Apartment layout

[Socially_Inept]

Oh hey

So I recently moved to a a new city and went from a house to a 1bdrm apartment. I used to have a dedicated theater room with a 100" projector, 2 subwoofers...now I'm left with the following:

2xEnergy RC-70 towers (front left & right)
1xEnergy RC-LCR (center)
2xEnergy RC-R (surround)
2xEnergy RC-Mini (previously rears, right now not hooked up, might go to zone 2)
0xsubwoofers - towers give enough bass for apartment

I'm going to attach a floorplan and see what everyone here thinks, I'm not very creative so I could use some suggestions. So far my only concern with this layout is that its kind of cramped, but it works.

 

[jostenmeat]

What are the implications of having TV at the north end? This would allow lengthwise orientation for the least axial mode intensity. Getting listeners off a back wall is for some acousticians the #1 priority, believe it or not. By having it oriented northward, you sort of at least partially accomplished that because the kitchen cannot be occupied by HT seating.

Regardless of the above first thought, the key IMO is to play with the full extent of speaker/listener placements available to you, no matter how modest. You could be very surprised how much just say another 1 ft or maybe 1.5 ft from a front wall, sidewall (or worse/better, corner) can do for a speaker's imaging.

The closer your speaker or YOU are to a wall, the more likely that spot can benefit from acoustical treatment.

If the orientation remains as it is, the one benefit you immediately get to keep is greater possibilities with front 3 speaker spacing. Off the cuff, try an equilateral triangle with listener, to widen the angles you can bring the speakers forward (if totally getting in your way for walking around, but doesn't hurt to see), and toe them in so that the axes cross right in front of your face.

 

[jostenmeat]

Sorry, it was a quick reply- and I ASSumed there was a wall separating den and living room. If there isn't a wall, and there isn't any indication that there is one, then I can imagine you are very confused right now. So then ignore that part of my reply for the time being.

 

[Socially_Inept]

Sorry, it was a quick reply- and I ASSumed there was a wall separating den and living room. If there isn't a wall, and there isn't any indication that there is one, then I can imagine you are very confused right now. So then ignore that part of my reply for the time being.

haha thanks, good suggestions

as for facing north, I have an amazing view and I don't want to block it. The wall it's against now has the least amount of sunlight. The speakers are only about a foot away from the wall which is as far as I can go without blocking the path into the living room with the front right speaker.

One idea I had was facing the whole system northward and putting up a pull down projector where the living room meets the den as theres kind of a bump which would allow it to mount. The apartment can get extremely bright during the day as the sun blares inside and manages to go right through my blinds.

Worst case it's a temporary set up, but I'd still prefer to optimize it. I set up the RC-Minis in the bedroom as a Zone 2 today too (for when I do laundry/ironing/have company over haha) so at least those speakers weren't wasted

 

[jostenmeat]

as for facing north, I have an amazing view and I don't want to block it. The wall it's against now has the least amount of sunlight. The speakers are only about a foot away from the wall which is as far as I can go without blocking the path into the living room with the front right speaker.

I see. You might consider broadband absorbers placed behind the speakers, and placed behind your head. Also, depending on your level of craziness, and the type of floor you have, you could put sliders on the bottom of your couch feet, to pull the couch away for critical listening, or all afternoon-evening movie watching. This of course will incidentally increase the speakers' angle to you. When I have a pair of mid level of speakers, I usually can't pull them out too far without them dropping the image, creating that big hole in the middle. But when those speakers are in an HT specific environment, that's ok because now we have a center.

One idea I had was facing the whole system northward and putting up a pull down projector where the living room meets the den as theres kind of a bump which would allow it to mount. The apartment can get extremely bright during the day as the sun blares inside and manages to go right through my blinds.

Based on the light situation, I'd say no. It could turn out to be difficult to figure out how/where you'll place your PJ. I think you said you've had PJ setups, but I don't know how much you know; a pulldown that is not tab tensioned will get wavy faster than you think. If this is a temporary disposable screen for a temporary apartment, that is your call. One type of screen that deals with the perception of waviness much better is the DaLite High Power screen. It happens to be a retroreflector, so has the ability to amplify brightness big time, but the angle of incidence with PJ to screen must be as similar as possible as viewer to screen to take full advantage. One nice thing about the windows being opposite is that at least direct light cannot hit it, but then during the day you will still have way too much indirect light. Remember, your contrast is killed at an exponential rate with the increase of ambient light.