Visit any Naples theatre or cinema and you will enjoy the sound in glorious surround sound. For years, home theatre fans have wanted to replicate this sound quality at home, which is when the home theatre was born. Manufacturers learned about this market and moved to exploit it. Now there is a dizzying array of choice for building your own.

Speakers are a very important component of any home setup. The quality of them directly influences the quality of the experience so it’s important to get the decision right when shopping for new ones. Here we highlight some buying tips for home theatre speakers.

A basic 5.1 setup consists of a pair of front speakers, left and right, a center channel speaker, a subwoofer, and a pair of satellite speakers for the rear right and left. The fronts, center and satellites make up the 5 in 5.1 and the subwoofer is the .1. Connected up to a capable amplifier these speakers co-operate to make a believable surround sound experience whether you’re watching a movie, TV or listening to music. They often come in a set of 6 speakers, but it is possible to buy them all separately. If you want a truly bespoke system, or one that fits ideally into an odd shaped space you can mix shapes and sizes as long as the capabilities are closely matched. Just ensure that if you do mix your speakers you get them voice matched to the others.

From speakers set the scene. They are the main source of what you hear when using them. Floor standing front speakers are the most powerful and work well at low frequency, but they take up space. Bookshelf or wall mountable ones fit into smaller spaces but don’t handle the low frequency quite so well.

Center speakers provide 50% of the soundtrack and most of the dialogue, so are vitally important to a competent setup. These are placed either directly above or below the screen to ensure the experience is good. You want to hear the dialogue from the screen, having the center off to one side can jar the experience.

Size isn’t everything, like with the fronts but it does need to match the front speakers. Tower fronts will need a larger center, but smaller fronts can cope with a smaller center. The sound needs to merge with the fronts, which is why they need to be of a similar size and capability. Again, voice matching is essential to ensure the theatre experience is a complete one.

The satellites, or surround speakers carry most of the ambient and off screen sound. They also help deliver the directional effects which makes surround so entertaining. Considerations here are the same as for the fronts, except smaller speakers such as bookshelf are more at home here. Match the speakers to the capabilities of the rest of the system, and voice match.

Subwoofers are what powers the bass. Bass is non-directional so placement isn’t an issue, but power is. The larger the subwoofer, the deeper the bass. Powerful ones will have a built-in amplifier to up the power. Voice matching isn’t as important here, but make sure the bass doesn’t overpower the rest of the soundtrack.