing a soundbar and three satellite speakers, this setup from Vizio delivers cinema-quality sound. Better still, it’s totally wireless thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity.

Price: $299.99 USD

: Vizio offers Dolby Atmos sound

Damson Wireless Home Cinema System

Damson’s Wireless Home Cinema kit is another Dolby Atmos 5.1 setup. However, this speaker system can integrate up to 20 wireless speakers for a monumental sound experience.

Price: $599.99 USD

: Damson lets you attach extra speakers

Sonos Home Theater

Based around the PLAYBAR speaker bar, this home theater from Sonos lets you build your perfect setup. You can go right up to 7.1 surround sound, if you like.

Price: $689.27 USD

: You can create a 7.1 system around the Sonos Theater Bar

Klipsch Heritage Theater Bar Customizable Sound Bar

The Klipsch Heritage Theater Bar lets you fill your living room with sound, without filling the room with speakers. In one device, you get three ¾-inch titanium tweeters and six 4-inch Cerametallic woofers.

Price: $2,199 USD

: The Heritage sound bar is packed with speakers

Bring your living room to life

Whether you’re a movie buff or a music fan, good sound makes all the difference to your entertainment experience. Hopefully this guide will help you build the perfect home speaker system for your living room.

Have any tips for your fellow audiophiles? Share them in the comments!

Buyer's Guide Daily Digest

Meet Mark Myerson

Mark is best known for writing about apps, but he also loves the tactile, hardware side of technology. Being a professional photographer, he's pretty handy with a camera, and he's a self-confessed tweetaholic.

Join the Discussion