help on final surround placement in new home theater

[Danzilla31]

Okay the theaters almost done should be finalized by Friday hopefully

Here's the issue





With the way the room setup is I was planning on utilizing my 3 JBL studio 590's upfront for the front 3

And my 4 SVS prime towers as my surrounds

Many of you know I'm very fond of towers and just hate utilizing bookshelves or in walls unless necessary

I also have 2 JBL studio 580's I can throw in the mix

My issue is with 2 rows of seats how high should the towers go. I'm having custom stands built but I believe my calculations may be off.

I really didn't want 2 rows of seating but my family won that battle and it's really throwing me off

My front row seats ear level is 44 inches seated with the backs 46 high

My back row seats on the riser is 48 inches to ear level with the backs at 50 inches high

I may have miscalculated my stand heights from measuring now I'm calculating I need my side surrounds to be 55 inches high

My rear surrounds to be at 65 inches high

Here's my options use the studio 580's as the side surrounds and the use the SVS prime towers in the back.

Use all 4 prime towers as surrounds I really liked this pairing in my old place great dispersion and can be used closer to the seating then the JBL

Or buy 2 pairs of studio 530's so I can wall mount them the right height.

If I go that route will the 530's be sufficient as surrounds for my room 18 wide by 24 deep but tapers in back 9 feet high ceilings with 3 JBL studio 590's in the front 3 with 2 SVS PB 4000's

Thank you for any feedback fellas

 

[Danzilla31]

also alternate suggestions for surround speakers is welcome thanks again

 

[shadyJ]

The problem with these high back chairs is that they pretty much block sound coming in from the rear surround. If you want those rear surrounds to make a difference, you will have to mount them at a point where the direct path of sound clears the back of those headrests. I don't think you can really do that with a tower speaker. Plus, a lot of these home audio speakers don't really respond well when placed up right next to a wall. Something that would be better is something that is engineered to be placed against a wall. Here is what I might recommend as a rear surround speaker. This is meant to be placed against a wall and ceiling, so it will not experience the diffraction that a home audio speaker would in that placement. Plus, it would be easier to mount than home audio speakers. I would recommend placing it way back to where there is just enough clearance from the headrests of those seats so there is a direct path of sound coming from those speakers to the ears of the listener.

 

[Pogre]

Hey Shady, how about a couple of SVS Prime elevation speakers? Those might do it, being angled down and they'd be cheaper.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Can’t remember @danzilla are you doing Atmos in there?
The bed surrounds are probably gonna have to be one pair for each row wired in parallel or series or whatever, like in the theater.

 

[shadyJ]

Hey Shady, how about a couple of SVS Prime elevation speakers? Those might do it, being angled down and they'd be cheaper.

I think those would work as well, but I think the JBLs would be a bit better since they would initiate far less diffraction. They would have a more narrow directivity, and that is a big advantage in reducing diffraction. I also think the JBLs would be more in line with the dynamic range with the rest of the system.

 

[Danzilla31]

Can’t remember @danzilla are you doing Atmos in there?
The bed surrounds are probably gonna have to be one pair for each row wired in parallel or series or whatever, like in the theater.

Ok how would you do that I'm going to try and finish it up tommorow if you could help illustrate or explain for me how to do that that would be great

I may just get 4 studio 530's I just need to know they can keep up with the rest of the system .

But I really like your idea I just don't know how to implement it

 

[Danzilla31]

Can’t remember @danzilla are you doing Atmos in there?
The bed surrounds are probably gonna have to be one pair for each row wired in parallel or series or whatever, like in the theater.

Yes I'm doing atmos in there so my surrounds can't be too high hence the need for the towers to be 55 high with tweeter on side surround and 65 high on rear surrounds on tweeter level so they play over the back row

I really like your parallel thing I think it could work I have the speakers for it I just don't know how to wire it

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I think parallel wiring is what you would do as long as the AVR would tolerate it. In the long run, using the preouts from the surround channels to an amp(I think the speaker terminals and rca’s are hot at the same time. If not use a Y-splitter) is what you’d want to do.
I should look at the gear list too...
Place each pair next to each row at 90°. I’m trying to work out the best places for the top
Speakers. I’m thinking the top fronts would be like at 35-40° from the LP. If your using the rsl’s angle the baffle towards the listening area. Depending on how far back the second row is, I might put the rear tops above the second row. If that’s 45° from front row they’d get like a 7.1.2 presentation and the front row would get the 7.1.4.
I’m dozing off so I’ll reality check this later lol!!!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I would also put the 3 seats in front. I would lose my MIND having to sit off center in my own theater! OCD twitching !!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and those seats are goooore juus!!!

