Sound decisions.(Gift Guide)(audio)(Cover Story)(Buyers Guide)

A "sound system" can now mean anything from an old-fashioned two-speaker stereo to a full home-theater setup with a TV, other video components, and up to six speakers. This special section focuses on the equipment at the heart of every audio assemblage: a component (often an integrated receiver) that amplifies audio signals and various speakers that turn those signals into sound.

Like most electronic gear, those audio components have dropped in price; a very good digital receiver and a full complement of six speakers can now be bought for less than $600. But selecting a system a la carte requires that you ensure that components are compatible and connected in the right way--a major headache, especially if you're also adding video devices to the setup. Unsurprisingly, there's growing interest in preselected packages that combine receiver, speakers, and often other components. These turnkey solutions, including minisystems and home-theater-in-a-box systems, simplify purchase and setup and can offer fine sound. But they may limit how easily you can upgrade the system.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

The components of a multichannel audio setup

A sound system can have two to six channels, each with its own dedicated speaker and all powered by a single receiver. Space and simplicity argue for a two-channel stereo setup, but there's growing reason to complicate your life with a multichannel, multispeaker system. Its attractions include a wider range of multichannel audio formats that feed it (see "Soundtracks: Decoding the Encoding," below) and the growing ability of receivers to manipulate any sound source (see page 20). While you'll probably connect video and other audio components to such a setup, here's a primer to its key audio components, the receiver and speakers.

1 The receiver Sound-system central. Powers the speakers, tunes in radio signals, and acts as a switching center to amplify and reroute signals from the audio and video components that supply the system. The receiver may be a separate component or part of a minisystem.

2 Main (or front) speakers The only speakers for a stereo setup, these carry the left and right front channels from multichannel sources---important for the sense of spatial "movement" in movies.