Whether you’re listening to your favorite album or watching the latest summer blockbuster, you depend on your sound system to provide high-quality audio at all times. The more you scrutinize your sound system, though, the more you’re likely to realize that there are some improvements that could be made.
However, when it comes down to these more nuanced changes, it can be difficult to know which direction you should go. To help save you some time as you seek to make improvements, here are three ways to improve your sound system set-up at home.
Use a Power Conditioner
Even though you depend on your home’s electrical system to power your sound system, you have to accept that this dependence brings with it electrical noise that can reduce the quality of the sound you hear. In a high-quality setup, even a small buzz is easily noticed, which can negate all the time and money you invest in your sound system.
To help overcome this problem, you can invest in a quality power conditioner that will help to remove this buzz and provide your system with a clean and stable source of power. Another perk of this approach is that you can use your power conditioner to turn on all your system components, greatly simplifying start-up and shut-down.
Tweak Your EQ
Although high-quality sound system components can provide the perfect frequency response for a variety of sound sources, these components are often in rooms that need a little acoustic help. Therefore, one great way to improve your sound system setup is to be willing to play around with the EQ settings on your receiver.
High-quality receivers will feature a multi-band EQ that you can use to try different combinations of lows, mids, and highs. Start by recording the current EQ settings so that you can return to these settings if things start sounding bad. Once these settings are recorded, feel free to adjust your EQ until you find a sound that suits you.
Shield Your Cables
For the most part, good speaker cables will have enough shielding to protect them from most types of interference. However, if one of your wires passes right by a fluorescent light fixture, for example, that will likely be too much for the cable insulation to overcome.
Therefore, to help fine-tune your sound system setup, it’s a good idea to follow the route of each speaker cable to ensure that it doesn’t come close to any sources of high-energy interference. Removing these sources of interference will help to eliminate a lot of issues that you may be experiencing with your sound.
Don’t Forget Acoustics
As mentioned, there is a lot you can do with your sound system to help improve the sound quality. At some point, though, you’re going to have to address the acoustics of the room, as well.
By studying the frequency response of your room, you can work to add acoustic treatments as needed so that the space sounds great for a wide variety of music. This will help the room and the sound system work together so that you don’t become frustrated when you can’t track down what’s causing lackluster sound quality.
Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking, and gardening. For more information, contact Brooke via Facebook at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or Twitter @BrookeChaplan
