3 Zone Rear Seating Possible? (1 Viewer)

I'm closing on a house in 3 weeks and finally have a dedicated room for HOME THEATER!!! Unfortunately, the room is NOT conducive to surround sound. The floor plan of the room is roughly 21X18. The issue is that one of the 21' walls will have the Plasma against it (With two floor standing speakers and a center), But the other 21' (the seating) wall is broken into 3 equal 7' parts with the center section dropped back 4 feet back. The center section will be the main seating and the left and right rear seating will be used when we have guests. My big question is how to do a 5.1 system with three seperate sets of rear surrounds. (or at least have the center section seperate from the other two) I'd rather not have all three sets on all the time, but also don't really want to adjust the rear output to my reciever every time I turn on some or all of the rear speaker zones. P.S. I'm starting from scratch with ZERO components so feel free to suggest anything starting with the cheapest solutions first! (Baby on the way in Feb)

Do you have any pictures or a "napkin" drawing you can post? I think I got the layout from your description but want to be sure. Please indicate door and window locations. Any reason why you don't put the TV at the 18' end?

Here are the pictures of the room

It's "holding" the second photo because I'm "New here" lol but the second pic is similar to the first except there is a small closet on the tv wall and a door where the large windows are.

Dan,


I agree with Casey that trying to wrangle three different sets of surround speakers is a bad idea. Not only will it sound muddied and just plain awful, it's going to vastly complicate the setup and it may not even be possible to find equipment to drive such a setup.


Are you aware, that in a 5.1 setup, the "surround" speakers should actually be placed to the sides of the listening position? See this layout guide from Dolby.


You should seriously consider sliding the center seating area forward (so it's even with the rest of the seating) and placing your surround speakers on the side walls - one just to the left of the doorway (as shown in the picture) and the other to the right of the window. That will be close to ideal placement and will sound MUCH better for ALL seating positions.


You may also use the space behind the center seating area to place a subwoofer - it will be out of sight, so you can go bigger (which is always a nice thing when it comes to subwoofers).

I really appreciate the advice guys!!! Jason, thank you for the link to the Dolby Lab site! It really helped remind me of the roles and optimum speaker configuration. I was racking my brain on "making this work" and left out one of the more simple routes! Pushing the couch forward not only allows me more flexibility for furniture, it also should prove a better sound stage at a lower, less complicated cost. That being said.... Lets say I have a big comfy sectional sitting where the current coffee table is, do you think I could push the new setup to a 7.1 system? Placing the left and right rear speakers at the corners of sunken section? Also, what are your recomendations for surrounds? I had my eye on some omnipolar that match the series of mains/ center I'm looking at. Here is the rough outline of items I've picked out, any suggestions would also be well recieved! Samsung 64" Plasma PN64D8000F Denon AVR2312CI Klipsch Mains KF28 Center KC25 Surround KS14 Sub DYNAMO 500 Thanx agian for all the help, this setup will significantly reduce the stress and budget of putting this starter system together!

It seems like you have a lot of space in the room. Personally I would put the couch in line with the chairs and put some equipment or shelving in the space behind and then maybe take advantage to turn the setup into a 6.1 with a rear center channel. By the way, congrats on the house.