compensating for odd room dimensions

Tom Moran · 04-01-2003, 09:43 PM

Hi Folks,

I'm just days away from the installation of my new HT setup and have a question about how I might compensate for the shape of the space. The HT is basically in one corner of my basement so two of the walls are much further from the seating position than the front or right. You can see a simple diagram at this URL <http://workspace.wamnet.com/~tommoran/HT.jpg>

The "S" designates a speaker and as you can see the side surround to the left of the listener is on a column that hides a support beam and the rear surrounds if I decide to use them as such, (these are also serving as a second listening zone for my home office) are well behind the seating position.

My receiver is a Denon 3803 and although I have not yet had a chance to get my hands on it because the gear is being delivered this weekend I understand that this receiver has pretty good distance compensation features to compensate for speaker placement.

My side surrounds are Definitive Technologies BPX bipolars, which I am hoping might help alleviate a little of the problem from the missing side wall to the left of the listener (about 10' away). The rear surround/zone 2 speakers are Definitive Technologies Studio Monitors.

Does anyone have ideas about how either the receiver settings or other techniques might compensate for the room shape?

Thanks,

Tom

Chris Tsutsui · 04-02-2003, 05:53 AM

If one surround is against a wall while the other is floating, then the one against a wall may have more bass but that's probably not a big issue.

The rear surrounds are significantly farther away from the listener than the other speakers so this might have to be adjusted with time delay. I suppose you could just delay the front and surround speakers a bit so that the rear surround sound hits the listener the same time the other speakers hit.

Ideally you want all the speakers to sound the same and have equal space from walls. You also want the speakers equal distance from the listener.

The surrounds don't have to be ear level like the fronts, they are usually a bit higher, but I'd try to have the left/right surrounds to have matched height.

If you get a sub, definitly put it in the front right corner.

If imaging needs improvement, you could also put some type of sound dampener on the right wall. Look up acoustic panels or room treatments for more info.

Tom Moran · 04-02-2003, 11:23 PM

Thanks Chris,

I've heard about wall treatments but I'm hoping to avoid them for aesthetic reasons. I had not thought about delaying the other speakers so that the rear surrounds match, that makes sense. I'm wondering though how you keep the picture in sync with the sound when using this type of delay? Is it so little delay that you don't notice?

Tom

Chris Tsutsui · 04-03-2003, 01:17 AM

The delay settings on receivers are in miliseconds. I doubt it'll be noticeable on the television.



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