 

[Danzilla31]

I would also put the 3 seats in front. I would lose my MIND having to sit off center in my own theater! OCD twitching !!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and those seats are goooore juus!!!

Ok I know your dropping off so well pick this up tommorow the amps are the anthem mac 225 I believe puts out 225 RMS all channels driven into 8ohms and way more then that into 4 ohms so I think it could really work we'd be wiring in parallel the 4 SVS prime towers I have I think that amp should have no issues driving them then Anthem PVA 7 for the jbl 580's in the rear surrounds and the Paradigm elite CI80's I have in the ceiling I've set them up exactly like you stated the front heights at that 25 to 35 degree angle and the rear heights a little behind but almost on top of that back row.

I can't wait to go over this with you tommorow dude that will look so awesome bro the 4 towers on each surround for each row like in the movies the 3 jbl studio 590's blasting as a trio up front the 2 SVS PB 4000's smashing it and then the 4 Paradigm elite CI 80's singing from the heights ohhhh I can't wait!

Have a good night bro well get on this tommorow!

 

[Danzilla31]

I would also put the 3 seats in front. I would lose my MIND having to sit off center in my own theater! OCD twitching !!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and those seats are goooore juus!!!

Thank you bro I can't wait to tell you all the stuff they can do! There awesome seats I wanted to put the 4 in the back but it cut off too much space where I screwed up is giving in to my Dad on that riser being off center to the left of the front row to give more walkway to the right I should have centered that back row behind the 4 still would have had enough room but life is about compromise.

Well make it work!!!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Good morning Daniel San!
Wether you wire those in series, or parallel to my knowledge will depend on the speakers impedance. Series will double the ohms and parallel will half it. Which way those primes need I’m not sure, so I’m going to actually defer to @ Ed Mullen on this because I would really hate to be in any way responsible for damaging your awesome gear.
Btw, yes I think your room is gonna be friggin awesome bro!!!! You’ve come a long way my friend and so has your equipment, and knowledge.

 

[Ed Mullen]

The impedance of any loudspeaker will vary greatly with frequency. While the nominal impedance of the Prime Tower is considerably higher than 4 ohms - it does drop to 4 ohms over a portion of the pass band.

So I would not wire these speakers in parallel unless you are confident the amplifier can drive a 2 ohms load (and most amps can't). I would play it safe and wire them in series.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

The impedance of any loudspeaker will vary greatly with frequency. While the nominal impedance of the Prime Tower is considerably higher than 4 ohms - it does drop to 4 ohms over a portion of the pass band.

So I would not wire these speakers in parallel unless you are confident the amplifier can drive a 2 ohms load (and most amps can't). I would play it safe and wire them in series.

Thanks Ed. My long term thinking was to add another amp, and use the pre-outs for the surround channels. Does this make more sense? In my little brain it just seems more better.

 

[Danzilla31]

The impedance of any loudspeaker will vary greatly with frequency. While the nominal impedance of the Prime Tower is considerably higher than 4 ohms - it does drop to 4 ohms over a portion of the pass band.

So I would not wire these speakers in parallel unless you are confident the amplifier can drive a 2 ohms load (and most amps can't). I would play it safe and wire them in series.

Ed my man how's it cooking!

Me and William are brainstorming using a y splitter at the preamp and sending the signal to one amp for one set of speakers and sending the same signal to another amp for the other set of speakers so each row has its own surround

I'm excited to try it if not just for experimenting so I'll keep you guys posted on how it turns out and what I learn from it

 

[Danzilla31]

Oh and here's some candy lol

 

[Pogre]

Oh and here's some candy lol
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Dude, those 3 JBL towers and pair of subs up front just looks... fracking cool! Nice job on the room too!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Looks soooo good man. Can’t believe how fast it came together.

 

[Danzilla31]

Dude, those 3 JBL towers and pair of subs up front just looks... fracking cool! Nice job on the room too!

Thank you so much bro although it's still got a lot of work to do measuring proper speaker placement putting drapes that will close across the bar for acoustics and depending on measurements that's not where those subs may stay. But you know the drill I'd say I've got 5 more to 7 more days of really hard work dialing the sound in and also making sure there's no bugs in the system Damn who knew work could be so much fun!!!