Top 6 Most Common 2 Channel Stereo System Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Setting up a 2-Channel system with a turntable or streaming source can be pretty simple. However, there are some common mistakes that we often see so many people make that can give them a less than ideal experience. In our latest video, we discuss these common mistakes and give you some easy fixes to be sure you avoid them. Watch now!

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The 7 Most Common Home Theater Mistakes

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0:00 Introduction
1:03 Mistake # 1 Arranging Your Components In Such a Way That You Create Hum or Noise In Your System
2:51 Mistake #2: Your Turntable Is Too Close To a Speaker or Subwoofer
4:48 Mistake #3: Not Giving Your Components Enough Room to Breathe
5:46 Mistake #4: Using Incorrect Cable Connections
6:48 Mistake #5: Bad Speaker Placement
7:56 Mistake #6: Forgetting About Basic Acoustics
9:19 BONUS TIP
9:31 Overall Recommendation

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[blackdawg]

Great videos guys. A few things from me. Changing the speaker setup and where you place your furniture (couch for you, sofa for me) has made a big difference this year. Changing our sofa to a big corner sofa was a game changer for me. Rush Zanadu has never sounded good. But again the room acoustics is massive for the sound. Anyhow, thanks again for your videos and I’ll be watching again in 2025. All the best, Nick (from the UK)

[davidclark]

One tip. I’ve had my AR-11’s since 1977. The best thing I ever did was get them off the floor and on to tilt back stands. Oh and going to heavier gauge speaker wire. Love your comments.

[Setright]

Great advice!

Even for a seasoned stereo enthusiast, these are good reminders.

[brucesamuelson]

In the 70's we used decorative Cork behind the stereo system to eliminate the echo effect...

[taperpowell]

When I lived in small quarters and could only accommodate 2-way bookshelf speakers, I placed them on top of shelves that were about 6 feet tall and about 2 feet from the back wall. As well as taking advantage of the vertical space, this also helped me create a fairly unilateral triangle with my favorite spot on the couch. And it was helpful they had ports facing the front, not the rear. It was not the most convincing imaging ever, perhaps, but it was very good for what our space limitations afforded us at the time and was not artificially boomy (or annoying to neighbors).

We've since moved house but still have smallish rooms, just more of them. I am excited to see if we can take a larger area in the basement and create something more optimal. May need to consider some room treatments for the first time with concrete walls. Although I actually wouldn't mind a listening room that looked like a recording studio...

[jro]

this excellent had humming noise on one of my turntables only once in a while finally found it to be a loose connection on my cart, recently replaced a cart on the TT but one of the connectors was not on tightly once it was checked no hum all of my equipment are surrounded by lots of air open space rack and my turntables are above speakers so i never get feed back like I use to do when I was younger good video JRo

[nmgt]

I have come across hum created by ground loops when connecting cable boxes or TVs to my stereo amplifier. To solve the problem, I used a ground break between the Cable and the box. I also kept the turntable far enough away from the speakers to minimize feedback.

[skipgordon]

Good points - my preferred setup has only speakers and power amp or amps on the front area. All source gear is 6-7 meters away along the side close to the setting position. Easy assess to everything. The turntable and preamp should be the closest for ease of volume control and changing albums. Yes I know most systems have remotes now. Still this is my preference. Good information in this video.

[flamencoprof]

Excellent overview. I'm 74yo, and I'm pleased to say the set-up of my 1996 system conforms to all these principles due to things I learned around 1973. I just need to fix my amp, hah!
WRT hum, it is useful to know the wavelength of sound at 50hz = 6.8m, at 60hz = 5.66m, thus room dimensions of multiples or fractions of those lengths may emphasise otherwise acceptable system hum.

[steveurbach]

Turntable Hum feedback tip: Never play records with a cover closed over the turntable .The cove picks up the Lows and traps them in with the stylus

[Patrick]

I 100% can attest to rca's near power cords creating background hum. For my home theatre i was getting hum and spent 30 minutes and completely re did its wiring routing power cords together and rca's separate and it made a huge difference.

[chuckmaddison]

I have a Kriesler 11 104 from 1968.
Awesome bass, no wait its feedback.

[jos]

Supra cables are very well isolated, and so a good choice for interconnecting and power.

[willhemmings]

Thanks for the good advice. Don't know if this is the correction of a mistake but I always prefer to listen with the turntable lid raised, the speaker grilles off and the whole system switched on thirty minutes before listening

[RimfireAddicted]

The wiring and electronic placement tips are really useful. They are a not commonly talked about and I think the average listener has little to no understanding they may affect the sound. Great video!

[markrosenthal]

If you still use old-school cable TV, another source of ground loop hum is a CATV coax connection to a component in the system. This can be verified by disconnecting it to see if the hum disappears. If verified, an isolator such as the Jensen IsoMax VRD-1FF will eliminate the hum.

[mistertwo]

Speakers - how far away from the walls? 9.1 setup of small bullet Kefs in a 14' x 30' room. Equilateral triangle was a great tip!

[tharrigan]

Very helpful advice, as always. Thanks!

[stephaneneron]

Heating Baseboard can induce a 60hz in non shielded RCA cable. I had a sub where the source cable was running under a heating baseboard just for 24 inch. Each time the thermostat kicked in, a hum was pretty annoying. I used a shielded RCA cable with at its end a ferrite core to fix the problem. Another tips... Match the impedance of your speakers with your amps. Amplifiers can generate more distortion at 4 ohms than at 8 ohms.

[woohunter]

I have a lot of power in my system so my subs are on a different circuit than my AVR and amplifier. I was getting a slight hum through my subs till I re-routed the RCA cords as far away from power sources as I could.