Recommendations for weird layout

[alexo]

Hello people,

I need speaker suggestions for our family room.

I actually started 2 threads, one here (on the Loudspeaker forum) for speaker suggestions and this one - for placement suggestions.

I'm looking for speakers to match with a Pioneer 1014TX receiver.

Unfortunately, the way the room is organized is, um, unorthodox, so I need some placement suggestions.

Now, about the room... Possibly the worst design ever (didn't consider a home theater when we bought the house) but that's what I have.
It's about 5m x 3m. The TV is stuck in the corner because the fireplace takes the center of the room. Also, above the TV there is a bookshelf unit that looks like it was welded in when the house was built...
The sliding glass doors are our exit to the back yard so I cannot really block them with neither the loveseat nor the TV, thus the weird setup.

Looks something like this (approximately to scale):

.	          +------------------------------+     to          ^
.	to                 **********************      kitchen     |
.	hall               *                    *                  |
.	                   *         sofa       *             +    |
.	                   *                    *             |    |
.	                   *                    *             #    |
.	+                  **********************             #    |
.	|                                             blinds  #    |
.	|********                                      and    #
.	|*      *                                    sliding  #  approx
.	|*      *                                     glass   #    3m
.	|* love *                                    door to  #
.	|* seat *                                    backyard #    |
.	|*      *                                             #    |
.	|*      *                                             #    |
.	|*      *                                             |    |
.	|********                                27" TV       |    |
.	++                 +----------------+  under 1.5m  +--+    |
.	 |                 |   fireplace    |   bookshelf  |       |
.	 +-----------------+----------------+--------------+       V
.
.	<----------------  approximately 5m  ----------------->

Sucks, eh?

What would be the best possible 5.1 speaker placement under the circumstances?
(I did not buy the speakers yet, don't know what size will work...)

Thank you very much in advance!
Alex.

 

[Rob Babcock]

That's a tough nut to crack, Alexo. You might try arranging the room at an angle. Maybe I can draw a pic & scan it, but basically move things so that when you face the screen, the room appears diamond shaped. The tv probably must stay in the corner, but you could try pulling it out into the room a ways and flanking the speakers off to each side. Pull the main listening seat out a ways into the room perpendicular to the TV. The surrounds might work wall mounted as close as you can get to the sides.

That is a tough room to work with!

 

[JohnA]

Buy...

a plasma or LCD and place it over the Fireplace. Problem solved!

 

[Rob Babcock]

Actually, that's possible, but it depends on how high it would have to go. You're asking for long term unhappiness if you place the tv way too high. If you could mount the plasma on the mantle and it happended not to be too high it would work. But heat is a concern.

 

[alexo]

Actually, that's possible, but it depends on how high it would have to go. You're asking for long term unhappiness if you place the tv way too high. If you could mount the plasma on the mantle and it happended not to be too high it would work. But heat is a concern.

Indeed that was the first thing I considered.
Much too high for comfort

 

[plhart]

The smaller the room, the more difficult it is to generate a believable surround experience. In this size room, laid out as shown, it would be very difficult to achieve what I would consider an even decent left-center-right soundfield plus an immersive rear soundfield for one person, let alone a crowd on both the sofa and loveseat which are against walls.

The all-in-one Yamaha YSP-1 ($1495 SRP) available in a couple of months might offer one of the only solutions but that's just a guess based on what we heard the system do at CES last week.

 

[alexo]

The smaller the room, the more difficult it is to generate a believable surround experience. In this size room, laid out as shown, it would be very difficult to achieve what I would consider an even decent left-center-right soundfield plus an immersive rear soundfield for one person, let alone a crowd on both the sofa and loveseat which are against walls.

Against the walls should be fine for 5.1 (I mean, people did manage somehow before 7.1 became available...)
There will not be a crowd. The loveseat is for entertaining guest, not for movie watching.

I'd like to create a good experience (admittedly limited to 5.1) for 2 adults on the sofa (middle and east positions), looking a bit diagonally at the TV (it is turned towards the viewers).

 

[plhart]

Wall placement of a sofa (as a listening position) is generally discouraged because it is a high pressure area wherein the bass frequencies can become overbearing. Read the link below, Part 3 of our CEDIA Seminar Series, for more information:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/roomacoustics/roomacoustictreatments.php

You situation may, in all likelihood, have less probability of bass build-up since both corners of the room are open. This makes it very difficult to give concrete advice (in this forum) as to what to do with your situation. Again, the reason is because the room is so small and your forced arrangement would appear to make quite asymmetrical location of front and rear surround speakers your only option.

Most receivers, unless THX certified, do not allow for widely divergent, separate rear channel distances to be inputted. And even if you have a unit which can do that, a separation of two or three feet between two people on your sofa would mean that at least one of you would probably always be listening to fairly unbalanced rear sound. The precedence effect would apply. The person nearest the right surround speaker, for instance, would hear only the right surround speaker. This could make it difficult to hear the front center dialogue channel, a most important consideration. Hence the recommendation for the Yamaha YSP-1 as a possible solution.

 

[alexo]

Thank you plhart.

The receiver is THX certified.

The Yamaha looks intriguing, although I have no idea how it will work in my room, or where I can get it in Canada. This is, after all, new technology which was not reviewed or tested in various settings so I am reluctunt to order it online before I get the chance to hear it in my room and return it if not satisfied.

Their site says:

Q: Will this technology actually work?

A: Like any home theatre setup, it depends on the size, shape and the acoustic signature of your room, moreso it also depends on the source material you are using. If you are using a mono signal, there is no way you can get a true surround sound environment.

It will only be available here in March.

 

[nm2285]

i dont know if an outside view is very important in this situation but if you moved the love seat to the wall with the doors and left it a meter or so out, you'd still have room to get out. Then move the TV to the wall where the love seat was and use that for the majority of your equip. You can attach surrounds to the ceiling.

 

[hopjohn]

My suggestion, though you may not like it is to space the sofa a ways out from the sliding glass door so that you can get behind it enough to go in and out to the backyard, and have room enough for the kitchen entry. Move the love seat to the where the sofa was, then put the tv where the love seat was. You'll have to control the lighting during the day, using opaque blinds. You would then have room enough for mains and some wall mounted surrounds.