HT Speaker Placement

[lwsplking]

I had originally posted in the Archetecural thread, but the traffic there seems pretty light.

I was hoping perhaps the pro's here on this forum could assist me in planning out my home theater. Our new home is scheduled to begin construction here in the next few weeks and I am having a hard time figuring out what I want to do insofar as speaker placement in my home theater, the room is not exactly par for the course for a theater room.

I am curious if it would make more sense to try to get in ceiling rears/surrounds or try to have something done insofar as adding beams or a coffered ceiling or something to mount the surrounds and rears.

My front soundstage I intend to mount behind an accoustically transparent screen.

Attached are the floor plans for the open theater room. The dim's on the diagonal wall are not final, they will be more set in stone as we go. (hopefully the link worked) LINK

[SuBXeRo]

with your awkward setup, in-ceiling drivers may be most beneficial to keep them out of sight. You can always do drop down mounts to mount actual speakers but you may have a tough time hiding them. If the couch is to be at an angle as in, facing the tv/fireplace directly then i think in ceilings rears might be best. Since we have the same setup basically sans the rb-75's, it'd be a shame to have to ditch the rs-7's as they are just plain awesome. I'd say try to do a drop down method and maybe do a coffered ceiling.

[lwsplking]

thanks for the feedback SuBXeRo. I really don't want to have to give up the RS7s/RB75s either. You think a coffered ceiling with speakers mounted high would offer up that enveloping surround sound?

[SuBXeRo]

my thoughts are just as long as your seating area is within the confines of the coffered ceiling, you should be OK. I would try to aim the speakers towards your seating area instead of directly down as if they were ceiling mount speakers, that would work best. I always liked to have a few feet behind my seating area for surrounds so it has the ability to disperse a bit and create a rear stage.

[BE36]

From THX

Surround Left & Right Speakers (SL & SR): Place the SL & SR speakers between 90° to 110° to each side and 2 feet or higher above the listener. The SL & SR speakers recreate the enveloping sound and intense special effects that you experience in the cinema.

A few feet to the side and a little behind does trick, pointing straight down not so good. . .

http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/home-theater/surround-sound-speaker-set-up/

[mustang guy]

My front soundstage I intend to mount behind an acoustically transparent screen.

I know you weren't asking for help on the front soundstage, but this statement confuses me. Were you planning on building them into the wall beside and under the screen? If so, they would be too close together, IMO for a good stereo separation. I know your layout is miles from ideal so this may be the best you can do. IMO, hiding the center and placing floor standing left and right may be the best you can do. You would be moving the mains closer to the listening area than the center, so you will be adding gain to the center, so make sure you have a good one compared to the mains.

Something like RF-52 mains and RC-62 center, or if you are going bigger, RF-62 mains, and RC-64 center. You definitely want to be able to hear the center clearly.

[Islander]

"From THX Surround Left & Right Speakers (SL & SR): Place the SL & SR speakers between 90° to 110° to each side and 2 feet or higher above the listener. The SL & SR speakers recreate the enveloping sound and intense special effects that you experience in the cinema. A few feet to the side and a little behind does trick, pointing straight down not so good. . . http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/home-theater/surround-sound-speaker-set-up/[/quote]"

There are a few odd things on that page. First, if you have a 7.1 system, why place the SBL (Surround Back Left) and SBR (Surround Back Right) speakers right beside each other? That would simulate a 6.1 system with added lobing. That's not an improvement. According to Yamaha, with a 7.1 system the SBL and SBR speakers should be at least 1 foot apart, and no farther apart than the front speakers. They should not be together.

Second, in the "7.1 Surround Sound Speaker System Set Up" section and in the "5.1 Surround Sound Speaker Set Up" section, you'll find this sentence: "Place the Front Left and Right speakers at ear height, producing a 45° angle as viewed from the main seat."

The height of the L and R speakers has nothing to do with the angle between them, plus the diagrams show a 60 degree angle between the front speakers. 60 degrees is generally thought to be the ideal separation angle, so the diagram looks right, but is described wrong.

Third, in the "Dolby® TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio™ Set Up" diagram, the angle marked 60 degrees is actually a 45 degree angle.

Fourth, an asymmetric placing of the subwoofer usually works best, but subwoofer placing has to be determined individually for each room. Placing the sub on the floor directly in front of the screen is not likely to give the best results.

Seeing that many mistakes makes me doubt the credibility of that page. Spelling Setup as "Set Up" doesn't help, either.