Front Left and Right Speakers Home Theater Shopping Guide

In home theater, the front left and right speakers offer a wide soundstage that blends with the video to create a more realistic and exciting movie experience. In addition to reproducing the musical score, front speakers handle the bulk of the special effects, which move back and forth between the two speakers in sync with the images on the screen. Front speakers also broaden the soundstage by reproducing off-screen special effects. Finally, the front left and right speakers in your home theater system also act as the left and right stereo speakers for listening to music.

Speaker type. Floor-standing speakers, bookshelf speakers, and satellite speakers all work fine as front left and right speakers. Floor-standing tower speakers have the most impact and provide great low-frequency response, but they also take up more space. Bookshelf speakers don’t reproduce as much bass, but they’re more space-efficient and still sound great. Compact wall-mountable satellite speakers must be teamed with a subwoofer, but they’re ideal if you want big sound from a small package.

Bookshelf and satellite speakers can be placed on shelves or tables, and they can often be mounted on stands or walls.

Voice-matching. Make sure your front left and right speakers are voice-matched to the rest of your speakers, especially your center channel speaker.

Video-shielding. Tube TVs are sensitive to having speakers placed near them. Make sure your front left and right speakers are video-shielded so they won’t adversely affect your TV.