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Showing posts from October, 2010

Audio Speakers - Repair of a Blown Speaker or Fatigued Driver or When Replacement is Better

Almost every individual listens to music at some time; some more than others. However, most users of audio equipment have a limited understanding of how audio speakers physically work. When a speaker becomes damaged the majority of people will just assume that the damaged speaker is now a piece of trash and dispose of the unit in favor of spending more money on a new pair of speakers. There is a more inexpensive alternative to throwing away what may be an easily repairable piece of audio equipment. There are several ways a speaker can become damaged. The most frequent damage sustained is what is termed a blown speaker . Symptoms of a blown speaker can be no sound being produced or a clipping type of distortion. The frame, also called the basket of the speaker, can be permanently bent if the speaker has received an impact as from being dropped. The speaker can become fatigued through heavy use. Speaker fatigue will affect the clarity or crispness of the sound. On rare

Solutions to Common Surround Sound System Problems

Surround sound is an awesome technology for watching movies. Bullet sounds and special effects in general are just much more enjoyable when they are coming from different directions. These systems are relatively straight forward to set up in theory but there are always special issues to overcome. This article will discuss a few common ones and how to address them. The first issue is physical. How do you get the wires to the rear speakers in a 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system? In homes where wires were not installed during construction you can be left thinking that there is just no place to run them without crossing walkways or doing major construction to run them in the walls or ceiling. One option is to install special wire under the carpet that is only an eighth of an inch in diameter. Of course, you will need to pull up your carpet and then reset it but this is much easier than ripping drywall. And perhaps it is the perfect excuse to get new carpet for your media roo

Aliens Behind the Couch or How to Set Up Your Surround Sound System

Few things enhance home movie viewing like a new home theater surround sound system. Watching sci-fi and horror movies becomes much more of an experience when you can hear creatures sound like they are sneaking up from behind you or a laser blast zips from one side of the room to the other! But how to do you set up your system to achieve these great effects? It all comes down to speaker placement. Most home theater systems will have five speakers and a sub woofer and many will have seven speakers and a subwoofer. These are a called 5.1 and 7.1 systems respectively. Fortunately, a little bit of information on setup goes a long way. With most systems there will be three speakers at the front near the television or screen. The center channel speaker is situated directly above or below and centered on the screen. The front of the speaker should be flush with the edge of the screen. Be sure the speaker is on top of or very close to the screen otherwise the sound can ap