Audio Systems: surround sound speakers for TV, vcr tapes, sound processors

Question
I want to hook up some extra speakers to my tv..... completely ignorant what i need to buy... do i just buy speakers and hook up the audio cables.. i seen some with 'sub woofers' amplifiers... not sure what these do or if i need to look for speakers with those two things included.

Answer
I think I know what you mean, but just for clarification you always need to have an amplifier connected to a speaker to make it work - surround-sound processors often come WITH amplifiers.

And no, just adding more amplifiers and speakers is NOT the same as "surround sound" - surround sound actually includes several different channels of audio that each (usually) play through a different speaker.

If you're just watching cable TV that you've run from your wall into your TV - don't bother.  Save your money.  Ditto for VCR tapes - there's no "surround sound" audio comming off of that.

If you watch alot of DVDs however, and your DVD player is nice enough to have a "digital audio" output then you might want to cosider it.   I (and people like me) often mock the "Home-theater-in-a-box" system but if you're not a discriminating audiophile and want to dip a toe into the "surround sound" world then some of the lower priced systems, such as this one from Onkyo, may be something to consider:
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-S590&class=Systems&p=i

At the very least I bet it will be an improvement over your TV speakers.

Also, your mention of "subwoofers" and "amplifiers" in the same sentence may be alluding to "amplified subwoofers".  Purchasing an amplified subwoofer is something you should do only after you get the surround processor and speakers squared away (that is, if an amplified subwoofer isn't already packaged with the system).  The amplifier installed in this subwoofer is only for the sub speaker - it won't power anything else.

Since I got into this way back at the start of "multi-channel audio" I'm not all that familiar on what remedial information is out there to get you up to speed, but I found these fairly quickly and don't object too much:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surround_sound
http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-3iZLvNoy2JA/learningcenter/home/ht_intro.htm...
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html


Let me know if you have any further questions.