TRUE SURROUND SOUND – IT CAN’T BE BEAT

An essential part of any home theater is a surround sound system that successfully immerses you in “sound all around.” For example, when enjoying your favorite Star Wars movie, you want to feel as if you are right there on the bridge of the Millennium Falcon with Han, Chewy, Luke, and Leia, or riding piggyback with an Ewok on the forest moon of Endor. True surround sound does that for you, due to the strategic placement of various types of speakers in the room. All of the various sounds from the movie soundtrack are fed into different channels of your system, making it possible to direct those sounds to your ears in realistic progression from any location in the room. Just think about all the sounds entailed in such a movie – from the roar of a speeder to the hum of a Light Sabre, to the chatter of Ewoks and the howl of a Wookie, it’s all distinct - yet blended - by a state-of-the-art surround system.

Need a demonstration? At our AV Enthusiast office in Huntsville, we can take care of that! Just give us a call at 256.882.5081 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to set up an appointment.

During your visit, you will find that we have a standard Surround Sound setup: three speakers in the front of the room, four more in other locations, plus a pair of subwoofers. From any typical movie soundtrack, the front left-and-right loudspeakers produce music and special effects, while the center speaker produces clean and clear dialog. The other loudspeakers produce ambient sounds and special effects, and the subwoofers produce deep, rumbling bass sounds (the kind that shakes you in your seat).

For our system, we chose top-of-the-line components from two of our favorite vendors: ARCAM and TOTEM.

First, let’s talk about the ARCAM AV41 pre-amp. It acts as a control center for all audio sources (such as a CD player, AM/FM receiver, or cable box) in our sound system, providing essential signal processing and routing. Noisy signals are cleaned up and weak ones are given a boost, before being routed to the amplifiers.

As perfectly compatible partners to the pre-amp, we opted for two ARCAM amplifiers: the PA240 two-channel amp and the PA720 seven-channel amp. These two powerful amplifiers provide us with nine channels of differentiated, optimized sound to feed our speakers.

To the left and right of our screen, we are using free-standing TOTEM Wind speakers, known for their unique, avant-garde design which aids in producing blended three-tiered frequencies in the high, mid, and low ranges simultaneously. This is especially important for reproduction of the musical parts of a soundtrack.

Directly below the screen, we have a freestanding TOTEM Signature Model-1 center speaker. Being completely compatible with its Wind counterparts is an important feature, in addition to its ability to enhance dialogue clarity and produce the dispersion and resolution necessary for musical tracts.

For our surround speakers, we installed 4 TOTEM KIN IC82s in the ceiling, which provide additional channels of surreal sound in the spaces to the sides and rear of the audience, essentially echoing the sound effects produced by the speakers in the front of the room.

And, last but not least, we are using a pair of TOTEM KIN SUB10 sub-woofers to “shake things up.”

Our team of audio/video technology specialists have the expertise to properly install and set up your surround sound system according to your specific needs and preferences, leaving easy control in your hands.

Once again, contact our office at 256.882.5081 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

We look forward to hearing from you!