If you’re building a home theater system in your Huntsville, AL home, the first thing you’ll need isn’t necessarily the big screen or speakers—it’s the receiver. The receiver is the centerpiece of your home theater system. Also known as an AV receiver or surround sound receiver, it provides the outputs and inputs for each device and instructs your speakers what surround sound to play.

The core features of a receiver are the power output, surround sound formats, and connectivity. An excellent receiver will also offer high-resolution audio, automatic speaker set-up, iPod/iPhone compatibility with Bluetooth, and Internet streaming. Technology moves fast, so you’ll want a receiver that offers expandability and new features, just in case.

To help you decide what home theater receiver is right for you, continue reading our review of three top receiver brands. 

As an architect, interior designer, or builder, you’re not expected to be an AV expert. When working with your clients, you are working through a long list of requirements regarding floorplans, space utilization, design, lighting, and a host of other things. Your clients may very well want a sophisticated and flexible array of audio and video entertainment options in their new home, but sometimes the infrastructure and design aspects of that get lost in all the other details.

It’s much easier, simpler, and cheaper to incorporate home audio video design considerations early into your next project. Why? Because not thinking about wiring infrastructure – electrical and low-voltage – may affect the flexibility of what you can do later. Also, acknowledging specific client desires with regard to audio and video can influence the size and layout of rooms.

As experienced experts in home audio video system design and installation in the Nashville area, we recommend that you bring a pro – like us – early into your projects to avoid common mistakes that can be costly to rectify. Want to know more? Just keep reading.

When you go to the movie theater, you go for the big screen experience.  And yes, maybe the popcorn too.  All kidding aside, a great movie experience is not just about the big screen – it’s just as much about the big sound as well. Great sound makes you feel like you are in the scene - whether it’s bullets flying above you, car crashes with impact, or whispered dialog in a tense scene that draws you into the drama. 

To get that kind of immersive audio experience, you need a surround sound system.  Many options exist to bring movie surround sound into the home – from relatively inexpensive soundbars to full-blown twelve-speaker systems with high-end AV processors and amplifiers. 

All the choices and terminology for surround sound might feel a little daunting.  In this blog, we’re going to try to demystify it for you and get you on the track to figure out what might be the best surround sound system options for you in Nashville. 

The reason we love movies is that they transport us to another world. When watching from home, that's only possible with a truly immersive movie-watching experience. How can you accomplish that? With larger than live images and surround sound. With the right surround sound setup in your home theater system, you don’t miss the creaking of doors and howling of wind during the horrifying climax or have an intimate scene interrupted by cars driving past your Guntersville, Alabama house. AV Enthusiast can design a solution that surrounds you with realistic sound from every corner of the room.