Iassociate great home stereo sound with a large velvet couch whose only purpose is to let you listen in silent, distraction-free comfort to a large pair of Advent speakers in front of it.

As a kid, I spent a lot of time sitting on that couch listening to great stereo recordings from my parents’ eclectic vinyl collection — the Beatles’ White Album, Led Zeppelin IV, and Byron Janis and the London Symphony’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. all come to mind.

Sitting there, sometimes I would forget all about the two walnut-veneer boxes producing the sound. I would feel like I was in the room with the players and get lost in the music.

What is stereo sound?

These days a lot of people listen to music on single, standalone wireless speakers. They can sound fantastic, and they’re super-easy to use. But there’s one thing those speakers all strive to do that they simply can’t (unless you have two): deliver true stereo sound.

Stereo — or stereophonic — sound uses two speakers to produce lifelike, 3D audio. Technology for two-channel sound reproduction has been around since the 1890s, and the first mass-produced, high-fidelity stereo records came out in 1957. Even today, pretty much every new song you hear is mixed in stereo.

Recording engineers create great stereo sound partly through microphone placement during recording and partly through the mixing process.

During mixdown, they use a pan (short for “panoramic”) knob to send each mic track to the left or right side of your stereo mix. Some of the musical parts come more out of the left speaker and some come more out of the right. Some parts, like lead vocals, tend to be mixed in the center, coming out of the left and right speakers at equal volume.

With careful recording and panning, a good mix can place different musical elements into a three-dimensional “soundstage.”

Some modern spatial sound reproduction techniques use Dolby Atmos and other surround sound technologies to reproduce an immersive soundstage. To get the most out of them, you’d want to use a multi-speaker home theater sound system.

But most music is presented in a stereo mix. And to hear it the way the artists intended, you should listen to it on a stereo system.

I’m a proud movie buff. Put on anything Tarantino, Ridley Scott, or Satoshi Kon and I’m glad to share my enthusiasm about the film (sometimes to the extreme). But working at Crutchfield has spoiled me a little. I’m used to impactful explosions, crystal-clear dialogue, and immersive surround sound effects. If the movie doesn’t sound fantastic, it puts a damper on my enjoyment.

Setting up a home theater system can seem intimidating, but it’s not that bad once you get started. I’ll walk you through some important considerations and help you get a head start on planning your new home theater system.

Types of home theater speakers

You might have heard the terms “bookshelf speaker” and “Atmos topper” thrown around online before. But what do those terms actually refer to? Let’s break down each kind of home theater speaker to give you a good foothold.

Tower speakers, also known as floor-standing speakers, are usually used as your front left and right speakers. These speakers can be large and tall, so make sure you’ve got adequate space to accommodate a pair.

The center-channel speaker is the most important speaker of all, as it’s what reproduces dialogue and center effects. Without it, movies can sound very thin.

Bookshelf speakers are versatile and can serve as your front speakers, your side surround speakers, or your rear speakers. These speakers don’t take up as much space as towers, and can be compact or a little on the large side.

Surround speakers go behind and/or beside your listening position. These speakers often have two sets of drivers that fire in opposite directions to give your sound plenty of dispersion. They reproduce surround sound effects like rain, explosions, or anything that’s not front and center.

Height speakers, (or Atmos speakers), come in two flavors. You can go the custom-installed route of in-ceiling speakers, or you can add Atmos enabled speakers. These come in the form of toppers that sit on your front speakers and reflect sound down onto your listening position. Some bookshelf and floor-standing speakers have Atmos toppers built in.

Powered subwoofers are what deal out bass and add thump to effects.

There’s no shortage of headphones out there. We offer more than spanning all types of styles, colors, and features.

So how do you find the best headphones for you? I’ve written about and tried lots of headphones, so I can help you narrow down your choices.

The right headphones for the situation

Here’s the most important thing to think about: how and where you plan to use headphones. Different headphones work better in different situations. In the sections below, I’ll take you through the main styles, categories, and uses, and point out some features to look for.

Headphone fit styles

First, there are some basics you should know about fit. There are three different headphone form factors to consider: Over-ear headphones, which surround the ear completely, on-ear headphones that rest on top of the ears, and in-ear headphones — or earbuds — that fit securely inside the ear opening or canal.

It’s the small details that make your music come alive — the sizzle of brushes on a cymbal; the sound of fingers gently gliding along guitar strings; a quick intake of breath before the singer starts. Want to hear all those hair-raising details? Give hi-res audio a try.

Hi-res audio files sound better than CDs. And they sound way better than the compressed digital audio files we get from Spotify, Deezer, Amazon, and most music streaming services. They come much closer to capturing all the nuances of the original performance.

What is high-res audio?

High-res audio formats give you excellent sound quality and the convenience of digital audio files. High-res music files are larger than low-res music files. That’s because they retain almost all the audio information from the original recording. As a result, they take up more space on your hard drive and require more bandwidth for streaming.

Does high-res music sound better?

It depends. Digital audio, like digital images, consists of files of encoded bits of data. And for both, the more data the files contain, the more details of the original are retained. Low-resolution photos can appear murky, especially when they’re blown up. High-resolution photos generally reveal more details when you zoom in. And they usually look clear and in focus in a variety of sizes.

The same is true of digital audio. Low-res audio files tend to sound fine played through inexpensive headphones, smartphone speakers, or small Bluetooth speakers. In these systems, high-res audio can sound a little better, but not dramatically so.

Playing digital audio through high-performance gear is equivalent to blowing up digital images. The more detail your equipment is capable of delivering, the more its absence is noticeable with low-res files. And the more details you can hear with high-res audio.