With the lights dimmed, a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn, and the family cuddled beneath a blanket, there’s nothing quite like the experience of watching a film from the comfort of your own couch. But to truly get that immersive cinema experience, the sound needs to be brilliant. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the process of creating a home cinema setup that’s right for your budget, space, and viewing habits—from choosing the right soundbar, to adding deep impact bass, to creating a complete 5.1 surround sound setup.

The idea of setting up a home theater may conjure visions of tangled wires drilled into walls, stacks of complicated receivers, multiple remotes, and a price tag in the thousands. While this might have been true in the 80s, getting theater-quality sound in your home has never been easier or more valuable. (As TVs have become thinner and thinner, the sound they’re able to produce has gotten worse and worse.)

And yet, the number of decisions you have to make in order to set up a home theater that works for you can be overwhelming. With that in mind, we put together this guide to walk you through a few simple decisions you can make in order to experience theater-quality sound at home.

First, let’s talk numbers.

As you begin building your home theater, you’ll likely see the numbers 3.1 or 5.1 tossed around. Before you scratch your head in confusion, these numbers are simply how you refer to different surround sound setups.

The first number describes how many speaker channels are present in your setup, while the second number describes the addition of a subwoofer (more on that later). So, for example, in a 3.1 home theater setup, the “3” represents the three channels of the speaker—left, right, and center—and the “.1” represents the addition of a subwoofer. If you add two rear speakers, then you create a 5.1 setup, which is considered standard surround sound.

Now that you understand the basics, let’s get started.

01 Start with a soundbar

Beam

For smaller to medium-sized rooms (and TVs), consider Beam. Our best-selling smart soundbar does it all. It provides high-definition sound for shows, movies, and games; offers the 3D experience of Dolby Atmos; and, like Arc, when you step away from the screen, Beam can play your favorite music, podcasts, and more with rich, room-filling sound. It also has built-in support for Audible and Calm for quieter moments. It’s simple to set up, automatically pairs with your remote control, and is incredibly easy to control—use the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2, music apps, or your voice. Beam can be placed on furniture in front of your TV or mounted on the wall.

Shop Beam here.

Ray

For apartments, studios, and other smaller spaces, there’s Ray. Our most compact and affordable soundbar brings the drama but won’t blow your budget. Designed with maximum versatility in mind, its all forward-facing acoustic components make it ideal for tucking into a TV stand without any impact to the sound quality. (In other words, you don’t have to worry about your furniture interfering with the sound.) Plus, it connects to virtually any TV and works with your existing remote. Enjoy movies, shows, and music with crisp dialogue and natural, balanced bass. Like all our soundbars, Ray works with the Sonos app, Apple AirPlay 2, and all your favorite music services.

Shop Ray here.

Theater Tip

All of our home theater speakers come equipped with features designed to improve your listening experience. With a quick tap in the app, you can make dialogue even clearer or improve the sound for lower volume levels.

Speech Enhancement: Tap the speech bubble icon on the Now Playing screen to emphasize dialogue so you won’t miss a word—even when the action gets intense.

Night Sound: Tap the half moon icon to balance the sound so you won’t wake the rest of the house (or your neighbors). No more turning up the volume when characters whisper and then frantically turning it down when things explode.

02 Add a subwoofer