what moves you?

Speaker placement?

This is one of the most subjective topics over, I guess. I remember a buddy's father working in the hifi line who suggested that the quality and tonal characteristics of a speaker was just but one factor. The room acoustics, and the placement of the speakers, are instrumental in shaping the sound.

I cant help but agree that it has a part to play in shaping the sound. I tip-toed my speakers a little at home and at work. By and jolly, the soundstage is much improved. Directionivity is a notch up, and for speakers whose treble are limited in dispersion, this helps to ensure that you hear clear, crisp treble.

Certain manufacturers have differing advices when it comes to positioning, but in general, here are a few tips we can follow:

1) Speakers should be elevated in such a way that the tweeter (the speaker producing the highs) should be positioned at ear levels as much as possible. This not only ensures clarity, but preserves the stereo image of your music.

2) Rear ported speakers (with bass reflex holes) should be distanced from the wall. Then again, different manufacturers have differing guidelines. Like us humans, the ports need to breathe in order to attain maximum efficiency.

True, you can park your speakers near a boundary wall and attain up to +6db of bass gain, but i'd prefer even bass that dosent kill out the other frequencies. The same trick goes for subwoofers!

3) Subwoofers: This is a tip I've gained from reading magazines. Place your sub in the centre of the room, play a piece of music with good bass content, and walk around your room. Places where the bass sounds the fullest are "nodes", and are ideal placement locations for your subwoofer. Caliberate the crossover though! A bass hump may not sound so fun as you think.

4) Surround speakers are not meant to be "in your face". They are there to add this extra acoustic dimension and theatrical ambience. Some manufactueres recommend placement 1 -2 feet above ear height. Dipole surround speakers go further and throw the sound in two directions.

And for those of you intending to set up a home theatre system, here is an article I'd like to share with you =). Enjoy.

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Yes, we all know that with good quality surround sound you’re surrounded by the music. You can hear the planes fly overhead in the military movie and the footsteps come up from behind in your favorite video game. If the intent is to be surrounded by sound, why do so many people continue to place all the speakers at the front of the room?

Speaker placement is one of the biggest mistakes in setting up a home theater system. We suppose that’s because if you plug the DVD player into the wrong place, it literally won’t work. With speakers, you can plant them anywhere in the room and they’ll still work. They just might not sound as good as they could. This seemingly small oversight could be the roadblock that keeps your home theater system from achieving it ultimate potential as a high definition powerhouse.

To deliver maximum acoustic effect, place the front speakers at the front of the room near the television with the center channel directly above or below the TV. From a seated position, you should be able to see directly into the tweeter and midrange units. If there are obstructions between your ears and these speaker units, the sound may be diffused, or you will simply not hear the high-frequency tones. Your listening position should also be approximately equidistant from the speakers.

The rear speakers should be behind the listener and pointed slightly inward toward the center of the room. Speakers should be at the same height as the listener. People frequently place speakers at the top of the wall close to the ceiling – that’s too high to sound good to the person lounging on the couch. If the speakers are too close to the walls or, too close to each other, the sound may be absorbed by the room or cancelled out by the other speakers before it reaches your ears.

The subwoofer can be hidden out of sight (don’t worry – it won’t be out of mind, you’ll be able to hear it). Just make sure it’s at least a foot away from the wall.

Camouflage the wires … not the sound

None of that sounds too complicated, so why do we have so many problems setting up our speakers? It frequently comes down to aesthetics . How do you hide those darn speaker wires? Here are some quick tricks to camouflage these behind-the-scene heroes of your dream home entertainment system.

If you’re in the process of building a new home or remodeling, consider running speaker wires through he walls, ceilings or floors. Even if you’re not remodeling, you can hire someone to install in-wall speakers to eliminate all unsightly wires. If you time it right, this small addition to the project can reap big benefits for the aesthetics of your home theater space and may even help with resale value in the long run.

If you’re renting, leasing or just don’t have the luxury of breaking open the walls, another good option is readily available at your local hardware store. Speaker cables can be run along walls and hidden in baseboards or along molding. Another option is to cover them with conduits that are painted to match the color scheme of the room.

A special type of speaker wire has an adhesive backing, making it easy to just press the tape up against the wall for it to stay in place. Then it can be painted over. If you’ve got wall-to-wall carpeting, you can run the wire under the carpet, but be careful if you have hardwood or tile floors with carpets. You don’t want people to trip.

Another option is to purchase one of the newer wireless surround-sound systems. These eliminate the need to run speaker wire from the front to the back of the room, but still require an electrical outlet at the back of the room and wiring to connect the rear speakers to a central hub.
It does take a little extra effort to get the speakers in the right spot – and have the room look great at the same time. But it is well worth it when you watch that first scary movie and you jump right out of your chair when the bad guy comes up from behind!

posted by noed-resarf @ 9:53 PM