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Topic: Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant? (Read 4396 times) previous topic - next topic
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Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

EDIT: My apologies. I did not realize that there was a hardware section. Please move this there, thanks.

Hello,

my room is currently set up such that my screen is not positioned in the horizontal center of the wall. I'm thinking of mounting my speakers on the wall - should I mount then at the room corners, or is it more important for the speakers to be equidistant from the screen?

Also, should the center speaker go above or below the screen?

Thanks.

Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: hsadan on
EDIT: My apologies. I did not realize that there was a hardware section. Please move this there, thanks.

Hello,

my room is currently set up such that my screen is not positioned in the horizontal center of the wall. I'm thinking of mounting my speakers on the wall - should I mount then at the room corners, or is it more important for the speakers to be equidistant from the screen?

Also, should the center speaker go above or below the screen?

Thanks.


In general, best results seem to come from forming an equilateral triangle with the speakers and your preferred listening position.  From there, experiment with 'toeing in' the speakers until you get the imaging you like.

As far as the center speaker goes, you should strive to align the tweeters from all speakers to the same level and your ears because the stereo or surround imaging comes from the high frequencies.

Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

Reply #2 –
Thanks for the reply.

I forgot to mention that I have two rear speakers as well (making a 5.1 setup), would the equilateral triangle rule apply to those as well?

If that's the case, what if my listening position is nearer the front than the rear - does that mean the rear speakers should be further apart than the front two?

Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

Reply #3 –
As dyneq said, it's crucial that your listening position is equidistant from all 5 speakers. The reference placement is front left and front right 30 degrees from the listening position-center speaker line, and rear speakers between 110 and 120 degrees (this angle is not critical, but distance is). If you cannot place your speakers at the same distance, then you should compensate the system introducing the delay to the closer speakers (1ms for each 33cm of the difference from the ideal position). Surround receivers usually have this option.
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Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

Reply #4 –
Okay, let's see...

Dolby 5.1-Channel Production Guidelines
Dolby's 5.1 production guidelines - includes the ITU-R 5.1 diagram on page 19.
The Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing Recommendations for Surround Sound Production
These are both production guidelines, but they're applicable here as well.

As for surround speaker height, many suggest that surrounds should be higher than the rest of the speakers. THX actually does insist upon it. Dolby, however, suggests that...
Quote
The front and surround speakers should be equidistant from the listener, with their
acoustic centers in the horizontal plane that is on-axis to the ear.

This is of course oriented toward production, so it's your call. Are these dipoles, by the way?

Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

Reply #5 –
thanks for the guides, I'll have a read through them.

no, I dont think these are dipole. the speakers I have are the logitech z5300e, nothing fancy.

Speakers Placement - Room Corners or Equidistant?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: hsadan on
Thanks for the reply.

I forgot to mention that I have two rear speakers as well (making a 5.1 setup), would the equilateral triangle rule apply to those as well?

If that's the case, what if my listening position is nearer the front than the rear - does that mean the rear speakers should be further apart than the front two?


I used my receiver's manual as a guide.  It recommended that if the rears are bi or dipolars to place them higher than the listener directly to the side.  It also says that if they are traditional unipolar speakers to place them to the rear but to point them toward the listener at ear level.

As mentioned by eevan, it is also crucial to use your receiver's distance function to assure that the signal from each speaker reaches you at the right moment.