Home Theater: Speaker Placement

[SteeleJoe]

There was a time when I know a bit about audio equipment - but that was about 25 years ago, and things have changed slightly since then. And over the last couple decades I had simpler systems, homes with better configuration of rooms and things often already setup for me.

I have a pretty basic 5.1 Home Theater and a room that I doubt is very well suited acoustically (in fact I suspect it's horrible in that respect) but there's little I can or will do about it at this point. Simply will NOT invest any money in the house in question for this purpose.

This may be ridiculously too much to ask for but is there some sort of site or or online guru where I can put in the system (or if need be its spec) and the dimensions and description of the room or even submit pics and get an idea where to place the speakers (and maybe even the best way to deal with the wires though there wouldn't seem to be much to be done about that)? Or a thread that could help?

I;m not especially concerned about aesthetics. I have no intention of spending any significant money (and what's paltry to many or most of you would no doubt be significant to me in this context).

By all means revel in your superior knowledge and skills but take pity on me and help out.

[pilou]

There are a lot of advices on internet, here are the first 2 that showed up when I made a google search :

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/setup/speaker-setup-guide/index.html

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-8WAklVsIPlw/learn/learningcenter/home/speaker_placement.html

It depends on a lot of parameters, the size of your room, the furniture around, can you easily put cables around to connect your rear speakers ... etc etc ...

I too used to have a basic home theater ( Onkyo/Mordaunt-Short), but after I have moved house, I simply couldn't set it up again, so I sold it and switched back to a 2.1 stereo system.

Let us know if you find a solution...

Phil

[SteeleJoe]

Thanks Phil.

I realize I could have and should Googled but I thought their might eiher be some sort of especially kind expert around or someone who knew of the perfect way to find out what I need.

If I do find a the ideal resource I'll post about it.

[pilou]

Thanks Phil.

I realize I could have and should Googled but I thought their might eiher be some sort of especially kind expert around or someone who knew of the perfect way to find out what I need.

If I do find a the ideal resource I'll post about it.

No problems. I guess short of knowing how your room is configured, no one can really help you here, I am afraid there are no magic solutions. But , like for stereo, placement of your 5.1 speakers can influence a lot on the quality of your setup.

The best I think would be for you to experiment , and tweak until you find the best solution, and bliss when watching your videos and listening your music... Take into account the WAF ( wife acceptance factor ) ...

Phil

[bifftastic]

Some things may have changed with the technology, but what you knew about audio is still pretty much the same.

You still need a 'sweet spot' for the main stereo image (left and right front speakers) the positioning of the centre speaker kind of defines itself

Sub-woofer, doesn't really matter unless you're getting into spectrum analysis of the room and acoustic treatments of surfaces...which I don't think you are especially not with what you describe as a 'basic' system. So I'd just put the sub-woofer somewhere near the screen, on the floor,.

The main hassle is with the rear speakers for the surround sound, the cables are a pain to hide and can get in the way.

As far as positioning goes, it's kind of like the stereo 'sweet spot' but in reverse, they ideally should be equally spaced with your ideal listening position in the centre, and slightly behind an imaginary line going through your head. This often isn't practical if your sofa is against a wall, but you can place them on the wall, turn them inwards slightly, and move the sofa a couple of feet forward, if you've got the space

Play around with the angles they face at until you're happy with the sound. As for the cables, if the set-up you have is as I described, then you can run the cables underneath the sofa and across the floor to the unit, then cover them with a rug or a mat so they don't get in the way too much.

As you don't want to spend money on the place gouging out the walls and all that kind of stuff isn't needed or justified. Again, if you've got top quality high-end gear then you'd maybe want to get really technical with it all but as you've got a basic set-up and not much inclination to really permanently install a system, then just go with the knowledge you already have from (how many years ago was it?). I think you'll find you know enough to get it sorted out.

Sound still works in the same way, you've just got more speakers and cables to muck about with, which is probably putting you off a little, but i don't think it should really

Hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction.

Cheers,

Biff

[SteeleJoe]

Phil: I'd happily provide the details of my room (down to measurments etc)! But I'm sure that is both too much to ask and more than is needed.

I've dealt with the WAF (though if a certain someone had their way we'd have all the speakers stacked on top of each other in the corner. Or no speakers at all. She loves movies, has great taste in them and has enjoyed good saudio when watching them -- but can't see it as a priority).

