New Room: Keep speakers or try something new?

[kamiller42]

I have moved into a house with a nice home theater room, but I am thinking I might have to change my speakers to accommodate the room and listeners. My concern is configuring for a good sweet spot and having good audio for the most listening positions.

Take a look at these photos. The red circles mark spots where the previous owner mounted his speakers. You can see he mounted smaller satellite speakers. I am currently using tower speakers, RS750s, for the front.

Room Front:


Room Rear:


Room Left Rear:


Room Right Rear:


The room measures 20'D x 18'W x 10.5'H. The width is variable because one wall is curved. 18'W represents about the maximum. I also wonder what effect the curve wall is having on the sound, probably not good. Note, the furniture in there isn't permanent and can move to whatever works.

I like tower speakers because it's hard for me to believe you can get a full range of sound from smaller speakers, like bookshelf speakers.

The other speakers in my config are 2 UFW-12's, a RSC-200, and 2 RS250s.

How should I configure my speakers? Should I reconfigure the setup, keeping some and replacing others, maybe take advantage of some of the spots where the old speakers were? Should I start all over with a new set?

[lojack1976]

Good satellites can be effective, but towers are better in general and I wouldn't go from towers to satellites. That's a pretty big room so you may want to add a couple of subs in the rear to help even out the bass response.

[kamiller42]

Originally Posted by lojack1976

Good satellites can be effective, but towers are better in general and I wouldn't go from towers to satellites. That's a pretty big room so you may want to add a couple of subs in the rear to help even out the bass response.

Thank you for the reply. Are you suggesting 4 subwoofers in the room? I have 2 in the front.

What is a brand or two you think I should look into for satellites, preferably ones i can pair with my current UFW-12s?

[Jwilly019]

Originally Posted by kamiller42

Thank you for the reply. Are you suggesting 4 subwoofers in the room? I have 2 in the front.

What is a brand or two you think I should look into for satellites, preferably ones i can pair with my current UFW-12s?

You might want to try moving one of the subs to the rear of the room. Or next to your sitting position.

I also vote for keeping your towers rather than go to satellites, especially for a room that big.

[Riff Magnum]

The curved wall will probably sound better than if it was straight. In my experience recording in studios, the ones that sound the best are the ones that don't have perfect geometry or parallel walls. If your room was 20'x10' for example, you'd be in trouble. You never want the length of the room equally divisible by the width or vice versa. Yours is 20'x18' so you should be good, plus it looks like there's lots of nooks and crannies which IMO is a good thing for room acoustics.
Oh, back on topic, keep the towers.

[lojack1976]

Originally Posted by kamiller42

Thank you for the reply. Are you suggesting 4 subwoofers in the room? I have 2 in the front.

What is a brand or two you think I should look into for satellites, preferably ones i can pair with my current UFW-12s?

Yes, I think you could use four subs for a room that size to get even bass response. As for speakers, I again suggest you stay with your towers. If you do decide to upgrade then upgrade to better towers, but satellites are not something I would suggest in a room that size. If you really want satellites then I would say look at the higher end Mirage satellites. They can fill pretty large rooms, but make sure you get a true center channel and not just a matching satellite so you don't end up with lackluster vocals. Getting them to blend well with the subs may take a little trial and error, but they can work.

Another suggestion are THESE JBL's. From the review they put out a much bigger sound than one would expect from any satellite setup. You can also look at THESE Klipsch satellites which are excellent performers. Of course you should try to go out and listen to all of these speakers or at least similar offerings from the same brands before buying them. You want to make sure you like the sound.

All of these speakers have the capability to play loud and fill your room. Again, towers are still ideal but check out some satellites from these companies and see what you think. A better alternative may be bookshelf speakers which you can wall mount. There are plenty bookshelf speakers that will do an excellent job of filling the room.

[callas01]

I think I would suggest that you look into some Bi-polar towers like the BP8B's or 7004's supertowers from Def Tech (check here), and then add some Bi-polar surrounds and rears. That way you can have the sound deflecting and giving you a sense of a more full sound that fills the room better. Perhaps add some diffusers and some wall treatments. If you place the 2 subs on the right and left of the room you will and point then at each other you will get better bass response in the room, if you want to have 4 of them then one up front in the center and one in the rear center. Otherwise one in each corner and pointed towards the center slightly.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by kamiller42

Thank you for the reply. Are you suggesting 4 subwoofers in the room? I have 2 in the front.

