A 5.1 Sound System consist of 5 speakers and 1 Subwoofer. The Satellites are categories as Front (2), Rear (6) and Center (3). ( The number is a reference from the image as seen on the left).
Speakers Placement and Angling.

Front Speakers should be place next to the Display, but the style of placement varies according to the Types of speakers you have. If you have a Floor Type Speakers, then you should just let it sit on the floor, facing the viewing at an angle of 22°-30°. If your speakers are in a “Bar” shape, then you should wall mount them. Place them far away from each other and make sure your display is right at the center. If you have a Studio Monitor type speakers (those that look like a box; big or small doesn’t matter), then its very much recommended if you place them on a Speaker Floor Stand.

Center speaker placement is rather simple. You can place them either right above the display or right below it. It doesn’t really matter, just make sure they are 0° calibrated, measuring from the viewer sitting position.

Rear Speaker is the speakers that brings magic to the whole system. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to experience your 5.1 Surround Sound. For these speakers, its highly recommended that you place this speakers on a Speaker Floor Stand and place them at an angle of 90°-110° measuring from 0° viewing angle.

Subwoofer can be place almost anywhere, beside your display or at the corner of your room (only do this if your sub woofer is not strong enough to travel to the audience as in audio system, anything goes at the corner gets amplified).

Its important to note that all your front and rear speakers are best to be calibrated at an elevation to your ear level (Tweeter at ear level).(Extra info for newbies : Tweeter are the one that make your sound projected from your speakers to be Sharp and Clear).

Speakers Role ‘n’ Properties.
The Role of your Front Speakers are to deliver music and sound effects. The center speakers is normally used to deliver dialogue/speech. The rear speakers delivers all the background noises and effects. Put all this together and you will get a full surround sound listening experience.

How to get started with my very own 5.1 surround sound system?
There are 2 approach to getting started. It all depends on your budget and how serious you want to go into it. Ofcourse, the more money you spend into it, the higher the quality, the more trill you get. However, it doesn’t mean the more money you spend into your system, you will get the best out of it. Skills and Tweaks also plays a role. To get started, you can walk into any of your retail shop and buy a set of plug and play 5.1 set. They are pretty good, but they are made more for gaming purposes. The complete set will cost at most about RM2K. The other way of obtaining your own 5.1 set it to buy the separate components. Go to professional audio shops and choose your own speakers. You might ask, “They how am i going to make this speakers alive?”. You will then need to buy a separate component known as Receiver. Ofcourse, this will easily cost above RM3K (Receiver only).

This is an example of a Receiver. The Denon AVR-1311 is an A/V receiver, with HDMI 3D, that can be connected to TVs and other 3D video compliant devices such as Blu-Ray disc players, game consoles, and set-top boxes. Of course, the AVR-1311 also supports Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and other HD Audio formats to give you the remarkable surround sound experience that is essential with 3D video. The AVR-1311 is further equipped with Compressed Audio Restorer to let you enjoy a more detailed, dynamic sound from compressed music sources, and a stereo mini jack on the front where you can conveniently connect your portable audio player.

 

This is a Logitech Z-5500. Build in THX system. Recommended for hardcore gamers. Have the capability of projecting surround sound effect. Cost at about RM1500-Rm1800. Elderly of working life who can earn abut 5K – 10K per month wouldn’t not really go for such package as it doesn’t bring out the classy standard and in quality wise is moderate, as to audiophiles satisfaction. However, for students who have abit of budget, and for those young teenage who love the powerful blasting bass experience, then no doubt this is remarkable dream for all. This little baby have the potential of blasting it bass to 188W! Normal sub woofer have the potential of hitting about 30W-80W.
The other factor that matter to audiophile is the response bandwidth. Frequency. Why? To audiophiles the lower and wider the range the better it is for them. This is because it shows that the speaker have the capabilities of picking up  more sound details. A good expensive speaker can have a range of frequency between 35Hz-20,000Hz while inexpensive speakers, response bandwidth is only between 110Hz-20,000Hz.

To read more about Logitech Z-5500 : http://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-audio/home-pc-speakers/devices/224

 

This is a JBL 5.1 Sound System. A very expensive set. It consist of LS60 Floor Stander, LS40 Stand Mounts, LSCENTER and LS120P 12″ Subwoofer. All the satellites measures at  75W  and the subwoofer delivers 400W of raw power! It have a capability of hitting a response bandwidth between 48Hz – 38,000Hz. This is a few thousand dollars of price difference from the Logitech Z-5500.

To read more JBL 5.1 : http://www.tone.co.nz/reviews/jbl-5-1-home-theatre-speaker-system-review