New theater room

[Gadgetfreek29]

Recently moved into a new house and am going to be using the 12’x16’ master bedroom as a home theater room. I am planning on putting the tv on a 12’ wall to use the room length for surround sound speaker placement. Im looking for suggestions for placement of TV and front speakers In reference to several feet away from the wall or closer to the wall. I have a 65” LG OLED and HSU CCB-8 5.1 package.

I see some people have the speakers setup in front of the tv and some parallel. Is there benefit to either or just preference?

Forgive my crappy drawing.

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[TheWarrior]

Hi!

Those speakers are wall mountable aren't they? Why not just keep a nice clean look with the TV and speakers mounted with a small discreet cabinet for electronics?

For layout and positioning, I would start with the couch. Get it close enough so that the view is engaging for all seats.

Then, have a friend hold each speaker up while you listen, starting with front L/C/R. Make marks on the wall where the speaker sounds its best - the key here is to move between all the seats on the couch and listen critically, hoping to find a good balance where all seats sound (close to) the same. The distance between the front speakers and the listeners can greatly affect your sense of envelopment, even before the surround speakers are mounted on the rear wall. And thats where toe in angle and distance between front L/R speakers makes the final adjustments.

Be sure to post pics!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Recently moved into a new house and am going to be using the 12’x16’ master bedroom as a home theater room. I am planning on putting the tv on a 12’ wall to use the room length for surround sound speaker placement. Im looking for suggestions for placement of TV and front speakers In reference to several feet away from the wall or closer to the wall. I have a 65” LG OLED and HSU CCB-8 5.1 package.

I see some people have the speakers setup in front of the tv and some parallel. Is there benefit to either or just preference?

Forgive my crappy drawing.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hard to say why you see some setups one way or another. In many cases moving speakers away from the wall lessens the boundary gain and can make boomy, or muddy sounding speakers more intelligible and this can increase the sound stage and imaging characteristics. Whether the setups you’ve seen that had the speakers in front of the TVs plane were to address this is hard to say. Sometimes people set up their gear with aesthetics in mind more than performance, or even think a certain way is better for performance without really knowing why. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it might not. Here’s a nice review(you may have already read) on your speakers that might give some insight to setting them up.
http://www.audioholics.com/bookshelf-speaker-reviews/ccb-8-bookshelf

 

[Gadgetfreek29]

TheWarrior, these are not wall mount speakers. I appreciate the advice.

William, I have read several reviews and they all reference toe in which is easy to position for and a 1:2:4 ratio to setup them up on stands but I can’t stage these 7’ from a wall like recommended.

Thanks for input guys.


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[shadyJ]

TheWarrior, these are not wall mount speakers. I appreciate the advice.

William, I have read several reviews and they all reference toe in which is easy to position for and a 1:2:4 ratio to setup them up on stands but I can’t stage these 7’ from a wall like recommended.

Thanks for input guys.


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Gadgetfreek, The CCB-8s are a very flexible speaker. As long as you understand their radiation pattern, you can get a good sound. Toeing them inward produces the best imaging, but you can toe them outward and still get get imaging, so it is not bad at all to have them facing straight ahead. You can toe them in to face your listening position directly, but this does give them a somewhat bright sound. Some people like that brightness. Think of their radiation pattern as a cone that surrounds the direct axis, and the further away you get from the direct axis vector, the more mellow the sound gets, so you can adjust their sound to whatever you like best.

As for the 1:2:4 ratio stand-off distances, that is recommended as a natural way to improve bass frequencies. This is not particular to the CCB-8s, this is helps every speaker. By positioning the speaker away from nearby surfaces at unequal distances, that can help to randomize out the acoustic room modes and can hep you get a smoother bass response. Room correction can help alleviate this as well, so getting those stand-off distance proportions isn't absolutely crucial towards getting a high-fidelity sound. You can have speakers closer to a wall, further from a wall, and they can still sound fine. These speakers can still sound good even if you don't have optimal placement.

 

[Gadgetfreek29]

ShadyJ thank you for explaining that. One more question. My main seating position is 7’ from tv, leaving roughly 4’ between myself and rear wall. How far behind me should I place the rear speakers and should front and tears be same height?


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[William Lemmerhirt]

ShadyJ thank you for explaining that. One more question. My main seating position is 7’ from tv, leaving roughly 4’ between myself and rear wall. How far behind me should I place the rear speakers and should front and tears be same height?


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Ideally from above it would look like this.

IME surrounds should be with a tweeter height around 6’, or maybe 5’ with a narrower room and angled down towards the LP, and pointed slightly forward. In this configuration you should expect good cohesion between the front and rear speakers. Also good imaging between the surrounds, and even the illusion of sounds behind the LP.

