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Floor speakers

MrGrim999

MrGrim999

Member
Hey guys! I spoke with SVS tech support and wondered if it would be ok to rest a floor standing speaker on top of their subwoofer since space is limited on the left side. He told me it would be fine and that a lot of people in the same position do that.

Is this really ok?
 
Yea, as long as:

1) The floor standing speaker doesn't weight to much.

2) You understand that your tweeter will most likely be off axis when you are sitting down, so perceived high frequency response will go down.

3) If it's a front firing sub, you need to make sure the sub and the floor standing speaker are in phase, because if they are out of phase you will actually cancel out certain bass frequencies that both respond to.
 
I'd put some padding between them at the very least otherwise you're likely to get some unpleasant resonances. You still might but it's worth a shot. Bubble wrap should work but will look like crap. At least it can handle the weight though. Otherwise a firm foam like a memory foam should also work.
 
Can you take a picture from farther away? How far away do you sit from your television? Optimally, you want to have your front speakers about as far apart as you sit from your center channel. So, if you sit 10 feet away from your television/center channel you will want your left and right speakers to be 10 feet apart, ie. 5 feet left and 5 feet right of center. That will give you the stereo imaging you desire. From that pic, putting your speakers that close to each other is going to sound like crap.

speaker_placement.gif
 
MrGrim999 said:
Heres a snapshot of what I'm dealing with
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e249/MrGrim999/Home theater project/image.jpg1_zpsb9bt6zje.jpg

That's the only place sub can go..
Click to expand...
You're not getting much channel separation there. The rear speaker should ideally be in back of you rather than the sides. I'm sure you understand that, just saying.

Given you're space constraints, you might want to look at getting a sound bar. That can create the illusion of spatial imaging w/o having to worry about speaker placement.

Then whenever you decide to move, you can worry about upgrading the speakers.
 
I'd vote for a decent soundbar as well. If you can't properly implement surround sound I wouldn't even bother. I have a pretty stellar home theater (9.2 surround, 104" 1080p, fully soundproofed room, 6 subwoofers etc.) and while the surround is nice, even with my system I don't feel it adds a ton to the experience. I would be 90% as happy with 2 front speakers and my subs.
 
I don't bother with surround sound in my bedroom. Just a regular 2 channel amp. Connected to the tv with an optical cable. But yeah, otherwise a soundbar is the way to go for that room....
 
Why do you need Floorstanding? It's just the design.
Your room is not large enough to accommodate such a design, so go with bookshelf speakers.

I've linked you a lot of good designs, and the vast majority were bookshelf. This isn't to say that bookshelf > Floorstanding, no, it's that you can get good performance out of both types of speakers. I really only like Floorstanding purely for the aesethetic. A good bookshelf sized speaker is far more practical. My Floorstanding speakers are being sold for DIY bookshelf speakers to save space and increase performance vastly. So my fronts will now take 1/10th of the space, but be far better than I used to have.

My vote is get decent bookshelf speakers although now that I see your room you really don't even have space for nice sized bookshelf speakers.

You really just have to:
A) Somehow squeeze bookshself speakers into there (seems hard if not impossible as your room looks a LOT smaller than I had anticipated.

B) Use a smaller speaker setup that will not get as loud

C) Get something that will fit your extremely space limited area.

Under C you can either pick a pretty subpar small setup on discount from where you work.
Or, build yourself a speaker designed for smaller areas like the Fusion Quad 4 and far nicer performance.

You could also go with a Soundbar + Surrounds although I'm not a huge fan of a soundbar, in your room it really looks like it makes sense given how little space you seem to have to work with.
 
For that room all you need is 2.0 bookshelves, or 2.1 since you have the space for the sub tucked in place.

Floor speakers are completely out of place, and the surround speaker placement is far less than ideal.

To be honest, if you had nothing to begin with I'd recommend either a sound bar or 2.0 active speakers. That's it. The room you're working with is too small and asymmetrical for anything else to be worth it.
 
JAG87 said:
For that room all you need is 2.0 bookshelves, or 2.1 since you have the space for the sub tucked in place.

Floor speakers are completely out of place, and the surround speaker placement is far less than ideal.

To be honest, if you had nothing to begin with I'd recommend either a sound bar or 2.0 active speakers. That's it. The room you're working with is too small and asymmetrical for anything else to be worth it.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this.

