Hey everyone,
I've been a lurker on and off for awhile, but I'm trying to get my living room setup in my condo and could use some help and advice. I know things are never going to be perfect because it's not a dedicated home theater room, but I think it can be a lot better than it is.
There are two things I'm looking for help with. One is a more immediate problem and the second is more broad layout and setup help. For reference at any time during the post, here's a link to a gallery with photos of the current setup and a rough floor plan:
Dropbox - Home Theatre - Simplify your life
Here's the first problem. I've had a 52" Sony HX909 sitting on the floor while I looked for the perfect TV stand to match what I wanted in my apartment. I had the centre channel just sitting on the floor in front of the TV and the left and right mains placement wasn't in an ideal spot. It wasn't a great setup, but it sounded pretty good.
I finally gave in and spent more than I'd like on the BDI Ola (they make some pretty awesome TV stands). I got it setup last weekend. All the components are now inside the stand (including the center channel on the center shelf) and the mains are now moved into a more appropriate position on either side of the stand. You can see the setup in the photo gallery I linked to.
The problem? Now everything sounds off. More specifically, there's an echo-y, boomy-ness to the sound. Some of that appears to be positioning issues with the subwoofer, etc, but it also seems really focused on the voices. It's like the voices are coming from a hollow box — especially male voices. I tried tweaking the dials in various places with only minor impact.
Well, it turns out my center channel is an AV123 ELT Center. Looking at the specs reveals the following:
System: 3-Way, 4-Driver, rear-ported enclosure.
Drivers: custom 5.25" long-throw aluminum cone woofers, custom 2.5” paper composite midrange, hybrid silk-suspended alloy dome tweeter.
Frequency Response: 60 Hz to 20 KHz (± 3 dB)
Impedance: 6 Ohms nominal.
Efficiency: 87 dB (@ 1 watt / 1 meter)
So, crap. It's rear ported. I'm guessing that's most likely my problem. Unfortunately the back of the BDI unit is fixed (only the side shelves have optional backs, not the center shelves). Is there any way I can fix this while still using the BDI stand?
The second problem is more general layout tips and settings advice. You can see the room layout in the photo gallery I linked at the beginning of the post. The living room is open into the kitchen (basically an L shape) with a little nook to the left of where I currently have the Main L speaker for entry into the bathroom and the bedroom. The right side wall when facing the TV is floor to ceiling windows that moves in and out in various nooks (see the photos and the layout for an example). Obviously not the most ideal room to work with.
Here's the speakers and the settings available on them:
Mains:
AV123 Onix ELT LRS special edition monitors
System: LRSse Satellites - 2-Way, 2-Driver, rear-ported enclosure.
Drivers: custom 5.25" long-throw aluminum cone woofers, hybrid silk-suspended alloy dome tweeter. Magnetically shielded.
Crossover Point: 3.8 kHz
Frequency Response: 65 Hz to 20 KHz (± 3 dB)
connected to…
AV123 Onix ELT Powered Base/Stand
Driver: One custom 8" sealed side-firing woofer with built-in 150 watt amplifier
High Pass: The 8" woofer is high passed at 31Hz
Frequency Response: 33Hz to 150Hz
The bookshelves are connected via jumper cables to the powered base/stands. The base/stands have the a volume dial, a crossover dial (from 40Hz to 150Hz), and a phase switch (with 0º and 180º as options).
Center Channel
see earlier in the post
Rears
AV123 Onix ELT Dipoles
System: Two-way, four-driver mirrored adaptive-dipole system in sealed enclosure
Drivers: Two custom 3/4" aluminum dome tweeters, two custom 5.25" long-throw aluminum cone woofers
Crossover: 3.8 kHz, 3rd-order alignment
Frequency Response: 62 Hz to 20 KHz (± 3 dB)
Subwoofer
AV123 Onix ELT SW-10se Subwoofer
System: 350W Powered 10” long-throw woofer, front-ported enclosure.
Drivers: Custom 10” paper-composite long-throw driver
Crossover Point: 40 Hz – 140 Hz
Frequency Response: 28 Hz to 150 Hz (± 3 dB)
The subwoofer has dials for frequency (30Hz to 150Hz), phase (0º to 180º), and level (min to max).
I have a Denon AVR-988 receiver which allows for custom crossovers for each speaker.
As you can imagine, there's a lot of potential places to make settings. My biggest question is probably how I should look at setting all the crossover and phase options where there are so many places to set it…
- Main speaker size (currently set to Small)
- Crossover for mains in the receiver (currently set to 60Hz in the Denon)
- Crossover for the mains on the powered base/stands (currently set to around 100Hz)
- Phase switch for the mains on the powered base/stands (currently set to 0º)
- Frequency/crossover for the subwoofer (currently set to 150Hz on the dial)
- Phase dial for the subwoofer (currently set to 0º)
- etc.
Any advice on how to deal with all the interplay between these crossover and phase settings/dials?
Also, any advice or tips on how to improve my current layout in this room?
Any help is appreciate. Thanks!
-Brad