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Soundbar or home cinema? Keys to choose well

Home devices for listening to music, your favorite movies or series, as well as your radio programs have taken a radical turn in recent years. The sound bar or home theater are the most popular to use in conjunction with television. The most advisable thing is usually to bet on one of them, the one that best responds to your tastes and needs. Which is better? What advantages does one have over the other? Find out now.

Criteria for choosing a sound system

To achieve almost cinema sound in your living room, a home theater is the answer. They are sound equipment that has evolved a lot in the last decade, becoming more beautiful, easier to install and of course, more powerful, also gaining in performance. The sound bar or the home cinema are the most common equipment.

Experts in home equipment for the home coincide in pointing out some advantages and needs that should guide the choice of a home cinema for the home.

The size of the room

In order to fully enjoy the qualities of a home theater-style sound system, it is important to have the space. The size of the place where you are going to install it does matter a lot. You have to adapt power to meters , as with the television screen when choosing it  and its dimensions. The large and spacious rooms - from 20 meters - are ideal to choose a complete   and powerful home cinema where the sounds and all their details can be truly appreciated.

There are minimum distances and centimeters recommended for the installation of the different parts of the home cinema , different for each model. It is important to respect them and consult them before buying the device, measure your living room calmly and then buy accordingly. Keep in minds that if you do not put the speakers in the places and at the recommended distance, you will not get the cinema results you expect, so there is no point in making an economic investment.

Installation space, a practical detail

Home cinemas are of different powers and sizes, but as a general rule, in order to be complete and offer you really cinema sound , they are made up of several pieces: a subwoofer and different speakers, at least two, but the more you can install the better and the more authentic the sound experience will be in your home.

Although the dimensions of the components of the home cinema have been reduced a lot with the new technologies , do not be fooled, it needs its real space. The subwoofer is a big box and you can't - or it wouldn't make sense - to remove it from your home theater. It takes care of the overall quality of the low-frequency sound, which is a must for enjoying the movies with home theater sound. The speakers have to be in strategic points depending on how the places from which you are going to watch television and hear the sound are also distributed to create the surround effect for example.

Style and aesthetics, a personal touch

There is a wide variety of home theater models on the market, including a wide price range and numerous designs . It is a detail that must also be valued when choosing this type of device since they are elements that become part of the aesthetics of the place where they are installed and it is attractive that it also coordinates with the television .

You will easily find home cinema with curved and straight lines, especially in black and / or with metallic details. For those who prefer vintage style, look for equipment with touches of wood or as simple and simple as possible if you want them to go unnoticed. In general, there are models in which the speakers can be hung on the wall or placed on the floor with specific brackets. A trick? If you have small children or pets, the best ones are those that can be anchored to the wall and of course, choose systems without cables.

Other important details

Do not lose sight of whether you are going to opt for a home cinema and you already have the television to which you are going to install it, which must be compatible with it. It seems obvious, but it is not so much if you take into account that in a very short time both screens and sound devices have advanced a lot. It is easy that if you choose a state-of-the- art home cinema , demand a similar TV or you will not be able to fully enjoy all its qualities.

Although offering you a cinema sound in your favorite series or movies is the main function of these equipment, value getting extras that are common in home cinema. For example, it is common for them to have a Bluetooth connection system , which also allows you to play sound that you have stored on your mobile or tablet.

When is the soundbar the best option

If a complete set is too cumbersome for us, improving the sound quality and listening experience with a sound bar is still a good idea. If you have little space and little time to do a multi-element installation, this is a great solution.

The sound bar is a very good idea for many homes, choose the most appropriate for your case knowing its advantages and following the tips of the experts.

             Improve the sound . A sound bar will always improve the output audio from your television screen. Although it is important that you are clear that the best and most professional sound, the optimal sound and the one that allows you to improve the most parameters is given by a home cinema. However, if due to dimensions and other details or simply because you don't want such a special sound or you don't need it, a sound bar is a very good idea.

             Quick and easy installation . There is no choice but to recognize that the installation of a sound bar is simpler and more comfortable than that of a home theater . To start with, it usually has fewer elements, it can be just a bar, it needs, therefore, always less space to install and less complexity to adjust and synchronize.

             Versatility . If you want to improve the sound on your television, but also when you play the console or simply listen to your favorite radio programs, the sound bar is your best option. Given its maximum simplicity, less size and weight along with the ease of installation, your sound bar can be installed today in the living room with the TV, tomorrow in the room of the game console and the next day, if you go to your second residence, take it with you comfortably and put it on the laptop. The spectrum of use and the mobility of a soundbar beat those of the home cinema, without a doubt.

Both the sound bar and the home cinema are included as sound devices that you can protect from any domestic accident with your MAPFRE Home Insurance,  do not forget to include them in your policy, whatever your choice is to always enjoy them in perfect condition.