Experience your favorite music at home with a high-quality sound system.

Can you remember what songs you and your friends were listening to in high school? Can you remember what song was playing when you got married or had your first child? We all can! Just like photographs, we mark special moments in our life by the music of the times or the songs we liked. There was something emotionally uplifting about putting on your favorite, record or CD! Certainly surround sound is extremely cool, but listening to music the way most of it was recorded, in two channels, takes us beyond the physical sounds or words and brings us closer to that emotional connection to our past, present and future. The answer is to dedicate the space and budget necessary to create a high-quality twochannel experience in your home. It is an investment that will give you and your family an emotional connection for years to come.

Sound quality has improved so much over the past 30 years that consumers have literally stopped worrying about it. The reason for this problematic situation is due to the brain having no concept of “good.” It only knows “better than it was exposed to last!” This means almost everything you hear today will be better than what you had been listening to before. We have forgotten a generation of music lovers in favor of getting speakers and products that would disappear into the surroundings.

Don’t let that deter you anymore. Today’s technology has come up with designs that are not only invisible, but will outperform products that are substantially larger and more expensive. The only problem is you won’t find most of these leading-edge technologies in a big box retailer.

The issue of stereo versus surround sound or multi-channel is also somewhat confusing, but perhaps it would help if you remember that almost every musical recording begins as twochannel. Surround exists by steering certain information into different and additional channels. The two primary channels are left front and right front (like the ears). The advent of home theater has put multi-channel sound (aka surround sound) into our lives forever, and while that was an elevating experience for movies, it couldn’t quite replace the warmth and finesse of a good stereo when it came to reproducing music.

We suggest finding speakers that perform to your taste and are right for your room. The speakers are arguably the most critical element in a stereo, and since each person hears differently, it is a good idea to start by finding speakers that you love. Here’s a tip: Speakers that sound good with music will also sound good with theater, but the opposite is rarely true. Theater speakers can deliver the dynamics and impact of music, but often fall short when it comes to warmth and finesse.

Additionally, the cabinet plays a very important role in the loudspeakers’ ability to faithfully recreate sound. It is for this reason that most really good two-channel stereos do not incorporate in-wall-type loudspeakers.

Another important note: Just as the cabinet has a significant impact on the sound of the speaker, so does the room influence how that speaker will sound. If there is a lot of glass in the room, you probably want to temper your desire for metal dome tweeters, as the resulting sound could potentially be “bright and shrilly” sounding.

The next step is to choose the right amplification. This will usually be in the form of an integrated amp or a separate power amp and pre-amp Combination. You will need to consider several strategic factors: Will it match well sonically with my loudspeaker? Does it have the power and speed to adequately drive my loudspeakers? Does it image (recreate the position of the instruments on the stage) well enough for the speakers to mentally disappear? Tube amplifiers are growing again as a category, because they tend to provide a certain emotional connection that is not generally associated with solid state designs. Try to incorporate separate components.

The third step will be to determine what sources of music you and your family will be listening to. You may have Cds, SACDs, HD Radio, XM, digital media and more. There are affordable, high-performance choices available for all of these formats. Maybe you remember records? Turntable sales were up 37 percent in 2009. Also in 2009, record sales jumped a whopping 33 percent to 2.5 million copies. 2008 boasted 1.8 million copies sold and 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007. Records are coming back. Why? Because many music experts believe they sound better.

There are even more things to be considered, such as the cables and interconnects you will need, stands for the speakers (if necessary), furniture to house the electronics, and possibly even room treatments or control technology. The really fabulous news is, once you have ventured down this road, you will feel like a kid again! You will want to listen to YOUR music again and you may even want to buy some new music again! Stereo/twochannel audio systems are infectious and will impact how you spend your time at home.