Your two subwoofers are too close to the corners. In addition, you may get better results by placing them in the middle of side walls.

DIFFERENT OPTIONS FOR PLACEMENT OF MULTIPLE SUBWOOFERS





Very Good



Good



Best



Best

[kamiller42]

I am in awe. I am speechless. I did not expect so much response. Blu-ray.com forums and its users are fantastic.

@lojack, Not sure what I was drinking or smoking, but I shouldn't haven't asked about which satellites to purchase. I think I am pretty comfortable with idea of staying with towers.

@ALL, The only thing close to satellite I was thinking of using was hanging my RS250's from the two spots in the ceiling marked with red circles. I am guessing the opinion here is to forget satellite and bookshelf all around and put towers in the back. Correct? Based on what callas01 wrote, I think he would say "yes."

My concern with the two towers in front is setting up the sweet spot. Should I aim for the dead center of the room in both directions? This might require some serious angling. I guess that is not abnormal. Sadly, this means if you are sitting off to right or left, you will get some bad audio.

Lastly, placement of the center speaker. Should it sit high up where the previous center speaker was? (See center red circle in the pic of the front of the room.) Or, should it sit below the overhang inside the cavity in the front of the room? Or does it make a difference aurally?

@callas01 & Big Daddy, thank you for the placement tips. Putting the subs on the side, at least until and when I decide to go with 4, is a great idea. Thanks!

[Riff Magnum]

I'm sure you'll get more responses from people more knowledgeable than me, but as far as your fronts go, i would just experiment with towing them in (angling towards the main viewing spot) or leaving them straight out and see what you like best. You have a big room so leaving them straight may be best. You also have to consider other viewers. Do you have a big family or lots of guests?

I would definitely get your center channel closer to ear level. Looks like your entertainment center doesn't have a spot for a center channel, but it also appears the spot directly behind and above your screen is a lot farther back than the rest of the wall. This is gonna cause the sound from your fronts to hit your ears before the center does. Ideally you want the main listening position and your two fronts to create a equilateral triangle. In other words you want the distance between your two fronts to be equal to the distance between the main viewing position and each of the two fronts. You also want the the distance from you to your center to be the same as the distance from you to your fronts.

Confused yet?
I've learned all this from Big Daddy and his stickies, so i'm waiting for him to sweep in and give you the real deal.

Good thing about your space is you should be able to "treat" the room without pissing off your significant other.

[callas01]

Originally Posted by kamiller42

I am in awe. I am speechless. I did not expect so much response. Blu-ray.com forums and its users are fantastic.

@lojack, Not sure what I was drinking or smoking, but I shouldn't haven't asked about which satellites to purchase. I think I am pretty comfortable with idea of staying with towers.

@ALL, The only thing close to satellite I was thinking of using was hanging my RS250's from the two spots in the ceiling marked with red circles. I am guessing the opinion here is to forget satellite and bookshelf all around and put towers in the back. Correct? Based on what callas01 wrote, I think he would say "yes."

My concern with the two towers in front is setting up the sweet spot. Should I aim for the dead center of the room in both directions? This might require some serious angling. I guess that is not abnormal. Sadly, this means if you are sitting off to right or left, you will get some bad audio.

Lastly, placement of the center speaker. Should it sit high up where the previous center speaker was? (See center red circle in the pic of the front of the room.) Or, should it sit below the overhang inside the cavity in the front of the room? Or does it make a difference aurally?

@callas01 & Big Daddy, thank you for the placement tips. Putting the subs on the side, at least until and when I decide to go with 4, is a great idea. Thanks!

With towers you would want them up front. Pull them typically 12-18 inches away from the wall. Make sure you run your receivers auto calibration to set the distance of the speakers and they have the right timing so sounds from all your speakers meet your sitting position at the same time.

Whether to tow them in or not would be based on how they sound one way or the other and what you prefer best. As far as seating distance, that will depend on the speaker brand, typically you want your speakers 6-8 feet apart and then you want to sit back 6-12 from them. My Energys suggest sitting back 1.5 times the distance the speakers are apart. Example, sit 9 feet back for speakers 6 feet apart. Some speaker mfgs have different placements.

