Digital Home Thoughts: A Plea to Upgrade Your Home Theater Audio

"People put a lot of thought into what their movies, video games and other digital content will look like when they’re getting ready to buy a new HDTV. But most people don’t think enough about what all that high-def content will sound like. Even the most expensive HDTVs deliver relatively poor audio through tiny speakers that are almost an afterthought."

HDTVs have become much more affordable over the past couple of years and while the latest trend is the promotion of 3D TVs, audio has taken a back seat. Home Theater systems serve as an excellent compliment to that shiny big screen TV and can serve to make a much more immersible experience. I think that less attention is given to audio largely because people seem much more willing to tolerate "just enough" and that higher quality audio is not always as readily apparent as a higher resolution video. Two examples come to mind when I think of how people interpret audio, are MP3s and stock earbuds. MP3s still dominate audio in many ways and people seemed to be quite happy with 128kbps quality for the longest time. Sure, higher bitrates are now available but think of how long of road it has to reach that point. By stock earbuds, I mean those lightweight, token earbuds that usually come with your PMP, be it an iPod, Archos or that discount player at Walmart. While competent at playing back music, they hardly are a shining beacon when it comes to audio reproduction, though many might not realize it. The same comes to home theater audio. While tiny stereo speakers may be adequate, a good sound system, while adding quite a penny to your home theater cost, is worth it.