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Home Theater help

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YoungGun21

Platinum Member
Got surround sound for a present this year and I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on where to put my speakers. I'm throwing this in my basement (gonna be sweet playing Xbox on surround sound for a change). I have a 5.1 setup (1 center, 1 sub, 4 small outer). I thought you all here would know quite a bit about it and would be able to help. Suggestions?


Basement
 
I'll look into that one but basically due to the layout of the rest of the room I doubt I'll be able to do it. Behind the couch is all open and behind the chairs is a treadmill and an elliptical machine.
 
Originally posted by: YoungGun21
I'll look into that one but basically due to the layout of the rest of the room I doubt I'll be able to do it. Behind the couch is all open and behind the chairs is a treadmill and an elliptical machine.
Click to expand...
Put the surrounds only slightly behind the listening position.
 
Originally posted by: YoungGun21
So should I put the rear speakers on the wall or on the pole?
Click to expand...

The first thing you should do is find a way to get your room set up so that you can have your "sweet spot" on the opposite wall of the TV. Its usually easier to do if the TV and your spot are not in the corner. That's why I moved your stuff around in the drawing I did.

You want your center channel on/below your tv. The two fronts equal distance from your tv and facing your sweet spot. Rears work best as high up on the wall as possible. Ideally you want them in corners facing down at your spot.

Sub positioning can be debated for hours with no real answer. Go for what sounds best to you.
 
I get to do this next week. Picked up some Energy c500 towers from Future shop for 149.99 a piece and a polk audio psw505 sub. I will keep my JBL surrounds but I still really need a new center channel and a blu-ray for the projector.
 
You're kind of fucked with that kind of room layout. You want the rears pretty much right behind you, and with the seating area that spread out...good luck.

The only saving grace is that you can adjust how much power your rears get, so...I'd say put them wherever they're not in your way while aesthetically pleasing to the room, and adjust the power to the front/rears/center until it sounds good to you. You can't really win without changing the furniture layout in your room.
 
corner setups are the toughest to get multichannel to work. Frankly, just stick with the front 3 as close to ear height as possible when seated.
 
I agree with the change in layout, i.e. rudeguy's suggestion. But, I'm not an AV expert. I am, however, sending this thread over to that forum for you.

-DrPizza
*thread including all posts til this post made in OT, move to AV*
 
Subwoofer positioning doens't have to be debated. If you have REQW and a good microphone with a phantom power source, you can run sine sweeps to find the smoothest FR. Most typically, the corners of the room grant bass boost at the cost of bass frequency linearity, centers of walls compromise bass loudness for better bass linearity, in between the front speakers allows for higher crossover frequencies while allowing for good stereo integration and blend of subwoofer/loudspeaker.

In the standard shoebox dimensioned room, the reciprocity rule works for placing the subwoofer. That is, if you place the subwoofer at the listening position, you can sweep sine waves and test candidate spots around the room to find the most frequency linear area. This spot is optimal for subwoofer placement. It is that easy. This method also minimizes the amount of backbreaking subwoofer moving.

Do it right, do it once.

I would wholeheartedly agree with Rudeguy and get your setup away from the corner. Standard TV on width-wall with speakers "firing" down the length works best, is a well-tested model, and is easier to predict the influence of soundwaves within the room.

Here is an example layout that would work much better including 5.1 sound.
MSPAINT
 
If you moved your TV a bit to the right so it's directly opposite the couch like Tiamat suggested, you'd be set. Perhaps you could move a chair next to the TV?
 
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