Speaker placement and acoustic treatment? (1 Viewer)

[jeremiahm]

Hey All,

I'm rearranging my basement theater, and have some sound questions. The wall on the right side of the theater area stops before it gets to the seating distance. There is only a ceiling beam from the wall to the back of end of the room. The beam is about 16 inches tall. Should I put my right surround speaker up on that beam close to the ceiling, or something else? My options would be on the ceiling over the heads of the seating, on the back wall, or on stands. My speakers are older klipsch synergy.

I'll attach a layout of my area for reference.

Also, with that wall missing, should I be looking at any acoustical treatments to keep sound from bouncing around in the direction of the other open room?

Thanks.

 

[JohnRice]

I'm confused. First you said the left side, then you said the right surround speaker. You're talking about a 5.1 system? I'd go with the sides near the ceiling, but aim them down a bit, if you can and get them as low on the beam as you can. The opposite surround speaker should be as close to the equal position. You want the surround sound on both sides to be as balanced as possible. A lot of surround speakers are beveled anyway, and can aim down somewhat anyway. I've used a lot of surround arrangements through the last 30 years or so, and even though a lot of people put 5.1 surrounds in the rear, I find they are much better on the side.

 

[jeremiahm]

How would it be if I put the triangles on the back wall with regular speakers on the sides to set up a 7.1 system? Then maybe I could use the short wall for the sides?

 

[JohnRice]

By "triangles" do you mean your surround speakers? They're some kind of dipole speaker? There are dipole and bipole surround speakers and you want to know which kind they are if you go to 7.1. You need to explain if they are one of these, because it will influence how everything is set up and what is the best solution. The standard 5.1 setup has the surrounds on the sides and 7.1 adds a pair on the back wall. Typically they're supposed to go a couple feet above seated ear level. Looking at your schematic, I'd say the dipole speakers (if that's what you have) should stay on the sides, since they're close to the seating position. If you want to expand to 7.1 and have to use direct radiating speakers, I'd put those at the back. There's a phase consideration if you do that. This will sound weird and I can explain more if you want, but if you have dipole surrounds on the side and direct radiating speakers at the back, you should wire the back speakers out of phase. This means reversing the polarity of the speaker wires on the rear speakers ONLY. In other words, instead of going + out of the receiver to + on the speaker, you connect + from the receiver to - on the speaker. On the rear speakers ONLY. You don't have 7.1 right now, so it might not be worth going into. It's not the end of the world if you don't do that, but the system will be more cohesive if you get the phase of each speaker correct when there are dipoles in the system.