Who says only millionaires can have home movie theaters? If you have a living room, some cash, and a little bit of ingenuity, you can, too, enjoy movies in a personal theater at home. Most people hook up a TV to a sound system and a Blu Ray player and call it a home theater. Well, that’s only a rudimentary home theater. You can certainly improve the immersive nature of your home movie theatre with some improvements. Here are several suggestions:

1. Use a Single Speaker System

Inarguably, the audio is one of the most important aspects of having a home movie theatre. If you want to listen to the great visuals on the TV as if you are in a real theater, then you need an ace sound system. The key aspect here is that all the speakers in your system are matched. Some movie lovers use old and new speakers and place it around the room to get sound from all angles. This is a bad idea. The sound quality coming from different speakers would vary. This would result in the movie watcher being able to listen to some sounds well but not so much for other sounds. Sound can change between scenes in awful ways when your speakers are not matched. Therefore, buy a single speaker set and use it. If you add speakers, make sure you purchase speakers that suit the system you already have.

2. Invest in a Good Subwoofer

The subwoofer is the speaker that generates deep sounds coming from the TV. When you are in the theater, you can feel some sounds, like a drum, rather than just hear it. That’s the effect created by great subwoofers. If you want to hear the booms of action movies and the bass of music tracks in an immersive manner, then you need a top-notch subwoofer.  So, do your research about home theater sound systems and pick a great subwoofer to truly enjoy the movies.

3. Use a Dedicated Circuit for the Home Theater

Is your home theater system connected to an electrical circuit that is also connected to the fridge, the washing machine, and the air conditioner? Various home gadgets create what’s called “electronic noise” that travels through the circuit system. This noise can sometimes be harmful to sensitive electronic devices, like the expensive central speaker or the Blu Ray player you bought for your home theater. Therefore, it’s recommended to draw power for home theaters from a dedicated circuit. It will be a cleaner and safer way to to get all your entertainment gadgets to perform optimally.

4. Install Better Curtains or Shades

It’s not just the electronic gadgets you need to upgrade to get the best home theater system. Get the feel of a real theater by controlling the light that enters the room. It’s best to have thick curtains, blinds, or shades that can darken the room when a movie is playing. Blinds are typically great because you can control the amount of light that enters the room any time during the day. Light, even ambient light, can affect the picture quality you get on the screen. That’s why real theaters play movies in dark rooms. Recreate these environments at home for the best experience.

5. Buy Better Seats

If you watch movies at the theater, you know how uncomfortable the seating is. At home, this is something you can actually do something about. Therefore, get great seats for your home movie theater. You can get those leather covered fancy theater seats you see in pictures of rich homes. If you are using your old couch, it’s worthwhile to think about upgrading to seating that you can stretch your limbs on. The movie may play for two or more hours. So get seats that you can stay most comfortably seated at for prolonged hours.

You can also consider making hard surfaces softer. Hard surfaces reverberate sound, hurting overall quality. You can prevent this by using drapes or similar material to reduce reverberations so you can listen to “original” sound and not a low-quality reflection.