Home theaters have come a long way. Since the advent of Netflix, online television and Bluetooth control, smart home technology has outfitted the modern household with fantastic options. Why settle for less when you can have more?

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Once you’ve found the perfect home theater hub, you’ll need to balance your whole house audio platform with acoustics. Sure, houses are big. They’re really big. You needn’t sacrifice audio range, comfort or bass for hallways, entryways and doors, however.

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As any of us who are in the consumer electronics industry, or who have owned AV equipment through the years know, things have changed quite a bit over time. Components use more advanced materials in their construction and features continuously evolve to accommodate more complex configurations. But perhaps the greatest change has been the transition from analog to digital formats. This transition concerns not only television signals, but encompasses a broad range of technology, impacting nearly every aspect of AV systems and changing the way in which end users interact with the technology.

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So, have you decided to upgrade your home technology, music, or theater system? Perhaps you already own one of these systems, so it would seem as easy as just connecting the new devices that you purchase, and you’re done.

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If you have ever owned a baby monitor or a wireless intercom from your local Big Box retailer, you have experienced wireless audio at its most entry level. Sound quality is typically mediocre at best, range often falls short of ‘perfect world’ specifications, and interference is just part of life. Such technologies have to some extent, given wireless audio a bad rap.

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How do you listen to music? The ways in which we like to consume the acoustic arts vary as much as our tastes in the music itself. Some people would see anything less than a grandiose stereo system as inadequate, while others may prefer the mobility of discreet, personal headphones and a digital media source in their pocket. Many use their home theater as a dual-purpose instrument, delivering a movie theater experience and also their music-only listening when desired.

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We’ve all seen the most esoteric of home theaters in magazines and on the Internet. Affluent people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment, architecture, furniture and cables that cost more than some cars. It is most certainly glamorous, but not within reach of most consumers. Many of us have other minor expenses like mortgages, food, auto payments and college funds to concern ourselves with.

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Over the many decades of evolution in the entertainment technology field, functionality has always been ‘coming together’ into increasingly capable solutions. To listen to high quality audio in the 1950s, you needed a preamplifier, a tuner and a power amplifier. These were the core components required to drive a set of loudspeakers. Harman was the first company to integrate all of these into what became known as the ‘receiver’.

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Before deciding whether stereo or surround sound equipment is best for your needs, it is vital to define how you intend to use it. Do you prefer listening to music in one room, or do you often entertain with movies and popcorn?

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As audio technologies evolved over the years, it became obvious that music listeners were moving toward computer-based audio.  However, consumer electronics were not adjusting to this rapidly developing trend. Sure, you could connect your portable music device, laptop or PC to your home stereo via a plethora of splitters, cables and adapters, but you would still be dealing with typically low-quality, analog output stages or headphone jacks.  Sound quality was mediocre at best and horrible at the other end of the scale.

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