Audio really makes an amazing difference when it comes having people over for an outdoor movie night. At the end of last year, I ended up with a 5.1 surround sound setup using powered speakers, most of which were of good quality.

It took a number of years to get there though. The setup has always used powered speakers, because I had two from college to start it out. As the years went by, it went from stereo, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and then finally 5.1. A lot of the gear was re-used, but not all of it. I also tried to do this as cheaply as possible.

One last note that I’ll repeat again later, I really do not find much of a difference with this setup between a 4.0 and a 5.1 setup. In my opinion, you really do not gain much with a center speaker or a subwoofer.