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.