Surrounds in room with cathedral ceilings?

[cjtalbot]

Hey all,

1st time HT guy here...looking for some advise on how to setup my surrounds.

As you'll see from the gif attached, I have a 10' X 20' family room with 15' cathedral ceilings.

One section of the room is open, and leads to a small room, and than opens up into the kitchen.

I have my sectional sofa against two of the walls, and opposite one end of the couch is my entertainment center. I'll have my TV, Fronts and Center channel on the center...but I'm not sure where and how to place the 2 back surround speakers (oh..sorry, I'm looking to make this a 5.1 system).

I can not move the couch closer to the center (wife is firm on this) so I need the best solution with that one caveat. I can attach the speakers anywhere else in the room though.

My plan as it stands was to place the two rear surrounds about 4' high above ear level (6 1/2' from the floor) and about 1 foot from the back wall. I would than face the speakers toward each other.

Obviously this is not set in stone, and I'm open to ANYTHING that might be suggested.

Thank you all for your time,

Chris

 

[Mr. Music]

Dear Chris

If you want help you at least must provide some information on the room dimensions, materials and your listening position.

An optimum placement can be calculated with the program CARA.

Richard

 

[RLA]

Hi
It appears from the drawing that the sectional is all the way against the back wall that would put the listeners ears and head very close to the back wall
this is how many people choose to set up there furinture in there living space
it is optimal for living but less than favorable for high performance Home Theater There is however a compromise that can be acchieved when your listening position is very close to the rear of the room Placing a speaker in wall or on wall on the back wall is not an ideal solution because there is not enough distance between the listening position and the speakers and you will be in the very narrow dispersion pattern of the speaker Placing a Di-pole
or Bi-Pole on the side wall's in the null of the listening position will be more effective but because the placment of the speaker will need to be very close to a paralel wall it is probable you will get reflected sound at the listening position from speaker this is not good The third option is to place a direct
radiating speaker in-wall or on wall ( not ported in the rear if its an on-wall)
in the null of the listening position 12-18" above seated ear level an in-wall
with a pivoting tweeter may give you better results if you need to place the
speaker at the higher level and your ceiling starts its pitch at 8 feet you may need to invert the speakers installation I have installed many systems this way and while not being perfect I have achived very good results after
calibrating and adjusting delay times inputting conventional measured delay times into the processor were often not the correct setting for the placment of the speakers and experimentation was needed either shorter or longer to acheive good results
Hope this helps

 

[plhart]

Here's a set-up that I used in my last install that worked very effectively.

First, you need to get some type of absorption directly behind your head and extending out about 2 feet minimum to either side. The echo slap from your center channel along with the speaker set-up I'm about to recommend won't work well without this.

Second, sitting against the wall you are in a zone of maximun bass. If you like that, fine, but in all likelihood you will hear the dreaded one-note bass. To alleviate this one-note problem you might want to consider a sub with a single band parametric EQ built-in such as some AV123 subs and some Infinities. Place the sub close to your listening position and you should be able to smooth out the bass using the set-up routine to get it making tuneful, articulated bass.

Lastly, the dipoles. Choose a dipole design (like an Energy or Infinity) which has the two front baffle sides at 90 degrees to each other. Mount the dipole ahead of your listening position on your sidewalls at about 80 degrees + or - as referenced from the center channel/display device. The dipoles should be a minimum of 3 feet from the rear wall. Now, hinge the dipoles on the side closest to the rear wall so that they can be swung inward with their null area pointing toward your listening position.

If you significant other objects to the dipoles always being out use a hinge-and-prop set-up which allows you to swing the dipoles back in against the wall when not in use. If this is not a problem do what I did and prop the dipoles out permanently.

What happens with a dipole swung out like this is that you don't get the sometimes boomy sounding bass gain which happens with dipoles against the wall. This lack of boom allows the dipoles to do what they do best, give you a sense of immersion in the rear soundstage.

 

[JohnA]

well

My plan as it stands was to place the two rear surrounds about 4' high above ear level (6 1/2' from the floor) and about 1 foot from the back wall. I would than face the speakers toward each other.
Chris

That is what I would do, except for facing them towards each other (bad, very bad)...I would face them towards the listening position...and play around with the height location. Sit in the "sweet spot" and have a friend help you out by moving the speakers around until it sounds good to you. That way you get the "best" possible location and don't end up placing them in some generic location that sounds bad.