Bad In-Wall Surround speaker placement?--- HELP!

[lreinstein]

I had a professional installation done for my Home Theater. The speakers are all B&W In-wall. Unfortunately the Surround speakers for the 5.1 system were mounted in the side walls and 5 feet behind the seating area and facing inward towards each other. I believe this is too far back and a lot of the high frequency subtle surround effects seem to be lost. (the room is 13.5 feet by 12 feet wide). I don't know how I let this happen and I dont know what to do about it. Should I--

1. Have the speakers re-installed 4 feet more forward---this will be a major expense and hassle.

2. Move my seating area back... thus making the TV screen seem smaller.

3. Figure out a way to Tilt the speakers out of the wall and towards the seats (do they have Tilting in-wall mounts?)

4. Modify the Surround equalization to boost the higher frequencies and hopefully correct this problem?

5. None of the above.

thanks so much

Larry

 

[bandphan]

I had a professional installation done for my Home Theater. The speakers are all B&W In-wall. Unfortunately the Surround speakers for the 5.1 system were mounted in the side walls and 5 feet behind the seating area and facing inward towards each other. I believe this is too far back and a lot of the high frequency subtle surround effects seem to be lost. (the room is 13.5 feet by 12 feet wide). I don't know how I let this happen and I dont know what to do about it. Should I--

1. Have the speakers re-installed 4 feet more forward---this will be a major expense and hassle.

2. Move my seating area back... thus making the TV screen seem smaller.

3. Figure out a way to Tilt the speakers out of the wall and towards the seats (do they have Tilting in-wall mounts?)

4. Modify the Surround equalization to boost the higher frequencies and hopefully correct this problem?

5. None of the above.

thanks so much

Larry

Your room not being large shouldnt matter that much. Can you post your eq setings?
Im gonna go back to the same qustion Ive been asking you, did you pay to have your AVR setup?
Something does not sound right, IMO call the "professional" company you contracted and discuss with them, if you are not happy with the conversation, post it here and get some advice.

 

[lreinstein]

Your room not being large shouldnt matter that much. Can you post your eq setings?
Im gonna go back to the same qustion Ive been asking you, did you pay to have your AVR setup?
Something does not sound right, IMO call the "professional" company you contracted and discuss with them, if you are not happy with the conversation, post it here and get some advice.

I will try to talk to them today. The Surround speakers are way too far back behind my primary seating. THey are directed towards each other making an angle of about 40 degrees to the seat (rather than the recommended 0 - 20 for the 5.1 system). It will be very very difficult to re-install so I am trying to figure out my best options, including moving furniture, remounting the in-wall speakers at an angle (can this be done? is there a tilted mounting bracket?) and finally, playing with the manual speaker EQ setup on my Pioneer 92-TXH Receiver.

One QUESTION is whether adjusting the EQ to boost up the high frequencies in the surround speakers can make up for the poor placement? THe consequence of the speakers too far back seems to be that I do not hear some of the subtle higher frequency effects such as the car tires in the rain, door slams, etc. I assume this is because of the more forward directed (towards the opposite side wall) distribution of the high frequencies. THUS, would boosting the gain in this frequency range correct (or partially correct) this bad installation? If so, what is the best way to do this....by ear? My system has an Auto MCACC setup.

Thanks for the help.

Larry

 

[mike c]

options:
1) remove in walls and replace with wall mounted speakers aimed at listening position. crucify installer.
2) move back, buy a bigger display. crucify installer.

FYI:
it's ideal to sit 38% distance either from the front wall or back wall, perhaps the installer positioned the surrounds at this distance? (crucify installer for not explaining this to you)

 

[MDS]

The recommendation, per Dolby, is 90 -110 degrees from the listening position. Being at your sides is ideal (it's the 90 degrees recommendation), it's the distance from the listening position that is not ideal.

 

[lreinstein]

options:
1) remove in walls and replace with wall mounted speakers aimed at listening position. crucify installer.
2) move back, buy a bigger display. crucify installer.

FYI:
it's ideal to sit 38% distance either from the front wall or back wall, perhaps the installer positioned the surrounds at this distance? (crucify installer for not explaining this to you)

Cute baby! Yours?