Center channel should be about the same level of the towers tweeters... ideally. Otherwise angle it towards the seating positions

For surrounds I am suggesting that you look into bi-pole, they do make Surround Bi-poles, and you want the surrounds placed about 2-3 feet above ear level. Typically surround bi-poles are U'ish shaped and they have speakers on both sides and wall mounted. Example. Look at the top 6 those can be wall mounted and disipate sound throughout a room. Matched up with some bi-pole towers you could have better dispersion of sound helping to fill that large room better.

You could keep regular mono pole speakers up front, and just use bi-poles as surrounds too, many people do that.

Just suggestions.

[kamiller42]

Originally Posted by callas01

With towers you would want them up front. Pull them typically 12-18 inches away from the wall. Make sure you run your receivers auto calibration to set the distance of the speakers and they have the right timing so sounds from all your speakers meet your sitting position at the same time.

Whether to tow them in or not would be based on how they sound one way or the other and what you prefer best. As far as seating distance, that will depend on the speaker brand, typically you want your speakers 6-8 feet apart and then you want to sit back 6-12 from them. My Energys suggest sitting back 1.5 times the distance the speakers are apart. Example, sit 9 feet back for speakers 6 feet apart. Some speaker mfgs have different placements.

Center channel should be about the same level of the towers tweeters... ideally. Otherwise angle it towards the seating positions

For surrounds I am suggesting that you look into bi-pole, they do make Surround Bi-poles, and you want the surrounds placed about 2-3 feet above ear level. Typically surround bi-poles are U'ish shaped and they have speakers on both sides and wall mounted. Example. Look at the top 6 those can be wall mounted and disipate sound throughout a room. Matched up with some bi-pole towers you could have better dispersion of sound helping to fill that large room better.

You could keep regular mono pole speakers up front, and just use bi-poles as surrounds too, many people do that.

Just suggestions.

I think when I move the subs to the sides, that'll open up the front corners and allow for better tower positioning in the front. The corners are about 8-9' apart. The entertainment credenza separates them.

At first, I was thinking of moving my mono pole towers to the rear and putting bi-poles in the front. But, now you have me thinking of buying bi-pole surrounds first with the option to buy bi-poles in front later. Or would bi-poles in front and mono-poles in rear be better?

What I like about the wall hanging speakers you suggested is that they can work with the room better than trying to stick a tower underneath the snack counter. On that side of the room, that is the only place I could put a surround tower and I think that would be too close to the side speaker. See in this pic what I mean...



The Klipsch WS-24 speakers look really nice. They seem to fit in one of these two spots, one marked in yellow and the other in blue.



I prefer the blue position. I think bi-pole would fill the sound back there in the blue positions nicely. It also works with the curve of the wall on one side and the angled wall on the other.

Yellow seems to put the speakers too close and I think those positions my be harder to install. Is my thinking correct? Which do you think is better?

Here is my thinking on the center speaker. Wall mount the TV above the entertainment credenza. This would allow a gap to properly set the center speaker, maybe on a little stand. From bottom to top, credenza, and then speaker. My eventual goal is to mount a motor driven projection screen at top of the inset that lowers the screen in front of the TV and speaker for movie watching.

Now, the last piece of the puzzle is side speakers. As I understand Big Daddy's sticky, the sides can be bi-pole because I am not using di-pole in the rear. In fact, I should use bi-pole. Correct? Can I use the same speakers on the side that I choose for the rear, like the WS-24?

Thanks again guys for helping me think about properly laying this stuff out.

[callas01]

well for surrounds you can go with either Di-poles or Bi-poles, as rears it is usually easy to go with Bi-poles, Di-poles have to be placed correctly so that you don't have interference within the phases of the speakers.

There are some speakers that let you select between bi-pole mode or di-pole mode, these are nice and convienent too. Here is an example. It is actually a tri-mode speaker... meaning it can be used as a bi-pole, Di-pole or Direct radiating(monopole) speaker.

Now you could hook them up and select di-pole surrounds, bi-pole rears, and then have your speakers up front as direct radiating and you would have and easily setup system that will envelop you in sound.