Build the Ultimate Big Game Surround Sound Experience
The biggest game of the year deserves the biggest, boldest sound so the SVS team is here to help with tips for enhancing the in-game audio experience when watching from the comfort of your home. And with tickets costing upwards of $10K a piece, that’s most people.
Is the Super Bowl broadcast in surround sound?
This year’s Super Bowl will be broadcast in head-turning Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound with UHD 4K video, so whether you’re in it for the on-field action, can’t-miss commercials, or halftime show, it’s a home theater sports spectacle like nothing else.
Why does surround sound work for enhancing sports on TV?
TV speakers and most soundbars can’t produce enough dynamic output or frequency range to fully convey the stadium experience. With 5.1 home theater surround sound, you get the feeling of a raucous crowd celebrating every big play all around you, seat-rumbling bass, and pristine dialogue clarity for the game call. Not to mention, a live concert vibe at halftime.
With that in mind, we’ve put together some tips to ensure you’re getting the most out of every action-packed second.
Upgrade to 5.1 Surround Sound – If you’ve never experienced true multi-channel sound, you’re missing out on the immersive experience of sports, movies, and TV. To get started, it requires an AV receiver that powers front left and right speakers, a center channel speaker, and two surround speakers, plus a subwoofer for bass. You wire all the speakers back to the AV receiver with speaker cable and simply run a single HDMI cable to your TV. For help getting started, contact the SVS support team.
Adjust TV and AV Receiver Settings - Nearly all major sporting events are broadcast in crystal clear Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound so you’ll want to make sure your system is properly set up to take advantage. Turn off any unnecessary processing, such as Dolby Pro Logic or DTS Neo:6 and make sure your system is running in multi-channel and not stereo to take full advantage.
Add/Upgrade Center Channel Speaker – No speaker is more important than the center channel for rendering dialogue and anchoring sound to what you’re watching on TV. A quality center speaker lets you hear the play-by-play with greater clarity and helps you feel more connected to the action unfolding in front of you.
Unleash Hard-Hitting Bass with a Subwoofer – Low frequencies can often seem like an afterthought when it comes to sports but when your subwoofer kicks in at the perfect moment with visceral impact, there’s no denying its importance. Try the SVS Subwoofer Matching Tool if you already have speakers and want to find the perfect model to pair with them.
Get Your Speaker Placement Dialed In – The location of your speakers and subwoofer can have a huge impact on performance. For general guidelines on where to place speakers to get the best performance, check out these articles:
Bump up the Surround Speaker Channels – A lesser-known hack is to increase output to the surround speaker channels in the settings of your AV receiver. This is especially useful if you’re hosting a party when the game announcers aren’t as important so you can feed off the energy of the crowd.
Re-Run Auto EQ Calibration on Your System – Whenever you make an upgrade or move your speakers around, it’s always a good idea to rerun the auto-calibration through your AV receiver to ensure the system is tuned to the room.
Score Free Advice from the SVS Support Team – Have a question about which speaker or subwoofer is best for your setup or curious about how to optimize settings? Call, email, or chat with the SVS support team 7 days-a-week. We even do free video chats to help with more complicated questions.
Follow these tips and you can optimize your home theater system performance for a more realistic and engaging audio experience for the Super Bowl or any sporting event.
Browse a wide-range of SVS speaker or subwoofers below, or use out System Builder tool to customize the perfect surround sound setup.
