Loudspeaker Placement & HT Layout - An Essential Guide

[romantic]

i am so new to this stuff so this is very useful for me

[tigra14i]

NICE guys very nice

[mustang_steve]

Pardon the raging mess....I now live with roomates and it's been hell keeping this place clean...spend 6 hours fixing it up, and they wreck it in a day. Oh well, I need them to afford rent these days.

Here's my setup. I've tweaked the reciever's settings enough that the rears do function rather well. Those are the speakers from a Yamaha CAVIT system....got them on Ebay for $10 (seriously ).

The front speakers are all Onix Refernce 0.5, I'm still looking for another pair to replace those yamahas as surrounds. The sub is an old yamaha YST-SW215...it's pleasing, but I wish I had more. The reciever is an old Yamaha RX-496. The monster PC to the right of the reciever is my HTPC/silent gaming PC.



Here's a shot of where the center is....it took some work to get it sounding right in there, but was the best place I could put it with all things considered.



Despite it's flaws, it works very well....well enough that my friends want to come over regularly to watch movies here. The biggest thing to remember is positioning speakers in a bass-neutral location. Oddly enough that speaker in the TV stand has no noticable bass peaks, just the sound is a little lower than I'd like. That will be resolved once I get a better TV stand

[eddy123]

Over many years I have red experts advises and my conclusion is that there are many theoretical solutions but most of them are impossible to implement due limitations of the room.

ed

[SDDSfan]

If you can place just two front speaker correctly within any room, I would say your done. Inorder for anyone to establish precise surround, they must no the basics of stereo placement. The two front speakers are the most misunderstood element about home theater to this day. I don't think one can put front speakers just anywhere around the room and they can't even aim anywhere else as well. I've tried for many years. The front speakers are placed with respect to ratios and propportions, ohh yes, there placed in reference to mathematics. Front speaker placement is most important, I think.

[buzzy]

Over many years I have red experts advises and my conclusion is that there are many theoretical solutions but most of them are impossible to implement due limitations of the room.

ed

Funny, I've come to sort of the opposite conclusion. People seem to see only one place to put their speakers (usually based on their preconceived idea of where they "fit" physically or visually), or see the limations of their room, layout, etc. as insurmountable. But if you keep thinking about it, you can come up with a good solution for a lot of the issues.

The key IMO is to *start* with figuring out where they should be, then seeing how close you can get to that while avoiding issues.

It's also worth setting them up temporarily where they should be, so you know what the potential of the speakers can be. I read so many posts by chuckleheads who are convinced the problem is with their speakers (and that they know that they are right, and all the other satisfied owners of that speaker are just wrong).

A lot of people start entirely the wrong way around, setting them up where they "fit" then being unhappy, blaming the speakers, and maybe moving things by inches.

It's a shame that people don't seem to spend a fraction of the time on speaker placement that they seem to spend on speaker selection. (Not to mention the time wasted on wire / cables, banana plugs, etc.)

[engtaz]

Very nice article. Thanks

[vosschs]

Great guide guys!

[k_lewis]

nice article, thanks

[jeffreynoah]

Loudspeaker Sound Improvement for less than $3.

The recommended layout for speakers in a room is to place the speakers, and the listening position, at least a meter from any adjacent wall. That space lessens the audibility of room refractions, for cleaner sound. But the layout of most rooms forces placement of the sofa against the back wall. Therefore the seated listener hears back wall reverberation and distortion.

A partial solution is to make a set of ear cups, which will lessen audibility of back – wall reflections. The efficacy of this solution can easily heard by cupping your hands behind your ears and removing and replacing your hands. Presto! Less distorted and louder clean sound from your speakers. I estimate the gain at least +3db, plus improved musical detail.

Ear cups can easily be made from a hemispherical plastic food container, about four inches in diameter. Such containers are widely available for sale. Cut the plastic bowl in half with a razor knife (careful), through the base. Drill holes on the top and bottom open edges. Then connect the halves, top and bottom, with half-inch elastic strips, wide enough to fit your head and behind your ears. Now listen for much improved sound.

The same gizmo may be used to upgrade your concert seat from far back in the hall, to audibility near the front of the stage.

Jeffrey Asher
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