No home theater room; only section of a big downstairs PICS

[wlmmn]

I live in a condo with an upstairs/downstairs that I share with my brother. The upstairs are just bedrooms and so I have my "home theater" (very loose term there) in the downstairs--but the downstairs is huge! There's no separate rooms with doors, only one giant space that's sectioned off by some half-walls.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's the floor plan:

The following picture shows how this is a big space that just opens up into different purposed spaces. To the right you'll see the kitchen, and in the top middle you'll see where the wall stops to the hallway to the upstairs. In the top left on the wall is a sound absorption foam panel. Behind the camera is a den space.

Here's another view, by the front door entrance. On the far left you'll see where the wall stops and opens up to the stairs:

And here's what I look at sitting in the center of the leather couch. Behind the components is another sound absorption foam panel nailed to the wall.

My speakers are in such a wide open space that there's no tightness or focus to the sound. These speakers sounded so much better in my tiny apartment. The unseen den needs to be reserved as a separate bedroom when my parents come every once in a while, so that's out. Would sound absorption panels do much for this mess of a room layout?

Also I'm open to suggestions on my speaker placement/setup.

My equipment:

Marantz SR6003 receiver
Oppo BDP-93 player
Blue Jeans cables
Fronts: B&W 685s
Center: B&W LCR60 S3
Surrounds: B&W DM303s
Subwoofer: Infinity PS-8

 

[agarwalro]

It is possible that the asymmetric walls up front is causing issues with room reflections. Most likely, you are compensating for the right wall by boosting the left levels. That will be a good imaging killer since higher frequencies will reflect/be compensated for while mids and lower frequencies will be overcompensated.

Maybe you can try to move the setup into something like this and see if it helps? You can also try keeping the sub in the gap behind the TV stand.

Also, I would recommend lowering the TV a little by moving the amp and BDP to where the CD rack and sub are currently located. And, the Marantz should not be covered up by the player. Both, the amp and player may fail due to heat build up. I recommend stacking the PS3 over BDP over the CD rack, next to the PC and having the Marantz by itself on the far right. This will also allow you to move the center to the middle of the rack, creating a better match with the L-R phantom center.

 

[wlmmn]

Alright, so I moved the TV down, the BDP over, and the PS3 down. I liked your idea of moving the setup into a corner, but unfortunately the right side of where that corner setup would be blocks the main heating vent, so that's out.

I also ordered some panels from ATS Acoustics, and I think that helped the imaging a lot.

Infinity PS-8 subwoofer is gone, hello Emotiva Ultra 12 sub that was on clearance for $349 with free shipping!

Updated pics: