Living Room Sound System vs Dedicated Home Theater – A quick guide on how to decide
Music and cinema enthusiasts looking to take their viewing experience to the next level often have two choices before them –
- Use an existing room or space like a living room to set up a high-fidelity audio-visual system
- Or create a dedicated home theater space with custom interiors to enhance audio quality and carefully chosen audio-video equipment to suit the interiors
To make the right choice for your viewing needs, you’ve got to consider a few key factors pertaining to your budget, the purpose of your project, the kind of equipment and layout you desire, and a few more.
Living room or home theater? – Four factors to consider
Here’s a preliminary list of things to consider before making the choice between a living room audio-visual system and a dedicated home theater.
- Your purpose and use case
The first question to ask yourself is – “What will I use this space for?”
Living room audio equipment – Best for occasional, light viewing
- A simple living room audio setup is preferable if all you’re interested in is casual listening, TV viewing, and the occasional movie on weekends.
- The living room is naturally a multi-purpose space and it needs to be kept that way, so a living room setup will have audio equipment integrated into the existing furniture and decor. This means that the space won’t be customized and optimized for high-grade viewing, but will serve the purpose for enjoying short TV viewing sessions and the odd long movie.
Dedicated home theater – Best for an immersive experience - A home theater is preferable if you want to get the most out of your viewing and listening experience. This is for audio and cinephiles who value rich, spatial soundscapes, and clean aesthetics that both enhance acoustics and transport you to a different setting. Home theaters are also multi-purpose, capable of being used for gaming and high-fidelity music listening.
- Since a home theater is exclusively designed for interacting with high-quality audio and video, the space will be customized with the right audio equipment and interiors to enhance acoustics with the single purpose of creating a high-end viewing and listening experience.
2. Your budget
The second (and possibly most important!) the question to ask is – “What will fit within my budget?”
Living room audio system – Best for low budget
- Since a living room audio setup won’t require treating the space for acoustics, refurbishing the interiors, and putting in custom audio equipment, the budget will be towards the lower end. Home theater setup – Best for moderate to high budget
- A lot goes into a high-functioning home theater including specialized audio equipment, interiors designed after extensive audio analysis, soundproofing, optimal lighting, optimized seating, renovations, and much more. Therefore a high-end home theater will require a bigger budget, however you will get more bang for your buck when it comes to quality.
3. The audio equipment
You’ll want the right audio quality to suit your needs whether you’re leaning towards a home theater or you just want to convert your living room into a viewing area, so the next question to ask is – “What kind of audio equipment do I want?”
Living room – Best for minimal audio equipment
- Since a living room needs to retain its structure so it can still be used as a living room, there will not be much of an opportunity to introduce too much audio equipment.
- This means that a living room audio setup will involve putting in soundbars, compact speaker systems, and integrated home audio; so that the equipment fits with the existing arrangements in the living room. Home theater – Best for custom audio equipment
- A dedicated home theater is built solely for viewing and listening, and will be designed accordingly. Hence high-end components such as AV speakers, amplifiers, and large speaker systems can be easily introduced into the home theater setup.
- Additionally, a dedicated home theater can accommodate large diagonal screens and 4k projectors to enhance viewing even more.
4. The acoustics
Good acoustics are paramount for a good viewing experience but acoustics depend on the space itself, so another good question to ask is – “What level of acoustic quality fits my needs?”
Living room setup – Best for moderate to decent acoustics
- Living rooms typically have windows, furniture, and open areas which cause sound reflections and reduce overall sound quality. Since these components will mostly need to be kept as is, fine-tuning the acoustics in a living room is challenging.
- Due to this, the options for acoustic treatment and soundproofing are limited in a living room set up, causing a dip in overall acoustics. However, with the right audio set up the acoustics can be brought up to a decent quality. Dedicated home theater – Best for optimized acoustics
- Since a high-end home theater is designed specifically to enhance audio performance, acoustics quality will naturally be much higher in a home theater.
- A dedicated home theater can incorporate acoustic panels, bass traps, diffusers, and extensive soundproofing. Additionally, the dimensions of the home theater and the seating can be adjusted to further improve acoustics, making for a cinema-grade viewing experience.
Summary: How to choose between living room audio and a home theater
Here’s a quick-and-dirty table to help you make the right decision when choosing between a living room audio setup and dedicated home theater.
| Key Factors | Living room setup | Dedicated home theater |
| The Purpose | Occasional viewing of TV and movies | Immersive viewing, gaming, high-fidelity listening |
| The Budget | Best for low budget | Best for moderate to high budget |
| Desired Equipment | Minimal audio equipment to ensure decent quality | High-end audio components for cinema-grade viewing and listening |
| Desired Audio Quality | Moderate acoustics for mid-quality viewing and listening | Optimized acoustics via extensive treatment of interiors |
Experience quality viewing in the living room or a home theater
When choosing between a living room audio system and a dedicated home theater there are a lot of factors to consider. However the key factor to keep in mind is that while a dedicated home theater is exclusively built for viewing, a living room serves other purposes as well such as being a cohabiting space for the family and guests.
The purpose of these two spaces are fundamentally different, this difference will affect other factors like cost, equipment required, acoustics, the challenges involved, and more. Hence making the choice between a living room audio setup and a home theater can get complicated.
To learn more about which setup works best for your needs, get in touch with our design consultants today.
