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Picture is only half the Home Theatre High Definition experience

Surround sound completes any home entertainment set-up

Surround sound is everywhere. All DVD movies are encoded with full surround sound. Many PLAYSTATION®3 games are created with it. HD broadcasts will have it as standard and live broadcasts are already transmitted in it.

Why? Because compared to stereo sound (coming at you from only one direction) surround sound immerses you in a 360° arena of pure audio, reproducing sound as if you were right there in the recording studio.

Broadly defined as up to ten times the quality of a typical DVD soundtrack, HD sound tends to accompany HD visual playback. On Blu-ray DiscTM there’s plenty of storage capacity – enough for you to enjoy the highest quality HD sound and pictures at home just as the director intended.

But don’t worry if you’re not ready to go all-out ‘High-def’ just yet - there’s plenty in our range to choose from, whether you’re looking for an all-in-one simple solution, contemporary or ‘invisible’ design or high performance separates.

A great many of our home entertainment systems also incorporate or support DVD. A surround sound system capable of handling HD sound will still work well with a standard definition CRT television, and make the very most of the full surround sound encoded onto all DVD movies.

Surround sound configurations

Making sense of the numbers

Sound is naturally received by the human ear from all around us, and we are quite adept at determining the direction and distance of specific noises.

To re-create this effect with home entertainment set-ups, speakers must be positioned around us and each one fed with its own unique ‘channel’ of sound. Why? Specific sound effects like a helicopter passing overhead are effectively mimicked by increasing and decreasing the volume of the sound effect – that’s across, to and from the speakers surrounding the listener. Generally, the more speakers you have the more realistic the effect.

Some of our systems are referred to as 2.1 and others, such as the higher performance amplifiers, support a 7.1 set-up.

The most common configuration uses six independent channels of sound and requires six speakers. This is known as 5.1 and is comprised of one front centre speaker, front left and right speakers, rear left and right speakers and one ‘non-directional subwoofer’ (the .1 element in 5.1) to handle the bass.

7.1 is simply a 5.1 configuration with additional speakers directly to the left and right of the listener. This is best achieved in a larger room and is most popular with real enthusiasts. However, often the side speaker output is synthesised as very few titles come with 8 independent channels of sound.

2.1 comprises two front speakers and a subwoofer. It still delivers vastly superior sound - more than any television could achieve on its own. Clever technologies enable a 2.1 system to create the illusion of surround sound, which is ideal for smaller living spaces or bedrooms where you may not have space to set up six speakers.

Home Theatre needn’t be complex

Simple, innovative, clever and good-looking solutions

As part of our heritage and ongoing commitment to excellence in the field of sound, we continue to develop new and innovative surround sound solutions. The same cutting edge studios used to master our movie soundtracks are also used to develop the products that faithfully reproduce those movies in your home.

Because surround sound brings such dramatic enhancements to home entertainment, we’ve developed a huge range of products to make this technology as simple and accessible as possible:

Easy out-of-the-box options: You don’t need technical knowledge to set up a Sony Home Theatre package. In 15 minutes and three simple steps, getting up and running is straightforward. Connections couldn’t be easier and sound preferences are easily optimised for any room.

Easy to use: With a single push of a button on one remote control, you can operate your whole Sony Home Theatre set-up. Play music, home movies, radio and portable MP3 files all through one system – with sound levels automatically optimised to suit your individual room acoustics.

Clean living with unobtrusive technology: With simple good looks and neat styling, Sony technology is smaller than you think - but big on spectacular sound and image quality. Choose from wireless and ultra slimline speaker options, or advanced surround sound using only three speakers.

For the enthusiast, we have a comprehensive range of separates and peripherals. When combined with our top end BRAVIA LCD televisions, they faithfully re-produce our blockbuster movies with the capability to deliver a ‘superior to cinema’ performance in the comfort of your own home.

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