Quote:
Originally Posted by miketh54 /forum/post/20843398
I’m setting up 7.1 in 17 X 17 square room and am wondering since the receiver has auto calibration, If I still have to be as precise on the height as all the materiel I have been reading.
Auto-calibration is no substitute for proper speaker placement and setup. PERIOD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by miketh54 /forum/post/20843398
I was also wondering if it would matter if I went a bit further outside the guidelines.
You can do whatever you want. You can place your speakers wherever you want... and they will "work." You'll get sound. However, the further you go outside the guidelines, the less optimal your sound will be. PERIOD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by miketh54 /forum/post/20843398
Specifically, instead of placing the fronts and surrounds at the recommended height could I just place the fronts and rears more or less towards the top of each room corner, angled down, then place the surround sides at the appropriate place along the left and right walls but again towards the top of the walls, then let the Pioneer calibration do its thing. The center will sit above the TV.
I have the following equipment: Pioneer VSX1020K, Definitive procenter 1000, Definitive Pro 800 surrounds (6), and a Rel T3 sub.
Any help will be appreciated.
You can place your speakers at ceiling height if you want. However, you shouldn't expect the *correct* imaging from a speaker system if the speakers are not placed and mounted correctly. Dialogue will image from overhead. Effects and pans will sound like they come from "above" the on-screen image. If you're OK with that, then feel free to mount your speaker up high. Just don't expect the sound to "lock up" with the video image.
Mounting your speakers in the corners, (upper corners, lower corners, *any* corners...), will have a hugely negative impact on their sound quality. The corners will activate all the room modes up to the Schroeder frequency of the room. This will cause the mid and upper bass to be peaky and boomy/muddy. Above that, the very early reflections off the adjacent walls will cause comb filtering of the mids and highs. This will cause problems with speech intelligibility, ("Wait, rewind that... whadhesay???.) It will also reinforce the highs, making them overly bright.
So, if you don't care about understanding speech, if you don't care about hearing articulation in the bass, if you don't care that the highs hurt your ears, feel free to mount your speakers "outside the guidelines." After all, what do the "guidelines" really mean anyway? They're only intended to get the listener the optimal sound. If "optimal sound" is a secodary or tertiary consideration, feel free to mount your speakers wherever you see fit.
OTOH, if you want to try to optimize your sound, you'll want to mount your speakers per the guidelines:
The placement of your optimal listening position is equally important to your speaker placement. Note that in the above diagram the optimal LP is *not* adjacent to the rear wall. In a 7.1 system, you want the rear speakers to be behind the LP. If the LP is against the rear wall, there is no space behind the LP for the rear speakers. In that situation, a 5.1 system is a better choice.
