How to Make Your Home Speakers Sound Better

Speaker insulation and placement greatly influence sound production.

Regardless of how expensive your home speakers may be, an incorrect setup of those speakers can result in poor sound quality. Since many people like to setup their speakers in a fashion so they are relatively hidden from view yet still provide a substantial amount of surround sound, it's best to have a good set of instructions before setting up your speaker system. Luckily, there are a few tips to make your speaker system sound good without having to break the bank.

Things You'll Need

• Speaker carpeting
• Fiberglass insulation
• Screwdriver

Instructions

Setting Up Your Speakers

1. 

   Subwoofers work well when facing a solid wall.

   Locate the subwoofer of your sound system. Typically, the subwoofer in a home-audio speaker system is kept somewhere in a corner, but is often left facing outward, toward the open space of the room. For better bass reflection, however, you can turn the subwoofer around so that the front of the speaker is facing a wall. This will cause the bass frequencies of your speaker system to reflect off of the wall before sounding into the open space, creating a more resonant and clear sound.

2. Insulate your speakers by adding additional carpeting to its enclosure or fiberglass insulation to the wall in which it is housed. Many cheap speakers lack the proper insulation which more expensive speakers use. By covering the interior of your speaker's enclosure in carpeting, however, you can better insulate the sound, allowing the speaker to create a more direct flow of sound, as opposed to the excessive sound-leaking that often happens in a poorly insulated speaker.

3. Bolt down the speakers of your sound system to the wall or cabinet in which you are housing it. A loose speaker can create an excessive amount of rattling or buzzing that can often prevent you from turning the speaker system up very loud.

4. 

   Home-audio speakers typically sound best when angled toward each other.

   Adjust the speakers which you have setup around the room so the direction of each speaker will overlap with one another at a single point in the room. This overlapping of sound will help the speaker system sound more realistic without actually sounding like four or six individual speakers. Home theater surround sound speakers typically use this technique as a means of creating a more realistic theater experience.

References

• Crutchfield: Understanding Surround Sound Formats
• cNet: Subwoofer Setup Guide
• Terry Downs Music: Fiberglass Insulation for Speakers

Resources

• Crutchfield: In-Wall Speaker Insulation