Everything you need to know about sound bars… at Rapallo, we love discrete multi-channel goodness. Unfortunately, we also understand that Read More

If you spend any time at all on AV forums, you’ll run into hundreds and hundreds of posts along the lines of “Help, I have x amounts of dollars to spend on a home theater, and I haven’t got the first idea of what I should buy.” Leave it to Rapallo to set you on the road to what we consider a pretty decent middle of the range home theatre 5.1 system under $7,500. (Add a projector and a projector screen for under $12,000 all in.) Sure, that is a decent amount of money but it should give you a fair range of options. It’s about making smart choices; going for products that punch well above their weight and excel in smart high quality design without whistles and bell and fancy designs you can easily do without.Simply put, we’re out to build an excellent system for you that delivers big on sound, while remaining acceptable both within budget and in aesthetics for your other half. Yes, we can have it all.

A few weeks ago we talked you through home theatre speaker placement in the ideal case of having a separate rectangle shaped room that is dedicated to the joys of home theatre shenanigans. While this is all very nice for some, most of us don’t have an ‘ideal room’ and have to double function the living room. This means that the room might not be rectangular at all; you may have to deal with an open plan living room that opens up to a kitchen and dining area. You may not have an entire wall space dedicated solely for your 5.1 or 7.1 front speaker set-up. You may actually have to work with a tiny apartment and the last thing on the option list is a pair of tower speakers and a massive subwoofer.  Or the kids may display some early engineering skills and have a secret desire to remodel your brand new speakers.

Many a word has been spoken on the topic of speakers. They are probably the most ‘in your face’ aspect of an audiovisual set-up and prices can range from plain cheap to astronomical price tags. Apart from reading reviews and deciphering specs, what actually makes a good speaker? The obvious thing to look at is the loudspeaker driver. We’re talking woofers, tweeters, midranges and the likes.