Can happiness REALLY come in a box?

It?s such a great image. The family tears the wrapping off the very large package and discovers a home theater system. Fast-forward a few hours, and everyone?s engrossed in the latest DVD blockbuster.

Too often, though, the dream of enjoying surround sound is overshadowed by the nightmare of setup. Tangled wires and missing connectors can quickly dim the thrill of getting a home theater system — especially if the present is opened on a holiday when the stores are closed!

The Onkyo HT-S760 6.1 home theater audio system. Imagine; all this from just one big box.

I recently assembled a home theater system to find out what setting one up entailed — and to check out surround sound at home. I found I could make the process easy and fast by first asking three simple questions.

Question one: What do you have now?
This is an important consideration, as there are many ways to gain home theater sound. Surround sound requires several things, some of which you may already have. You need at least five speakers: two front speakers, a center channel speaker, and two rear speakers. You also need a subwoofer for the lows (not being a full range speaker, it?s the ?.1? in a 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system). Ideally, all these speakers should be voice-matched; that is, have the same tweeters and similar tonal characteristics. You also need a receiver to act as a control center, taking the sound from the video source and distributing it among the speakers.

You can assemble a surround sound system from scratch, picking out a DVD player, receiver, five speakers and a subwoofer, and carefully matching specs to maximize the potential of the system. This is a great way to go if you already have some high-end gear, such as a receiver or front speakers, and just want to add to your existing system. Plus, it gives you the flexibility to expand and upgrade your system as technology changes, or components need to be replaced.

If you only have a TV and don?t necessarily want to create a system from the ground up, you can go with a ?home theater in a box? (HTiB) system. HTiB systems include all the necessary speakers, as well as a DVD player and a home theater receiver (sometimes as a DVD/receiver combo). All the components are designed to work together, so you can get a good-sounding system with just one purchase.

My setup rested between these two extremes. I already had a basic DVD/VCR combo hooked up to a TV, but I wanted to complete the system in one fell swoop. For that, I needed a home theater audio system. The home theater audio system is similar to an HTiB package, but because it's designed for folks who already have a DVD player, it simply provides a receiver, speakers and a subwoofer.

Question two: What are you getting?
After narrowing my decision to a home theater audio system, I still had some choices. How many speakers did I want? 5.1 surround (five speakers plus a subwoofer) is the standard, but 6.1 (which adds a rear center channel speaker) and even 7.1 (adding two back surround speakers instead of just one) are possible and becoming increasingly popular.

I ended up choosing a 6.1-channel home theater audio system — specifically, the Onkyo HT-S760 — giving me a fuller soundfield than with a 5.1 system. The versatile receiver sends 100 watts of power out to each of the six matched speakers, taking care of just about any volume demands I might place on the system. Plus, the receiver?s DTS Neo: 6 mode takes non-surround sound signals, such as regular stereo and VHS audio tracks, and redistributes them to all the speakers — I could enjoy some version of surround sound with almost anything, even if it wasn't originally encoded that way.

As you?re shopping around, make sure the system you?re considering is compatible with what you have. Remember that while almost every boxed system comes with all the necessary cables to connect the provided components, hooking up what you already own to your new addition is another story.

Onkyo's instructions show how it all goes together. Here, three possible video connections are clearly outlined.

Sometimes, you can reuse cables you already have. To get stereo sound, all I needed to do was reroute the DVD/VCR audio feeds that originally went to the TV over to the receiver, using the same cables I'd used before. To get surround sound, though, I did need a new cable to run from the DVD portion of the player to the receiver. DVD players transfer the surround sound information from the disc via a single digital cable (either optical or coaxial) to the receiver. The Onkyo could accept either optical or coax, but my combo just had a coaxial digital output, simplifying my choice. I began a shopping list of things I needed to purchase for my home theater audio system. Item one: the Onkyo HT-S760. Item two: coaxial digital cable.

Question three: Where is it going?
That is, where will each component be going? Nothing ruins the excitement of getting a new system home more than the realization that it doesn?t fit your room properly. Thinking about your space can help with system selection in several ways.

For example, if you?re using some kind of cabinetry for your components, make sure the opening is large enough, and that there?s plenty of room above the receiver for heat dispersal. The center speaker should either go directly above or below the TV. If it?s going above, make sure the TV has a wide enough top to support it (or else you?ll be adding a center channel speaker shelf to your shopping list).

Look around the room and imagine where the speakers will go. The Onkyo system I chose had fairly substantial speakers (7-11 lbs.), which I needed to mount on stands (clear wall space is at a premium in our family room). Speaker stands became item three on my list. For my setup, the rear center channel would be resting on a buffet table, so I only needed to add four rather than five speaker stands.

You?ll need stands — and perhaps a center speaker TV shelf.

Consider everyday use of the space as well. My system, for example, was going in the family room. If we still had small children, I would have selected a system with much smaller speakers for wall mounting, to avoid the possibility of having a heavy speaker come crashing down on a youngster.

The space/time continuum
Because I had answered the three questions, I arrived home with the Onkyo HT-S760, ready to set it up. With me was everything from my shopping list, including the speaker stands and the cables I anticipated I'd need for hookup. I actually had more cables than I needed but that was fine ? better safe than sorry (especially if you keep the receipts).

