Mark McConnell

setting speaker distances

My current space doesn't allow for me to have every speaker the same distance from my listening position. My receiver allows me to input distance by the half foot. My question is how exact do I need to be when putting in the speaker distance into the receiver. For example, my surround right speaker is 7'6" feet away from my head, while the surround left speaker is 8'1" away from my head. Should I round off to 8 feet for both speakers?

DarrenHo

i would round to the closest increment that your receiver supports.

Bob McElfresh

Studies have shown that human hearing cannot really tell the difference between 2 sound sources that fire less than about 5 mSec apart. At the speed of sound this means you can be off about 4 feet in the settings with little problems.

What is more important is level adjusting or calibrating the speaker levels. (you dont sit the same distance from all the speakers so some will naturally be louder than others).

Our Primer & FAQ has an article called "Home Theater Means Accuracy & Calibration!" that will explain all this.

Hope this helps.

Owen Bartley

I agree with Darren, go as close as you can, 7.5 and 8 feet.

- OJ -

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