A complete home theater speaker package includes front and matching side/rear surround sound speakers and a powered subwoofer to provide the low frequency bass. Without the side-to-side, front-to-back, and back-to-front audio effects produced by a properly selected and set up multi-channel surround sound speaker system, it's impossible to be truly immersed in the middle of all the action, and that's sorta the point of it all!

A home theater speaker system must be connected to a home theater receiver which contains HDMI and other A/V inputs and outputs, handles source switching, performs digital surround sound audio processing, and powers each speaker channel except for the self-powered sub.

Be sure to leave room in your home theater budget to purchase enough (in-wall) speaker wire to run from each of the speaker output terminals on back of the receiver to each speaker location, and a subwoofer cable to run from the sub pre-out on the back of the receiver to the subwoofer.

If you want to experience true surround sound inside your home, here are the home theater speaker setup possibilities:

• 1 long soundbar speaker which provides audio for front left, center, and front right channels + 2 surround effects speakers + 1 sub. Pinnacle makes multiple four-piece 3.1 speaker packages like this.

• 3 individual speakers for front left, center, and front right channels + 2 surround effects speakers + sub. These six-piece 5.1 home theater speaker packages are the most common. For example, check out Definitive Technology.

• 3 individual speakers for front left, center, and front right channels + 4 surround effects speakers + sub. These eight-piece 7.1 home theater speaker systems ideal for large rooms are not as common.

→If your particular situation won't allow for running speaker wires to rear surround effects speakers, consider a virtual surround soundbar speaker + subwoofer.

Before doing any surround sound (pre-)wiring, you should plan out optimal surround sound speaker placement locations, as well as where you are going to place the rest of your home theater components. Unless you're building and installing a custom high-end dedicated home theater room in brand new construction, there is no such thing as the perfect room setup for surround sound! The goal is to maximize what you CAN control within the constraints of your room size, shape, floor plan, etc.

Home theater surround sound speaker layout is always in relation to the location of the television screen. The most important speaker, the center channel speaker is primarily used for dialogue on movies and TV programs, so it should be placed/aimed at about ear level when seated, as close to the TV screen as possible, usually directly below or above it. If you will be setting up a video projector and projection screen, you should consider purchasing a perforated projection screen if you want the center channel speaker to be located behind the projector screen.

The front left and front right speakers will probably perform at their best when placed equidistant from the center channel speaker to the left and right sides of your television screen at approximately the same height. Floor standing tower speakers, in-wall/on-wall speakers, and bookshelf speakers (either affixed securely atop speaker stands or wall/ceiling mounted) are the most common types of front left and right main speakers. In a 5.1 surround sound speaker system, surround effects speakers, especially those with a bi-pole/di-pole design, will sound best when located to the left and right sides (or slightly behind) your home theater seating area, preferably at least at or above ear level -- either affixed securely atop speaker stands or wall/ceiling mounted.

With 7.1 speakers, you will have the pair of surround speakers to the left and right of your seating area plus two more speakers located behind you.

Your subwoofer(s) will usually sound best located somewhere near a corner or in the vicinity of the front left and front right main speakers. Experiment a bit -- deep bass tones are omni-directional, so you usually cannot pinpoint exactly where the bass sounds are actually coming from.