My top tip to test-drive your home cinema system? Put away the movies (2024)

Testing your surround sound home cinema with anything other than a movie may sound as preposterous as learning the guitar without holding one, but hear me out.

When, in my early days at What Hi-Fi?, I walked in on a colleague one morning, sitting on a sofa, staring at a playing subwoofer out in our test room, with no screen or speakers in action to accompany the sub’s booming sound, I thought I’d better slip out quietly and put that odd behaviour down to a dodgy breakfast. I later learned, however, that they were actually in the middle of testing that subwoofer; it was plugged into an amplifier and a music signal (well, its lower frequencies) was pumping through it. No dodgy breakfast – just an effective method of getting to the heart of the sub’s talents, pre-movie testing. Duh!

Indeed, it makes perfect sense to test subwoofers and generally all home cinema equipment with music (albeit not exclusively, of course). Primarily, the basis of a good surround system is front L/R speakers that play music well. If your front pair doesn’t have the clarity, detail, dynamic expression and organisation to engage you in a pop song, how do you expect it to draw you into a movie’s oft-dense sound effects, dialogue (if it needs to) and musical soundtrack?

Build around the best

It’s why many of our top speaker package recommendations (and What Hi-Fi? Award-winners) are based around class-leading stereo speakers. Indeed, that’s the case with our current 'Product of the Year' winner in the speaker package category – the comprises the five-star 606 S3 standmounts as front left and right channels, and the smaller five-star 607 S3 standmounts as surround speakers, plus the company’s very good HTM6 S3 centre channel and ASW610 sub. And with our favourite budget floorstanding package, the Wharfedale Diamond 12.3 HCP. And with our favourite premium package, the Dali Oberon 5 5.1. You get the picture.

Mind you, it doesn't always follow that a great stereo pair becomes a great surround package due to characteristic inconsistencies, and besides, there are speaker packages where the centre speaker and/or subwoofer let their fantastic front and rear comrades down. For example, while we love the performance of Triangle’s five-star Borea BR03 and BR08 speakers, as well as the accompanying centre channel, in the two Borea 5.1 speaker package configurations we’ve tested, we called the companion Tales 340 sub “a wet lettuce”. Oops. The integration between the components to form a cohesive soundfield is also a crucial factor in a package’s success, of course.

Fat basslines = great sub tests

Similarly, subwoofers that can produce a song’s fat, agile bassline well will be able to communicate deep explosions, thuds and guttural sub-bass with the definition, precision and immediacy they need to be truly effective in the mix. If, say, an electric guitar bassline sounds lean, ill-defined or slow through a sub, chances are your movie experience will be underpinned by not enough bass or – worse – bass that is soft, tubby or ponderous. If you’re lucky enough to have avoided poor subwoofer performance during movie nights, trust me when I say that it can easily ruin the whole experience.

You’ll want your sub to have a good transient response (to respond to the input signal and start and stop promptly without overhang), and it’s typically easier to distinguish that with a musical bassline. Try classics such as Queen's Another One Bites the Dust and Stevie Wonder's Superstition, or something such as SBTRKT's Wildfire or Fat Larry's Band's Act Like You Know – you'll know if it sounds 'right'.

It’s often easier to adjust speaker and subwoofer levels when you’re listening to music you are familiar with, too – especially when it comes to adjusting the crossoverand balance between the fronts and subwoofer so that the result is seamless.(We would, for the record, always recommend following your AV amplifier’s calibration procedure to set up a surround system.)

So if you want to check whether your speakers and subwoofer are performing as they should, why not pop some music through them? Similarly, if you’re looking to invest in a package, start by researching which stereo speakers perform well and can be complemented by a centre and sub. Music is a solid tell-tale for home cinema capabilities, and don't forget that the foundation for a good surround sound performance is a strong stereo one.

MORE:

How to set up your subwoofer: our expert guide to room placement and controls

10 of the best movie scores to test your system

25 of the best tracks for testing bass

Best AV receivers: our editors' choice of the best home cinema amplifiers