[jgraber]

Hey y'all!


I am currently working on my first hi-fi music/home theater setup, and seek advice on speaker placement in my small room. My HT room is also my bedroom (a sunroom with heavy curtains) 13' x 8'4". The basic room is drawn to scale in the first attached jpeg. Thanks to plenty of research and the good advice of AVSForum members, I currently own the following:


Onkyo TX-SR805 AVR

Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1 L/C/R

Samsung PN50a550 50" 1080p HDTV


I plan on soon buying the following:

Ascend Acoustics CBM-170SE surrounds

HSU VTF-2 MK3 Subwoofer

Samsung BDP-1500 Blu-ray Player


The question now is: how do i configure my HT room for optimal performance? My main question concerns a 5.1 vs. 7.1 setup. In the second jpeg, I have drawn (to scale) one idea for a 7.1 setup. The side surrounds would be ceiling mounted, dropped from the ceiling to a couple feet above ear level. The rear surrounds would probably be on stands at the same height. Both side and rear surrounds would have ~4" of breathing room between their rear ports and the wall. Is such a 7.1 setup overkill in a room of this size? It seems like side surrounds would pretty much only be effective for the sweet-spot (center-couch -- me

), but what about back surrounds? Also, is the sub in a good spot? Will the built-in heater mess with the sound of the sub (since it places the sub in a little nook)? Any input regarding 5.1 vs 7.1 in this room, as well as the placement of the surround/rear speakers and sub would be most helpful. Also, are the CBM-170SE's overkill - should I go with the HTM-200SE's? I would like to have a system that fulfill the needs of a little bit larger room (when I move, someday...)


Thanks much,

Jacob

 

[cavchameleon]

Hi Jgraber,


Have you thought of just going with 5.1 and putting the rear speakers in the back corners? Your room, as you mentioned, is fairly small and 7.1 would not benifit you in this setup (plus you can save on 2 less speakers). The sub placement in the nook is not the ideal place (corner loading can add bloated bass) - it's better to put the sub at half the lenght or width of the room, which may not be possible with your setup due to size. Just try it. As far as the built in heater affecting the sound, not at the frequencies that the sub will put out. If it sounds good to you there, it should be fine. There are a lot of threads on sub placement, you may want to do a search. Also look at these articles:

http://www.harman.com/wp/pdf/multsubs.pdf

and
http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/ge...or-bass-part-1

 

[hammong]

I agree that a 5.1 configuration might better suit that room size. If you're dead set on a rear channel, I'd wire a 6.1 configuration and put the back speaker in the dead center of the back wall.


I think the sub might work just fine in that location. The room is a rectangle where the width is not a multiple or faction of the length, so give it a shot and see how it goes. Worst case is you need to move it up in front of the couch on the bottom of your drawing, middle of the room.


Greg

 

[SoundChex]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hammong /forum/post/14245557


I agree that a 5.1 configuration might better suit that room size. If you're dead set on a rear channel, I'd wire a 6.1 configuration and put the back speaker in the dead center of the back wall.


I think the sub might work just fine in that location. The room is a rectangle where the width is not a multiple or faction of the length, so give it a shot and see how it goes. Worst case is you need to move it up in front of the couch on the bottom of your drawing, middle of the room.

I run a 6.1 system in my 12'x12' home office. The biggest problem I've found with surround in small spaces is that the room's sweet spot can be very small, and that it's very easy to move outside it. (#1) I moved my sub from the rear to near a front speaker, because placing it at the rear produced 'opposite sign' [perceived] volume changes in main 'bass' and 'treble' if I moved slightly forward or back. (#2) Because small off-axis movements generate large left-right volume effects, I will experiment with bipole/dipole rear/surrounds in the future as an alternative to the three [direct radiator] Polk R15 speakers I currently use for Ls/Cs/Rs.