I am not good at confrontation...but you are right. This should have been explained.

I wanted in-wall because of the look and high WAF. My primary music listening is in another room with different speakers (KEFXQ40's) and different problems (room acoustics).

The in-walls are pretty decent B&W's. what do you think of my idea of trying to tilt them out of the wall towards the listener?

Do you think adjusting the EQ will help?

The room shape is very odd...it is a loft with sloped ceilings...overlooking the Living room. It is a town-home design...vaulted ceilings. The rear whall (the 13.5 foot dimension) is to a "hip wall" only ...around 3.5 feet high. It then goes back to the back wall about another 10 feet. THat is the entrance hallway. ALso, the wall on my right, overlooking the Living Room is a hip wall. Thus the right side surround is mounted in a fake column that I had built...very rustic. It all looks great...but I wish the installer had mentioned this so I could have had the column built 4 feet closer.

Larry

 

[mike c]

yep, that's my kid thanks.

well I guess tilting the in-walls out is pretty much the same idea as replacing with wall mounted speakers except there are no wasted speakers. will you be creating some sort of mount for the tilted in-walls?

can you draw your room?

 

[Midcow2]

Don't give up hope yet ...

I had a professional installation done for my Home Theater. The speakers are all B&W In-wall. Unfortunately the Surround speakers for the 5.1 system were mounted in the side walls and 5 feet behind the seating area and facing inward towards each other. I believe this is too far back and a lot of the high frequency subtle surround effects seem to be lost. (the room is 13.5 feet by 12 feet wide). I don't know how I let this happen and I dont know what to do about it. Should I--

1. Have the speakers re-installed 4 feet more forward---this will be a major expense and hassle.

2. Move my seating area back... thus making the TV screen seem smaller.

3. Figure out a way to Tilt the speakers out of the wall and towards the seats (do they have Tilting in-wall mounts?)

4. Modify the Surround equalization to boost the higher frequencies and hopefully correct this problem?

5. None of the above.

thanks so much

Larry

1. Only as a last resort.

2. Try moving it back a couple of feet not all the way.

3. Probably won't asthetically look good and won't help that much.

4. Best idea- increase overall gain of surrounds especially higher frequencies.

5. You might want to have "the professionals" come back and set up with calibaration and SPL meters.

 

[jcPanny]

In-wall speaker placement

It sounds like you currently have a 5.1 system. I would recommend installing an additional pair of in-wall or on-wall surround speakers in the correct (side surround) location and using the existing pair for the surround back channels. This upgrade will likely be similar cost to moving the existing pair of speakers and you wont need to repair any drywall.

Also, many in-wall and in-ceiling speakers have aimable tweeters. Remove the grills and make sure that the tweeters are pointed at the listening position.

 

[AVRat]

What's the display? How far are you siiting from it? What model speakers are you using? Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with the layout. That's a relatively small room and I think the issue is more about the room's acoustics. Perhaps bumping the surround's level up a notch may help.

 

[lreinstein]

Possible solution---MT6?

Thanks to all of you for these great suggestions. My vendor/installer has been reasonably cooperative and has offered some exchange options.

I am still trying to correct the situation of my B&W surrounds being placed (in-wall) too far behind my seating area. Part of the solution has been to move my seating further back. Further correction has been accomplished by adjusting the EQ for the surrounds....for some reason the MCACC was attenuating the 16K region by -5db.

However, I have the opportunity to replace the B&W surrounds with Speakercraft MT6 Fours. THese will fit quite nicely in the already cut holes and so will not be a major re-installation hassle. In addition, the tweeter is pivotable by enough of an angle to help correct for the non-ideal placement.

I understand that these speakers may be slightly inferior to my B&W's but is this really an important issue for a Surround in a 5.1 setup?

Advice?

Larry

 

[Rickster71]

Hello Larry
If I understand the issues so far: you have temporarily moved your seating position back, just to see if it makes a big enough difference? Along with adjusting the rear EQ?
With both these things changed what was the outcome?

If you were to repeat a movie scene over a few times; are you hearing sounds when you're near the speaker, that you don't hear when in your normal seating position?
Keep in mind, there isn't as much info sent to the rears speakers to begin with.
I'm sure it varies with different movies.