To add to my Speaker Height question...

[Mitchell Torres]

My room is not the ideal for setting up a home theater but demmit I want good sound!

The room is 11 x 11 almost a perfect square except for the angled entrance way: ( see diagram )

the room is approx 11 x 11
the open area to the left is the pass through to the kitchen and then the odd shaped angled "entrance" to the room on the top left.

I fear the only place to put the LS and RS are basically at head level as the couch is against the back wall and 1 to 2 feet above ears.


Any other suggestions for room layout would be appreciated!


Thanks

 

[gene]

Mitchell;

Where is your subwoofer? What is the height of your speakers?

How can you couches be 2 feet above ear level? They must be huge!

I don't have enough info about your setup here to comment intelligently, so I will comment like a babbling idiot instead

I would suggest pulling your speakers off the back wall a few feet, bring the back couch 1-2 feet away from the back wall rather than against it.

If the tweeters of your speakers are below ear level, raise the speakers up with some stands or something solid to rest them on.

Toe in your speakers slightly to keep the direct sound hitting you rather than your side couch.

 

[Mitchell Torres]

Sorry for the incomplete data, The subwoofer will be on the side where the glass sliding door is. And the speakers will be 4 satellites a slim center and a sub also, what I meant to say is that the couch is against the back wall and the speakers will be placed 1 to 2 feet above ear level, my couches are normal Unfortunately moving the couches forward is an impossibility as the front of the left arm rest on the big couch (The one on the back wall) touches the front of the right arm rest of the smaller couch ( the one on the pass through wall). So I am at a loss as far as the room goes so any help as far as generating decent sound would be welcomed.

 

[Unregistered]

How can you couches be 2 feet above ear level? They must be huge!

LOL. That's the first thing I thought too. Hey we all make those mistakes when we write in a stream-of-consciousness style.

The diagram shows a 5.1 setup and I think for that, having the 'side' surrounds 1-2 feet above ear level won't be that bad. If you can mount them on the wall or use stands as gene suggests. Dipoles might work better than direct radiating surrounds.

If you are talking about 5.1 but placing the surrounds on the back wall or 7.1 where you have both side surrounds and the back surrounds on the back wall, then maybe bipoles would work well on the back wall. Bipoles also diffuse the sound but retain at least some directionality, moreso than dipoles.

Dipoles and Bipoles create a more enveloping sound and with the speakers so close to you, I don't think monopole speakers would be as good.

 

[djoxygen]

Seems like you're kinda stuck unless you want to downsize one of the couches.

I agree that the optimal would be to pull the back couch forward a couple feet, but I see why you can't/won't do that. However, if you downsized the side couch and added a chair over in front of the sliding door, you wouldn't lose seating, but could move that back couch forward a little.

I totally empathize with you because my HT room is a similar mess. Smaller (13x16 or so) with no fewer than 3 doors on 3 different walls. (I say "no fewer" because there's actually a 4th door leading to a 1/2 bath that intrudes on 1 corner of the room, notching out a 3x4 square. >:-( Eventually, that will become a bar, but still intrudes on the space.) Plus we have duct work and structural support running along one entire side of the ceiling - reducing ceiling height from 8' to just over 7' and intruding about 20" into the room. Moving from 2.0 to 5.1 is going to be a huge pain for speaker placement.

Any other suggestions from the masters here is much appreciated!