I want to add external speakers. How do I do it and what speakers do you reccomend

Hello jazzolino,

there any several ways you can go about this and they can range in quite bit in your budget. Anywhere from $60 to $5000 or more. The $60 one's im talking about are just small computer speakers that you could connect to your tv. Or a home theater in a box (HTIB's), or buying every speaker individually. The last choice is the best way to go but will be the highest budget.
First off figure out how many speakers you would like. You can go all the way up to a 7.2 channel. 7 means 7 speakers and 2 means 2 subwoofers. Some people dont like speakers everywhere and want very simple speakers. You can get a soundbar. Its one speaker that may or may not come with a subwoofer (usually wireless subwoofer) depending on your selection. They can have excellenet audio but it will not give you the full surround sound experience if that is what you are looking for. If you do want that, you can look for a 5.1, 7.1, or 7.2 surround sound. Some HTIB's can come with dvd player or a blu-ray player. They usually are lower cost in budget wise but I usually don't recommend this people just because if the dvd player goes wrong, you may lose everything. But again they can give you the surround sound experience and has excellent audio. The other one's do not have a dvd player but just a reciever. I recommended getting one with a reciever (onkyo is my favourite but a beast looking one for sure). Harmon/Kardons have excellent design on them and are just as great. Most of the speakers are use speaker wires and need to be powered by the reciever. There are speakers out there that are powered by the subwoofer. Generally these are 2.1. (If you want 2.1, I suggest the bose speakers GS series II or series II).

The other option is to get everything individually. If you do this keep in mind of the power that you are looking for. Some have 200 watts and some have 1000 watts. For example for a 5.1, if you get a reciever that powers 1000 watts and you get speakers that can only 50watts per channel (per speaker), the receiver can potentialy over power the speakers and lead to distored audio or speakers blown up. Since this speakers only need a total for 250 watts (50 watts x 5 speakers), you only need like a 300 to a 500 watts reciever. Keep in mind the subwoofer is powered by itself.

Once you get the sound system, I suggest you plug all your cables, like dvd player, satellite or cable, game systems all on to your reciever and then one cable to your tv. This is because tv's usually dont have enough inputs in the back and you could run out quick, that is one of the reasons why I recommended a reciever. Reciever's have lot of input on the back so most likely you will not run out. I suggest plugging in an HDMI cable from your reciever to your TV. HDMI will give you both audio and video from one cable. This way when you have your dvd player plugged into your reciever, you will get picture to the tv. There aren't many wireless home theater systems but there are wireless system to make the back two speakers wireless. Generally, having wires running along the length of your place seems to be the biggest inconvience. They can cost about $200.
Brand name speakers JBL, Harmon/Kardons, Onkyo, and Klipsch. Now other people will recommend something else, so look into it. See which is best suitable for you.

I know this is only a quick run down and I could keep going but it would be pages and you would lose interest. I hope this helps. Good luck.

-Joe