You just don't have a good room at all for this lol. The Surrounds really aren't that big of a deal. If you like em use em. My surrounds were mounted on the wall in my previous bedroom directly behind the bed. Way too close for an ideal placement. They still were great to have, although I should have turned them down a bit, but I loved them.

That's why I suggested surrounds and a soundbar.

However a soundbar is going to go where the center channel goes anyway.

Since I just love surround sound anda 5.1 setups, I'd get a nice center, smaller fronts. Then even smaller surrounds. The center is what you'll hear the most. Upgrading my center by itself was huge.
 
tential said:
Why do you need Floorstanding? It's just the design.
Your room is not large enough to accommodate such a design, so go with bookshelf speakers.

I've linked you a lot of good designs, and the vast majority were bookshelf. This isn't to say that bookshelf > Floorstanding, no, it's that you can get good performance out of both types of speakers. I really only like Floorstanding purely for the aesethetic. A good bookshelf sized speaker is far more practical. My Floorstanding speakers are being sold for DIY bookshelf speakers to save space and increase performance vastly. So my fronts will now take 1/10th of the space, but be far better than I used to have.

My vote is get decent bookshelf speakers although now that I see your room you really don't even have space for nice sized bookshelf speakers.

You really just have to:
A) Somehow squeeze bookshself speakers into there (seems hard if not impossible as your room looks a LOT smaller than I had anticipated.

B) Use a smaller speaker setup that will not get as loud

C) Get something that will fit your extremely space limited area.

Under C you can either pick a pretty subpar small setup on discount from where you work.
Or, build yourself a speaker designed for smaller areas like the Fusion Quad 4 and far nicer performance.

You could also go with a Soundbar + Surrounds although I'm not a huge fan of a soundbar, in your room it really looks like it makes sense given how little space you seem to have to work with.
Click to expand...


From reading online I was getting the impression that floor standing would be better than book shelf speakers. Obviously I'm still learning hehe. But thanks I got it now. I know this room isn't ideal for a 5.1 setup, but I do like hearing the speakers back there. I'll be testing the possibilities out next month when my employee discount becomes active. I'm gonna try the Bowers and Wilkins 685 s2's first then the Def Tech SM 55 or 65's. I'll look into sound bars too.

Thanks again guys!
 
Floorstanding is not inherently better than Bookshelf.

There is a lot more to factor in. If your room can't handle floorstanding designs, don't go floorstanding. If you like hearing s peakers behind you, then you need surrounds. But how you setup your front stage is up to you. You can go soundbar. Center channel only. 2 Fronts only. etc.

I've used my setup many times with only the center channel and not noticed lol. Center channel + surrounds + sub has happened sometimes when I have forgotten to turn on my fronts amp, and I didn't even notice. Really, it's hilarious when I forget to turn on an amp and still enjoy the sound.
 
tential said:
Floorstanding is not inherently better than Bookshelf.

There is a lot more to factor in. If your room can't handle floorstanding designs, don't go floorstanding. If you like hearing s peakers behind you, then you need surrounds. But how you setup your front stage is up to you. You can go soundbar. Center channel only. 2 Fronts only. etc.

I've used my setup many times with only the center channel and not noticed lol. Center channel + surrounds + sub has happened sometimes when I have forgotten to turn on my fronts amp, and I didn't even notice. Really, it's hilarious when I forget to turn on an amp and still enjoy the sound.
Click to expand...


Hehe that's pretty funny. Goes to show you I guess. Having a 5.1 setup is all I've ever had so I've never tried anything else. But I'll definitely try all options before sticking this time.
 
I wouldn't put any traditional speakers system in that room (2.1 or 5.1). Waaaay too small even for bookshelves. Mount the TV to the wall, with a soundbar underneath, and a sub underneath that. For critical listening, get a nice pair of headphones. Way cleaner and much better than trying to shoehorn in a system that isn't designed for your room layout and size.

If you are absolutely intent on getting bookshelves, check out KEF LS50. Great bang for your buck.
 
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Are you the same guy who in a different post was asking about more watts? I think I was the only person in that post who told you the speakers are just fine for your room ( 12 x 12 right? ). Everyone was telling you to get a bigger AVR and bigger speakers. Like I said I think your problem is your speaker placement.
 
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