If you like to enjoy the thundering bass and wraparound sound that you often experience at the movie theater, then building your own home theater with surround sound may be just what you need. The technology has been steadily progressing in recent years and now it appears that the equipment and formats needed for true surround sound are in place. And as always, improvements are constantly being made.

One of those recent improvements is wireless surround sound speakers. It's not hard to understand the attraction that such a feature can offer if you have ever tried to set up a home audio system before. Installing the actual electronic components themselves is fairly quick and painless, but then you are faced with the all important question of where to put the speakers so they produce the best sound. And on top of that, you have to figure out how to run the speaker wires so that they aren't hanging out there in obvious sight. And suppose you run the wires for your speakers and then find out that you want to move them around to try a different setup? Well, you can understand how challenging surround sound speaker installation can be sometimes.

So someone came up with the idea of making wireless surround sound speakers instead. It sounds like the perfect solution, and may be for you, but you also should be aware of both the pluses and negatives involved.

On the plus side, you can theoretically place the speakers anywhere you want in the room without having to consider running wires at all. You can also change the configuration of your speakers around easily and find the best surround sound setup that fits your room. Because there are no wires to run, you don't have to color-code anything or make sure that you match up the wires to the right connection which is often so confusing for most people.

On the negative side, there is one major drawback that must be considered and that is how the speakers will be powered. Normally speakers that are connected by wires are powered using the current sent from the receiver or amplifier, but wireless surround sound speakers don't have a power source, so they must be plugged into a wall outlet on their own. That does negate some of the benefits of using them in the first place, namely being able to put them wherever you want without worrying about connections. However, that all depends on your particular room setup and how well endowed your home is for electrical outlets. At least a power outlet should be closer than the receiver that is on the opposite side of the room.

Some surround sound speaker systems are coming with only the two rear speakers setup as wireless. This does make sense as they are usually the ones that create the most problems when setting up a surround sound speaker installation. But before you buy, just plan out your room carefully and decide where in general you would like to put your speakers for best performance and then you can know better whether a wireless surround sound system will be a good choice for you or not.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including audio and video. You can find out more about surround sound setup and surround sound installation by visiting our Home Theater website.