Setting up speaker system...

[Trekari]

First of all, a hello!

I found this forum through my insane amount of lurking over at AVSforum.com Having been reading until I literally couldn't keep my eyelids open during the past week, I dropped some cash on a new Yamaha RX-V661 receiver in search of hi-def audio.

I do not have a laptop available right now, and I don't have my new equipment yet, but I was hoping that perhaps even without a REW graph, I might be able to post a layout of my living room and seek suggestions on ideal speaker placement.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford an EQ yet, so I am asking this in hopes that someone who understands this subject might show me the "ideal" place for a sub to get decent responses.

**EDIT** The speakers you are seeing are JBL N-28s, the sub is the JBL PB-12, and the center is the N-CENTER**EDIT**

First, here is a photoshop layout with dimensions of the room. The GREEN numbers and arrows show the direction of the real photos below.



Second, here are a few smaller photos to give the actual look of the room right now.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Welcome to the Forum, Trekari!

I’ve moved your thread from the REW Forum to the Systems Forum, which is dedicated to set-up questions. And re-named it, since it’s about speaker set up and not upgrading your receiver.

Your speaker arrangement looks fine to me. What usually has placement issues is the subwoofer, but we can’t really do much with that until you can get REW up and running so we can see which locations get the best measurements.

Regards,
Wayne

[Trekari]

Sorry about that. I thought perhaps with photos/distances, someone with more REW experience might be able to visually suggest places that are most likely to need less EQ than other spots for the sub.

[eugovector]

It would be nice if you could just look a the dimensions of a room and the specs of a sub/speaker, and then just mathematically determine the best location. Alas, it is not so.

As mentioned, REW is the best value tool for getting perfect sub placement, but on the quick, cheap, use the old trick...

Put you sub in your listening position, set it on your couch if you need to. Then put on some music with nice, full range bass all the way up to your crossover point. Anything with an electric 5 string works great. Now, crawl around on your hands and knees with your head at "sub level" until bass sounds full and even (no boomy notes that are louder than others, and no notes that disappear because of holes in your Freq. Response.)

[Trekari]

Thanks for the replies. I have another question while I wait to re-do the arrangement of my living room.

In picture #1, above the TV you can see at 8' high, there is a little ledge/overhang. Would it be worth the effort to install surround-back speakers directly underneath that overhang, pointing down?

I was thinking of putting my couch where the TV/Sub/media storage is, and moving the TV/speakers to where the couch was. This seems like my only option for Surround-Back speakers for a 7.1 layout.

Any other thoughts? It's really impossible to consider putting the TV above the fireplace, as I'd have serious issues trying to get 7.1 with the couch diagonally across the living room.

[Sonnie]

Personally I think the room is too small for 7.1. The rear speakers are going to be pretty much on top of you either way you go.

I also think your fronts are spread out way too far. I would move those to about 2' on each side of the TV. See how far from the TV you can get the left one without getting into the doorway and set the right one the same distance. This should improve your soundstage and imaging. Take your sub in place it in the far right corner and you should benefit from some nice room gain. You may have to tame a peak or two, but the low end extension should improve.

[Trekari]

I'm not able to move the fronts closer to the TV with the current setup, as that would put the FL underneath the dart board.

My only alternative to getting the fronts closer, would be to swap the location of the couch/tv as I think I'm leaning towards, but then my fronts would be directly on each side of the TV.

The only other alternative to *that* would be to swap the couch/tv, put the FL where the current SR speaker is, and move the FR a bit away from the TV. However that would leave my front soundstage with having one speaker distinctly higher than the other, and I can't envision that being a good thing.

[eugovector]

Trekari wrote:

I'm not able to move the fronts closer to the TV with the current setup, as that would put the FL underneath the dart board.

My only alternative to getting the fronts closer, would be to swap the location of the couch/tv as I think I'm leaning towards, but then my fronts would be directly on each side of the TV.

The only other alternative to *that* would be to swap the couch/tv, put the FL where the current SR speaker is, and move the FR a bit away from the TV. However that would leave my front soundstage with having one speaker distinctly higher than the other, and I can't envision that being a good thing.

Personally, I would rather have the speaker where it sounded good and not be playing darts next to my nice TV. The Dartboard should be moved. Put it where your guitar hangs now.

I also have to agree with Sonnie on 7.1. I think you should stick with 5.1.

[Trekari]

What if I were to be bold and completely re-arrange the living room?



The greyish rectangle in the upper left would be the new dartboard location with the throw line to the right of it.

Speakers should be obvious, the small wooden rectangle to the right of the love seat would be my media rack for now.

Unsure about the guitar location, just throwing out ideas for ideal home theater. I believe this setup would allow for 20" of distance between the TV and the Front speakers each direction.

[eugovector]

Much improved. Tat fireplace may do weird things with your left channel, but overall, I still think it would be a great improvement.

[Trekari]

Latest update:

Instead of the Yamaha, I purchased a TX-SR705 and I'm very pleased with it. However now I have even more questions

Current room layout:

[Trekari]

For those of you experienced with 6.1 and 7.1, here is an updated floorplan.

There is 26 1/4" between the back of the couch and the closest part of the back wall. Is that enough room to get a rear center channel?

[salvasol]

Trekari wrote:

For those of you experienced with 6.1 and 7.1, here is an updated floorplan.

There is 26 1/4" between the back of the couch and the closest part of the back wall. Is that enough room to get a rear center channel?

I think is no problem ... I'm sure you can autocalibrate the system with your receiver, Right??? ... it will adjust the sound delay, distance, etc. of the rear center ... I have a 7.1 set up, the distance from wall to seat is only 1'; and when I measured the distance between speaker and seating position I get 4.5' and from surround speaker to back surround is about 7', my back surrounds are placed near the ceiling.

Another option will be to move your surrounds (so they're not close to the rear center) ... maybe you can place them on top of the window and the other on the wall near the sink