What is a Home Theatre Receiver?
The Home Theatre Receiver is an essential part of every home theatre system. It is also known as the AV Receiver, or you may have heard of it as being referred to as Surround Sound Receiver. Most of the inputs and the outputs which you need to connect to your TV are provided by it. A Home Theatre Receiver gives a cost-effective way of centralizing your home theatre system into one unit.
It’s almost like cable service that we all love. I want my Spectrum TV plans to work in every room of my house, wherever I am comfortable to sit while I enjoy the stuff I want to watch. The same can be enjoyed with an HTR.
General Specifications of Home Theatre Receivers
When you go to buy a Home Theatre Receiver, you need to know what it offers you. Generally, it provides a minimum of 5 build-in amplifiers. A subwoofer preamp output is also included. With the help of it, you can enable a 5.1 channel setup which controls front left and right, and surround left and right channel loudspeakers. Also, it supports a powered subwoofer.
It also includes one or more analog and digital optical and/or coaxial audio inputs. A built-in radio tuner facilitates AM/FM or just FM services. It facilitates the system with HDMI connectivity for both audio as well as video signal passage for 1080p resolutions, which can increase up to 4k and HDR video signals passage. Usually, such receivers come with a built-in surround decoding for the Dolby Digital and DTS families of surround formats. These can be used for DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and internet/off-net TV programs streaming.
Manufacturer Specific Home Theatre Features
Some additional features are not common in every Home Theatre Receiver but are specific to the manufacturing brands. You can also get these features included in your Home Theatre Receivers, depending on the availability of services they provide.
These features include:
- Additional amplifiers which can play 7.1, 9.1, 11.1, or 13.1 channel configuration settings.
- A wireless audio-play facility to every room. Some receivers provide sound signals to wireless speakers placed in another room.
- Some provide Ethernet and internet facilities. It allows you to connect to a home router or Wi-Fi source. You can also stream live music from your smartphone/PC.
- It also includes the option of live internet streaming, which allows you to stream directly from your internet radio, or any internet-based music services.
- It may also include a second subwoofer preamp output.
- Some theatres offer direct streaming of content from devices that are enabled by Airplay and Bluetooth.
- Also, voice command is available to control the streaming of music through Alexa or other Google-based assistants.
Using a Stereo Receiver as an Alternative
A Home Theatre looks after your every entertainment unit needs, audio and video both. A Stereo Receiver is manufactured to cater to the audio-only needs. It serves as a control and connection center. Despite all the additional features and facilities it offers, a Home Theatre Receiver may become too much for you if all you want to do is to enjoy listening to your favorite music. It is the choice of many serious music bloggers too.
The core features are entirely different from those of a Home Theatre Receiver.
- It has only 2 built-in amplifiers. They provide a 2-channel configuration of the speakers (left and right side setting). No surround sound processing or decoding is included.
- A Stereo Receiver contains only an analog audio connection option.
Manufacturer Specific Stereo Receiver Features
Like the Home Theatre Receiver, a Stereo receiver can also some additional features. Few of these features are:
- Some Stereo Receivers can include additional amplifiers to facilitate 7.1, 9.1, 11.1, or 13.1 channel configuration settings.
- A Stereo Receiver can also include a second subwoofer preamp output.
- A built-in Audio decoder for one or more than more surround formats, such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Auro 3D Audio.
So, What to Buy Now?
It is true that both Home Theatre and Stereo Receivers provide amazing entertainment experience, but also, crucial to understand that you don’t need to buy both of these!
A Home Theatre Receiver provides a good entertainment experience if you want to enjoy a video and audio surround content. It also provides a good music-only experience too, as it can also operate on a two-channel stereo mode.
But if you looking for an audio-only system, you should go for a Stereo receiver. Add a pair of good headphones and you are good to go!(comes in handy when I have to call my Charter customer service number in-between my music sessions)