Sweet spot

[Skyntri]

Hey guys,
I'm building my first home theater in my recently vacated master bedroom
How do I widen the "sweet spot" to accommodate 3 seats with a 5.1 in a room that's just over 13'x13'? It's a few feet wider at the front screen end because of the doorway and an opening to the bathroom. I'm hoping that this will allow the towers to breath. The celling is 8' and flat. If this works, who knows, I may even be able to upgrade to Atmos some day.
I'm embarrassed to say that due to budget restraints I had to settle for the following components.
I hooked them up and to tell you the truth, I was quite surprised by he sound quality. I can't wait to move them into the theater. I'm thinking about an Epson 5030 with an 82" screen.

Sony STRDN 1050
2 Polk TSx 550T's (bi-amped)
1 Polk 250C center
2 Polk 220B Rears
2 Polk PSW 110 subs

Thanks, Dennis.

 

[markw]

A lot of that "sweet spot" depends on the speakers themselves. You can try moving them farther apart and playing with toe-in but, on the whole, there's really a lot you can do about that.

But, on the whole, this is "sweet spot" issue is something we must live with

 

[j_garcia]

As Mark mentioned, you can't really "widen" the sweet spot, only improve it for the other seats at the expense of ruining it for the original sweet spot. Try NO toe at all, with the speakers facing straight out and spaced fairly wide apart to get good coverage and see how it sounds. Then toe in little by little until you get a good blend across the front stage.

FYI, biamping off a receiver is useless.

 

[Skyntri]

A lot of that "sweet spot" depends on the speakers themselves. You can try moving them farther apart and playing with toe-in but, on the whole, there's really a lot you can do about that.

But, on the whole, this is "sweet spot" issue is something we must live with

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

 

[Skyntri]

Looks like I have a lot to learn. Sony had me convinced that if I changed the configuration to 5.2 from 7.2 and bi-amped the towers it would help as I am marginal on power as it is. It even acknowledged that I had changed it in the set-up when I calibrated the room.

 

[ski2xblack]

You won't gain any power via bi-amping off the same AVR, the Sony fellow had you spinning your wheels.

You have several factors fighting against you trying to get a wider sweet spot. The room is on the small side, so you lack the size required to simply spread everything out a bit (the easiest way to get a larger sweet spot, and one you can take advantage of when you move to a larger room). Your Polks are the typical direct radiator types with wide dispersion, also problematic when in close proximity to walls, which is unavoidable in a small room. I think the best bet for that room would be some sort of narrow dispersion type speaker (typically use horns/waveguides) placed in the front corners and toed in 45 degrees, which would result in a larger, more stable sonic image over more seats.

But, since starting from scratch is likely not an option, I suggest you enjoy your system for the time being, and make your next "upgrade" via purchasing a copy of Toole's book on acoustics/psychoacoustics. Kick back, listen to some tunes, and read that. It will help give you some ideas on what you can do to squeeze the most out of what you have, and what you should do when you change rooms/upgrade down the line.

 

[j_garcia]

I wasn't trying to be mean about it or say that you configured it wrong. What I mean is if you consider yourself under powered, biamping isn't benefiting you. All amp channels are powered by the same power supply in a receiver. So though you have separate channels running, those channels are still limited by the same total output of the power supply. So if you are already struggling for power, biamping won't really net big gains in this situation. Biamping should technically have separate amps. On the speaker side, you are still working with the passive x-over as well, so there's nothing gained on that front as well.

 

[Skyntri]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not in a hurry and I have to do this a paycheck at a time so I will read Toole's book.

 

[Skyntri]

Yeah, I'm in over my head. I'm just now learning that just because it says 165Wx7 really means maybe 100W if three of the 5 speakers are 8 ohm. Also the projector I was looking to buy would only give me a 50" image because I only have a 10' throw. Thanks for all your help. The only reason I wanted to use the other room is because it is isolated. It may be cheaper to invest in some soundproofing and keep it in the living where I already have a 55" Flat and lots of room.