Questions about surround speaker placement.

[Zman2k2]

So, now that my back has healed somewhat, I'm getting into the design phase of my basement theater room. Coming up with some measurements, I have a room that is 10'8" by 12'. What I'm planning is to have the sofa run parallel with the 12' wall. So the distance between the sofa and the HDTV would end up being around 10'.

My question comes from the placement of surround speakers in the room. When I place the sofa in the room, do I need space behind the sofa, or can I place it directly against the wall? If I go against the wall, would I need to use dipole/bipole speakers, or would regular ones suffice?

[emoxley]

Depends on if you're going with a 5.1 or a 7.1 setup. See here:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/setup/...ide/index.html

[Hammie]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

So, now that my back has healed somewhat, I'm getting into the design phase of my basement theater room. Coming up with some measurements, I have a room that is 10'8" by 12'. What I'm planning is to have the sofa run parallel with the 12' wall. So the distance between the sofa and the HDTV would end up being around 10'.

My question comes from the placement of surround speakers in the room. When I place the sofa in the room, do I need space behind the sofa, or can I place it directly against the wall? If I go against the wall, would I need to use dipole/bipole speakers, or would regular ones suffice?

I prefer the bipole/dipole ones. I have my seating area against the back wall in my room and have had both direct radiating and bipole/dipole (both on-wall and in-wall). I feel the bipole/dipoles are far better in this position and create a less directional surround environment.

I also feel that if you haver the seating area against the back wall, then a 7.1 is near impossible to pull off. This of course is just my opinion and others may disagree. But for proper rear surround placement, they should be BEHIND the listening area.

Good luck!

[jomari]

the placement of the surrounds would depend on what kind of speakers you would be using,

direct radiating?
dipoles or bipoles?

generally speaking, they should be behind the listener, at a certain height higher than the listeners ear level.

theres a sticky around here that would indicate the proper placement of both, of course written by big daddy.

on a side note, ive preferred to have the sofa away from the wall, to avoid hearing room interactions with the lower frequencies (this is one reason why subs are also moved a tad farther from the walls).

[Zman2k2]

Originally Posted by emoxley

Depends on if you're going with a 5.1 or a 7.1 setup. See here:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/setup/...ide/index.html

Okay, well, I'd probably wire for a 7.1 system, but mostly use a 5.1 system.

Currently I have a pair of direct radiating speakers that I use for surrounds. What jomari was mentioning, about room interactions, that's what I'm concerned with when it comes to design of the room. The reason the room is so oddly shaped, is there is a support pole directly in the middle of the back wall. I considered dropping the back wall back a foot or so, but that would look weird, with a pole in the middle of the room.

I read some information last night, and here's the design I came up with.


Would it be better to have the back wall in front of the pole, like I have in the drawing, or behind the pole, giving me an extra foot of room to eliminate speaker reflections and room interaction?

[Hammie]

ZMan,

Either way, it would be difficult to put a 7.1 system in place and make it sound good. The back speakers really should be behind the listening area with the side surrounds being at a 90 degree angle to a little behind the listening area.

Look at my old gallery and you'll see my couch up against the rear wall. There really isn't room for side speakers. My room is approx. 11x15.

Even if you wire for 7.1, but only use 5.1, you may be limited to speaker placement due to the wiring of the 7.1 setup.

[Zman2k2]

Here's another room option. After talking things over with my wife, another possibility is to remove the storage area that would have been behind the room to another part of the basement, open up that side, and use it for a hobby/crafts area. This would open up another possibility of having the room rotated 90*, giving a larger overall area.



Would something like this room allow for better speaker placement for a possible 7.1 system? I might put in a false wall, near the door, to allow for better right side surround placement. Does this look like a better option?

[DougMac]

I think room behind the sofa with the side surrounds a little behind and 7.1 rears would be ideal, but you don't have much room.

Here's a pretty good disussion of direct vs bipole/dipole surrounds:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=66471

Personally I prefer direct for its ability to pinpoint sound sources. I have no problem with it filling the room with diffuse sound when the sound engineer uses that sound stage.

[phansson]

To me a bigger room would all ways be better. Personally I would prefer to have some separation between my speakers on the back of the room and the seating (if doing 7.1).

What if you stayed with the original plan and move the couch parallel to the 10'8" wall? I don't know if the couch would fit but a system would fit better that way.

[Zman2k2]

Originally Posted by phansson

To me a bigger room would all ways be better. Personally I would prefer to have some separation between my speakers on the back of the room and the seating (if doing 7.1).

What if you stayed with the original plan and move the couch parallel to the 10'8" wall? I don't know if the couch would fit but a system would fit better that way.

I agree, it would fit better that way, but I measured it out, and there's not much room on either side of the couch. If I did it that way, there would be 1.5' on either side of the couch to get around it to sit. Not exactly ideal. I think, personally, I'm leaning towards the bigger room myself. Just have to talk about it a little more with my wife. See if we can come up with any downsides.

[phansson]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

I agree, it would fit better that way, but I measured it out, and there's not much room on either side of the couch. If I did it that way, there would be 1.5' on either side of the couch to get around it to sit. Not exactly ideal. I think, personally, I'm leaning towards the bigger room myself. Just have to talk about it a little more with my wife. See if we can come up with any downsides.

The only downside would be $$$$$, but that is the downside with anything in life. Good luck, I will be looking forward to the progress pics.

As for the couch, I thought that might be a little cramped. 1.5' on either side would be pretty tight.