Home Theater Logos

CIn a typical Canadian home theater store, it’s hard to miss the home theater logos plastered across most of the products, particularly in home theater audio equipment. To the home theater enthusiast, these logos can mean a significant difference in price, quality and overall listening experience. For the first-time buyer, however, they’re simply confusing. If you’re part of the latter, here’s a quick guide to common speaker brand logos and what they mean.

Dolby Digital: This is Dolby’s trademark sound technology featuring 6 channels: two front ones, two back ones, one at the center front, and one on the center back. A subwoofer is added to handle the bass, which requires more power.

Dolby 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1: The first numbers refer to the number of unique channels in a system (two, five and seven), and the .1 refers to the bass channel or subwoofer which is isolated. The 5.1 and 7.1 systems are most common in Canadian home theater systems.

Dolby Pro Logic: Pro Logic was introduced in 1984 and changed the traditional left and right sound into a left, right, and center configuration. The first one had a mono channel added at the rear. Pro Logic II introduced a five-way system plus a bass speaker, and Pro Logic IIx converts the existing system into a 7.1.

DTS: This stands for Digital Theater Systems, a successor to Dolby Digital featuring better fidelity for uncompressed audio. The difference between Dolby Digital and DTS is seldom noticed by the average Canadian home theater listener.