Odd-shaped Room; Setup Advice

[Trajen]

Hey Forum!

New here, but from what I've read, I think you guys can help me out. I plan to buy either the 5.1 Onkyo S5300 or the 7.1 Onkyo S7300.

The main problem is that I'm not sure how I would position the speakers for a home theater system in this room. I know it's not an ideal room, but that's what I've got .

I can't figure out how to insert an image (since I don't have a website with the image), so I'll try to describe the layout:

The Family Room is where the TV is. The Kitchen and Family Room are open and not separated by any walls. For ease, assume that the Family Room and Kitchen are a long rectangle in the North-South direction (The Family Room being the Northern half of the rectangle). However, there is a corner fireplace in the NE corner of the rectangle that comes out from the wall (essentially, it's not a 90 degree corner, it's 2 x 45 degree corners with a fireplace between them).

The TV is located above the fireplace in that NE corner. The main couch is at the halfway point in the rectangle facing north (the start of the Family Room). The other, smaller couch is at a 90 degree angle from the main couch and sits along the West wall of the rectangle. I can put the center and front L/R speakers over by the TV (we don't use the fireplace). The main question is where to put the surround (7.1) and back (5.1/7.1) speakers.

Any help is appreciated.

Please let me know if you'd like me to email you the basic drawing of the room layout.

Thanks!

 

[jostenmeat]

I think you need something like 5 posts to be able to post photos. I happen to use photobucket. It's free, you upload, then it's easy to share.

The corner orientation happens a lot, unfortunately, and it's simply a major compromise. You won't find such a compromised layout very often if at all with the regulars here.

IMO, you simply have to forget about compromising for both couches. Use the bigger couch as the captain's seat, and do everything to make AV as good as it can be from there. Because of the corner layout, it still won't be perfect, but don't make it worse by thinking of the small couch. This may mean that the "left surround" speaker in fact becomes their* right surround, if you get my meaning, and that the right surround will become the extremely far right surround #2.

Go to various surround sound websites like Dolby, and they'll have recommended angles for both 5.1 and 7.1. IMO, if 5.1, you have the surrounds placed more to straddle side plus rear areas. When 7.1, then have the side surrounds directly to the sides, as they don't need to cover any rear area. Only do rears if you can have at least few/several feet distance to them, IMO.