 

[shadyJ]

Ideally from above it would look like this.

IME surrounds should be with a tweeter height around 6’, or maybe 5’ with a narrower room and angled down towards the LP, and pointed slightly forward. In this configuration you should expect good cohesion between the front and rear speakers. Also good imaging between the surrounds, and even the illusion of sounds behind the LP.

It looks to me like he has more room behind him than that diagram would allow, so this is the layout I would go with if possible:

Also, in a 5.1 setup it is not critical that the front and rears be the same height. The rears can have some elevation over the listener, but you still wants them angled down to face the listener.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

It looks to me like he has more room behind him than that diagram would allow, so this is the layout I would go with if possible:

Also, in a 5.1 setup it is not critical that the front and rears be the same height. The rears can have some elevation over the listener, but you still wants them angled down to face the listener.

I think our diagrams are more similar than not, both indicating 110deg angle for the surrounds, which I didn’t say but kinda did when I said slightly behind. In my mind that meant about 18”-24” behind the LP, but didn’t make it to print. Also, I didn’t say they should be the same height. I said 5’-6’ tweeter height, depending on room width, or about 35deg above the LP. Aimed down and slightly forward toward the LP. In any case I obviously agree with what you’re saying since I already wrote the same thing basically. If this were atmos I would definitely had said the surrounds should only be 1.25 times the height of the mains tweeters, or somewhere in the 50” height range.

 

[Gadgetfreek29]

I have 2 definitive pro 1000’s and 2 definitive bipolar sr8040’s from my old setup. If I wanted to go 7.1 would I be better off using sr8040’s for surrounds and cbb8’s for rear or keeping the ccb8’s for surrounds and using pro 1000’s for rear? Any other configuration advice is welcome also.


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[shadyJ]

I would try to avoid using bipole speakers in a 7.1 setup. If I had to use them, I would use the bipole speakers as the side surround speakers I suppose. If you were going to use CCB-8s somewhere in a surround role, I would use them as rear surrounds if you could only choose one pair of surrounds for them.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I basically agree with shady here in that if I HAD to use bipoles it would be at the sides in 7.1. Is there a chance you could sell the def tech stuff to finance another pair of ccb-8’s? Ideally 7 of those HSU’s would be pretty awesome. What’s the ceiling height?

 

[Gadgetfreek29]

The ceiling 8ft at the wall and 12ft at the peak. I thought photos might give you both a better idea of what I am working with. I ended up with 3ft between couch and rear wall and 1ft between couch and side walls.

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[William Lemmerhirt]

So looking around your room, I have a couple thoughts. I like the couch, it reminds me of a natuzzi that’s on my shopping list. Another thing is that center channel. I’d like to see a riser for the tv, or some way to get that center from firing into the front of the couch, and more on the same plane as the mains. And then rear surrounds. IMO, 5-6’ is more like what you’d have behind the LP for them to work properly. If I had that space, I would probably stay with 5.1, and maybe look at a way to do Atmos. Fwiw, I will likely be using RSL C34e for my angled ceiling which is 10degrees. The rsl’s have a 15deg baffle so they’ll work for me, maybe you too.

 

[Gadgetfreek29]

Thanks. I know the center is not ideal but I hate having the tv where I have to look up at it. I usually move the ottoman out of the way when I’m watching a movie by myself. When I’m with my wife or kid we use but they don’t let me turn it up loud either.

I also have the center angled up towards me. I’m renting this house for 2 years and landlord won’t let me install ceiling speakers. I thought about upfiring add ons.

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[William Lemmerhirt]

Fwiw, I would avoid Atmos enabled modules, especially with the odd ceiling shape. I just don’t think you’ll get enough, if any return on that investment. It might be worth looking at a wall mount, or gimbal bracket etc that would only require a few small holes that could easily be filled with 3 bucks worth of Sheetrock putty.

 

[Gadgetfreek29]

So I moved the tv closer to the wall so that I could raise the center off the ground. I mounted the bipoles as front height but definitely don’t love them. I am going to change them out tomorrow for the Definitive pro1000’s and see if I like those.

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[Gadgetfreek29]

Raised the rears 18” above ear level, spread them out and angled 110 degrees towards me. Raised the center channel and angled in the fronts 15 degrees off axis per the HSU instructions. Front heights aren’t bad after a day of listening. Still waiting for my 2 CCB-8s to come in and replace my current rears.

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[TheWarrior]

Wait, are the front L/C/R speakers out in the middle of the room?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Lookin good GF. I think I saw that episode of property brothers yesterday!!! Lol