Home audio systems are

audio electronics Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

intended for home entertainment use, such as

shelf stereo A shelf stereo, also stereo, micro component system or mini component system, is a compact stereo system. They are usually both small enough to fit on an average shelf (hence their name) and sold with all of their necessary components packaged to ...

music centre A music centre (or center), also known as a music complex, is a type of integrated audio system for home use, used to play from a variety of media. The term is usually used for lower end or sub- high fidelity equipment. In American English, th ...

s and

surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to s ...

receivers. Home audio generally does not include standard equipment such as built-in television speakers, but rather accessory equipment, which may be intended to enhance or replace standard equipment, such as standard TV speakers. Since surround sound receivers, which are primarily intended to enhance the reproduction of a movie, are the most popular home audio device, the primary field of home audio is

home cinema Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and audio equipment that is set up in a roo ...

History

Monaural

Home audio dates back before electricity, to Edison's phonograph, a

monaural Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...

, low fidelity sound reproduction format. Early electrical phonographs as well as many other audio formats started out as monaural formats.

Stereo

Stereophonic sound Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

was invented as a means of creating a sound stage, a more realistic reproduction of the sound as recorded live. Stereo sound usually refers to two-channel audio, but technically it refers to anything better than monaural audio, as the term literally means "solid sound."

Quadraphonic

Quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

sound was a four-channel reproduction system, which is considered to be the origin of

. It was recorded on phonograph, tape, and a few

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octobe ...

, and required a quadraphonic player for playback. The format was released in 1970 and never gained much popularity.

Surround sound

Surround sound Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to s ...

formats were used in movie theatres dating back to Disney's

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

, and became available to consumers in the late 80's. There are many formats of surround sound, differing based on the type of decoding processor they used.

Dolby Pro Logic Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 ...

is one of the oldest processors, creating four channels, and

Dolby Pro Logic IIx Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 fo ...

is one of the newest, creating seven or eight discrete channels. Competing technologies have complicated the purchasing decisions of consumers.''Downtime, Home Theater: Rival Sound Formats Mean Consumer Static'' Downtime By Lawrence B. Johnson March 5, 1998 Technology section New York Times https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E0DB1331F936A35750C0A96E958260

Player equipment

High-fidelity (hi-fi) equipment became available to consumers, followed by boomboxes becoming popular in the 1980s due to availability of cheaper batteries.

References

Sources

"Breaking the Sound Barrier" theage.com
{{Audio players Audio players Consumer electronics