What you need to know before setting up your receiver
When you're ready to set up a new home theater receiver, the first step is figuring out where to put it. It may seem simple, but there are several factors to consider. Besides, every component and speaker in your system should be connected to your receiver.
Cabinets and TV furniture
Most people choose to place their receiver inside a cabinet or on top of a piece of furniture. You may already have one for your receiver. There are advantages to furniture designed specifically for AV equipment.
Furniture designed for home theater equipment often allows for proper ventilation, with large openings on the sides or back to allow airflow.
How much air does the receiver need in a piece of furniture?
Just because your receiver fits in a piece of furniture or a cabinet you have, doesn't mean it has to be placed there. You need a little more space than that to accommodate the physical dimensions of the unit. Here's why...
Aeration
All receivers have a vented top panel. This is to allow the heat generated by the amplifiers to dissipate, an important function of any amplifier to operate cleanly and safely. If you squeeze your receiver into a tight space, there is nowhere for the heat to be absorbed, causing it to build up and then there is a chance that your receiver will shut down due to overheating. Ideally, you should leave at least 10cm of air above the top of your receiver. In order to connect the cables to the back of your receiver, you will also need to leave some extra space in the back of your receiver.
AV furniture with removable back panels offer easy access for connections.
Leave room for connections
A home theater setup can easily result in a lot of tangled cables behind your furniture. This is something you definitely want to avoid. Keeping cables organized makes it easier to find which cable you need when you need to troubleshoot or replace a device. Look for home theater furniture or hi-fi furniture with cable management features such as multiple exit points on the back, internal voids and holes to pass cables between machines, and easy access to the back to make connections.
Hidden racks
Most of us choose to set up our receiver and other devices on a piece of furniture or a stand that also supports our TV. If you want to mount your TV on a wall, or perhaps if you want to keep these devices away from children, then in this case, you can consider a rack that you can place in a closet.
A piece of furniture with shelves (component rack) is ideal for storing several devices in one place, even in the next room so that it is not in your field of vision.
Putting your receiver out of sight raises questions. Will the remote control work?
Use an infrared repeater system. This can extend the range of a remote control to components hidden behind cabinet doors or in another room. These devices use an IR receiver and wired transmitters to pass along your remote's IR signal to your receiver and other components.
Infrared repeater system: A small infrared receiver (bottom right) receives remote control commands and sends them to the hidden hub. The hub relays the commands to IR repeaters, which you attach to your hidden accessories and your TV.
Wi-Fi control with your smartphone or tablet
If you have a network capable receiver, there is another solution. Most home theater receivers with wireless or wired network connectivity also offer a free app. Download the app to your smartphone or tablet and use your device to operate the receiver's main functions. Most apps are available for Apple® and Android™ devices and allow you to select sources, adjust volume, select listening modes and listen to online radio stations.
Remote control apps allow you to use your smartphone or tablet as a Wi-Fi remote control with receivers connected to the network.