Loudspeaker Placement & HT Layout - An Essential Guide

[romantic]

very useful

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]

so many theories

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
--- --- ---

 

[lavath]

so can i place bi-poles in the rear corners and later add direct radiatoring speakers 90^ to the ear?

sorry but I need 5 posts to show my home theater build page I made

 

[jeffreynoah]

I can enjoy a 'sweet spot' anywhere in my listening room, with my headphones.
Stunning clarity, plus what I want to hear, when I want to listen, at any time,without disturbing anyone.
My favourite is Stax.

 

[SpenceJT]

Great article! Thanks for posting! I found my placement to be close to the mark, but gained some additional insight that should help to make it sound even better!

 

[bompus]

I already knew most of it, but it's good to confirm most of what I already thought. Thanks for the link to the article.

 

[Sachb]

The article is very useful for newbies, thanx i appreciate the work.

But there seems to be a mistake in one of the lines mentioned about setting the size of the speaker in the HT.

This one " Set all of the speakers to "Large" in the receivers bass management" . THis settings apply to speakers that can do full range or mostly tower speakers.

 

[Morgan Audio]

There's a kind of precision about audio/video components, home theater and sound reproduction that's downright addictive, similar to the appeal of other technical hobbies like cameras, cars, boats and aviation. They all have their own vocabulary and jargon, of course, and it's easy to get bogged down or enraged by it. But lack of precision can be equally annoying. We take you through the Dolby Labs recommended guidelines for loudspeaker placement in various scenarios. Read the Article

Well done friend and very kind to take the time to be so helpful. I am missing about 3' from my perfect triangle but I find a slightly more aggressive tow fixes the problem pretty well

 

[BigGuyinATL]

My system - Magnepan MMG's up front - no center channel - not needed with MMG's and the aggressive 45 degree toe-in. MMG-W's in the rear. Left and right Subs on the side wall's. Geometry is an 7 ft equilateral triangle up front with the MMG Tweeters inside. Side speakers are a little assymetrical (100 right, 115left) because of door opening. And my old Mitsu projector still putting out a great picture!

Ekornes chairs are excellent and comfortable.

 

[HowieWowie]

I'm a beginner so these questions my be simple for the more experienced people.
I'm configuring a 5.1 setup in a new home with in-wall LCR. I have to mount the C above the TV. The ceilings are 9ft. The floor is hardwood and the seating area is 11ft from the wall. The viewing area is one corner of an open concept space. The C will be 6.5ft above the floor. This is roughly 15deg above the listener. Two options have been suggested:

1 - The SpeakerCraft Profile AIM LCR5 Five because it is aimable and I could direct the C down at the sweet spot. I would use the LC5s for LCR and then a couple of their in ceilings for surrounds

2 - The Paradigm H55-LCR. It can't be aimed but apparently the sound field is well dispersed so even though its mounted above the TV and listener the center channel performance would be very good.

I have little experience with this issues so I have not way to judge which solution is better. Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated. Please and thanks!

 

[Erod]

I'm about to have bookshelves for my L/R channels to pair with my subs in a dedicated room.

It's not practical in my room to have these 3-4 feet from the wall. Can I put them about a foot from the wall if I cross them over around 80 Hz? Perhaps put an absorption panel behind it?

 

[Andon]

When speaking of speaker placement I always wonder if there is ideal distance that one need to space the left and right front channels from the tv or screen? I often see pictures where the person have a lot of space on left and right of the tv and yet the front left and right ate right next to the screen!!