Adding a Home Theater Receiver to Your Setup
The heart of a home theater system is a receiver, the place where you connect all of your components like the TV, DVD player, and speakers through the input and output jacks. Using a receiver is the cost-effective and easy way to centralize your home theater system, allowing you to access each part from one source. Pioneer offers a range of receivers that you can include in setting up your ideal system.
What Are the Functions of a Receiver?
Before deciding, it's important to understand what the three main functions of a receiver are:
- Multi-channel amplifier: The multi-channel amplifier comes with a specified number of channels and sends the surround sound signals and power to your speakers. On this page, you can find 7.1 surround models from Pioneer, meaning that the systems have eight channels.
- AM/FM tuner: A receiver has the ability to tune to radio stations, with some new models able to access internet radio services.
- Preamp: The preamp component of a receiver controls the selected audio or video source. It is able to process the surround sound signals and distribute accordingly as well as send video to your TV.
What Other Features Should I Look Out For?
In addition to the above functions, you'll find additional features on a receiver that can be useful to you.
- HDMI: You should be able to find HDMI on all modern receivers, but older models may not have it. HDMI is able to send both audio and video signals through a single cable rather than having multiple cables.
- Multi-zone audio: The multi-zone function on a receiver means that a second source signal is able to send to a separate audio system or speakers in another area. This means that you can have the one receiver controlling music playing in one room as well as a DVD playing in another.
- Automatic speaker setup: Most mid-range and upward receivers include an automatic speaker setup system with a built-in test tone generator and plug-in microphone. Using these two things, the receiver can take in the room acoustics, speaker size, and distance to balance the speaker levels accordingly. This is a very handy feature to have when you are not experienced with setting up a home theater system.
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