Biff:

Great post and really helpful. I did some reading -- including stuff that Phil linked -- and I worked out that what you say is indeed the case (and what should have been common sense), sound is sound and even speakers are still speakers.

You're right, I'm just lazy in my old age and don't want to muck about with the cables and moving the speakers around as I keep wondering if it's perfect yet (I tend to let the "perfect" become the enemy of "good enough").

Your post did offer some help in general by reassuring me that I'm not as clueless as I thought but also in specifics. I'm kind of stuck with rear speakers though; by necessity the very low sofa is tucked in a nook across from the TV and against the wall. I don't think I can work it so they are bit behind me and I'll have to have them on the wall at a 90degree angle from the center speaker -- but how high up the wall? And if they are in the corner up on the wall, that seems like it'd screw up the sound in terms of reverb or whatever.

Guess I'll have to try and experiment but can't figure out how Ill hold the speakers up on both sides of the room AND at the same time sit in the sweet spot and listen to them in various positions!

Anyway thanks very much indeed to both of you. Very decent. There's a side to the ThaiVisa thing that's really very nice...

[bifftastic]

How high up the wall...? I'd say slightly above head height. Don't worry too much about reverberation, the rear speakers just add to the ambience really, giving the effect that the sound is all around you. There's not much of the signal that actually comes out of them.

If you've got to put them at right angles, (basically, facing your ears?) then try and get some speaker mounts that you can tilt and pivot, you may find that you can increase the surround sound effect by moving them around on the pivot/tilt mechanism once they're in place, so you don't have the quandry of holding them in place whilst sitting across the room from them at the same time

They do, ideally, need to be equally spaced, so the distance to each of them is the same, or near as dammit, from your head.

Seems like with your 'sofa nook' you should be able to get a pretty decent viewing/listening experience with not too much mucking about

I don't know if your system allows you to do this, but there may be 'balance' controls which you can use to compensate for the fact that you may have to mount speakers in awkward places. eg. if the left one has to be further away than the right, you shift the balance to compensate, re-creating that sweet spot as if they were equidistant.

The main thing is the positioning of the front left and right units, that gives you your stereo image, the rest should be ok pretty much wherever you have to put them.

Hope it all gets sorted and you can enjoy your movies!

[SteeleJoe]

How high up the wall...? I'd say slightly above head height. Don't worry too much about reverberation, the rear speakers just add to the ambience really, giving the effect that the sound is all around you. There's not much of the signal that actually comes out of them.

If you've got to put them at right angles, (basically, facing your ears?) then try and get some speaker mounts that you can tilt and pivot, you may find that you can increase the surround sound effect by moving them around on the pivot/tilt mechanism once they're in place, so you don't have the quandry of holding them in place whilst sitting across the room from them at the same time

They do, ideally, need to be equally spaced, so the distance to each of them is the same, or near as dammit, from your head.

Seems like with your 'sofa nook' you should be able to get a pretty decent viewing/listening experience with not too much mucking about

I don't know if your system allows you to do this, but there may be 'balance' controls which you can use to compensate for the fact that you may have to mount speakers in awkward places. eg. if the left one has to be further away than the right, you shift the balance to compensate, re-creating that sweet spot as if they were equidistant.

The main thing is the positioning of the front left and right units, that gives you your stereo image, the rest should be ok pretty much wherever you have to put them.

Hope it all gets sorted and you can enjoy your movies!

Mission accomplished. No, I haven't got the speakers sorted out -- I'm not a freakin' genie -- but I think I've gotten the bit of knowledge and reassurance I need. Thanks again.

Mind you anyone else who thinks of something else that might help, feel free to opine!

[bifftastic]

Happy to help

[stgrhe]

In addition to Biff's recommendations I like to add three things:

1) If you sub sounds too bumpy, and is positioned in a corner, try to move it to another location and vice versa.

2) If you have bare tile, granite or marble floor buy a rug to dampen the rough edges of the sound.

3) If one of the sides of your listening room is covered by a large glass area, cover the glass by curtains while listening to movies or music.

[JackA]

May I suggest..

http://www.getbettersound.com/

If you live in Pattaya you can borrow

the book from me - it really takes the "techno bubble"

into plain terms and is very easy to follow.

Otherwise take a look here:

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks

best regards..