Home theater audio - should I just hook up my old stereo speakers?

[gardensallday]

It seems like people are used to crappy sound nowadays. The speakers are just too small to deliver the sound. Should I just hook up my old stereo speakers from the 80's when everybody had huge speakers in their living room, or are there some home theater systems that really deliver the sound? People brag about their sound systems, and geez, the bass just does not woof and vibrate into my chest like my old 3 way speakers. I have just been underwhelmed.

Some background on this issue would be really helpful!!

 

[bbt91945]

This all depends on the speakers you have. Those bargain price speakers are not very clean sounding speakers. Today's receiver have a dedicated sub woofer output that you connect a powered subwoofer to. The stereo receivers does not have have one and the speaker you connect to it has to be able to handle the low bass frequency. The level of power going to the speakers are the same and if you have a low power receiver you are not going to get allot of bass. The low frequency of 80HZ and below demands more power when you drive the volume up, if you are using say 10 watts and the signal doubles your receiver has to have a 100 watts of power if not you are going to get distorted sound. If you receiver only has a 50 watts and the demand is 100 watts you can burn the power amplifier of the receiver. You can not separate the frequency on a stereo receiver. While multi channel receiver you can make adjustment to what frequency can go to your subwoofer and the the front speakers. Keep in mind that the side or back speakers will not get any low frequency at all, they are mainly for sound effect. Let your own ears be the judge when comparing speakers, and demo them with your own source of music and listen to one song only to the speakers you are comparing. Hope this will help you out.