At first glance this can look pretty scary.

I soon discovered another important consideration when setting up a home theater system (or any kind of A/V gear): space. By the time I had emptied the box of components, accessories and packing material, I had effectively covered most of the floor. Had this been a holiday with a lot of other presents scattered about, the task would have magnified in complexity and frustration for the assembler (me). As it was, I had the whole floor to myself. With everything spread out before me it was easy to locate the piece I wanted when I was ready for it.

I also gave myself time. I didn?t want to repeat my experience of setting up our stereo on Christmas: rooting through the tangle of cables to find the one I needed; then frantically trying to wrest it from the Gordian knot of connectors while various family members repeatedly asked ?Is it ready now?? This time I blocked out an entire Saturday for the home theater setup. It turned out I didn?t need it, but having the whole day before me allowed me a leisurely walk-through of all the components and cables.

With the help of Onkyo's color-coded diagrams and components, it all made sense.

Like many self-contained systems these days, the Onkyo HT-S760 had user-friendly instructions. Virtually everything was color-coded to ensure easy setup. Each speaker?s terminals were color-coded to match the corresponding terminals on the back of the receiver. The provided cables were also appropriately colored to indicate which speaker they belonged to. Even the packing tape used on the plastic bag for each speaker was the matching color!

The simple illustrated guide laid out virtually every possible combination of hookups to the receiver from TV, VCR, camcorder, etc., taking the mystery out of connecting the new system to what I already had. In cases where more than one kind of cable hookup was possible, the directions consistently outlined each possible connection, in order of good, better, best. As a result, it took only about an hour and a half from opening the box to turning on the system in order to check the connections.

Of course, not every pre-packaged system comes with such a helpful manual. If you?re not sure the system you want will have thorough setup instructions, be sure to buy from a company who can provide after-sale connection help.

Get with the program(ming)
It?s tempting to think that once sound starts coming through the speakers, you?re finished. Although it didn?t take as long as the physical setup, there was still a little more to do; I had to tweak a few settings in the receiver and balance the speakers in order to experience surround sound properly.

Most home theater systems have some kind of test tones to help you set up and balance the system in relation to the room. Onkyo made this process simple with a series of setup prompts. Each prompt gave me some preset selections, as well as the option of making my own adjustments. Following the prompts, I told the receiver how many speakers were hooked up, adjusted the subwoofer, and told the receiver how far away each speaker was from the central listening spot, so it could balance the system. Then I tested and adjusted the volumes of each speaker individually, and assigned all the A/V sources.

Although it sounds really involved, within 20 minutes I was finished. We were finally ready to officially fire up our new home theater system and to answer the most important question of all — is it worth the trouble?

So - Is it worth it?
The setup turned out to be quick and easy — but the real payoff happened when we put that first DVD in the player and turned on the system. Going from the sound of our TV's little speakers to surround sound was an incredible experience.

Action films came alive. Planes zoomed from behind and roared overhead. Explosions shook the floor (thanks to the subwoofer) and sounds had more presence in general. Exciting as it made action flicks, the biggest advantage of surround was that it brought me into the middle of every kind of film. The expanded soundfield gave depth to even the quietest scene. Distinct sounds from the back surrounds, such as crickets chirping or other ambient noises, made settings more natural.

Even our oldest films benefited from the new system. Several of our early DVDs lack a 5.1 soundtrack, but no matter. Using its Pro Logic II Movie setting, the Onkyo receiver enhanced the stereo sound that was there, and created a surround mix. Although not as full-sounding as true surround, it was a noticeable improvement over the original stereo, and added greatly to the enjoyment of the viewing experience.

Music, maestro!
The increasing popularity of SACD and DVD-Audio formats demonstrates the appeal of listening to music in surround sound. You don?t have to replace your music collection, though. You can enjoy enhanced sound with the CDs you already have.

Using the Pro Logic II Music setting, the receiver took the stereo mix from my CDs and distributed the music throughout the speakers in a surround mix. The Onkyo HT-S760 also provided a variety of preset soundfields through which I could run audio. (Other brands have similar capabilities, although the number and names of these different modes vary.) In Onkyo?s Orchestral mode, my classical recordings sounded great, with a spaciousness that made me feel as if I were in a concert hall. The Unplugged setting was better for acoustic music, and kept the sound mostly in the front speakers. Studio Mix worked for most everything else, pulling me into the middle of the music. TV Logic helped the sound from broadcast TV programs, giving it a little more space than before. All Channel Stereo spread the stereo image across all the speakers, making it perfect for entertaining; no matter where I wandered in the room, the stereo mix remained constant.

The Onkyo HT-S760 at home.

The results are in
For me, the Onkyo HT-S760 home theater audio system was well worth the investment. I?ve gained new appreciation of films I?ve known for years, and I get more out of the new DVD movies that we rent. I can now revisit my CD library, listening with a better perspective, and in some cases hear details that were lost in our old two-channel stereo setup.

By asking three basic questions before starting, I had everything I needed to set up the system at hand. Thanks to user-friendly instructions, it was all done in a few hours. Setup wasn?t the nightmare I feared it would be, and now we enjoy the latest DVD blockbusters in a whole new way.