Advice for Speaker Placement (1 Viewer)

[Tammie N-S]

I am doing some renovations and the drywall goes up in less than two weeks. I'd like to put as much as possible in the walls, so I'm trying to quickly put together a home theater plan even tho I have not purchased any of the equipment.

Any advice about how much of the surround sound speaker placement I can anticipate and pre-wire? I'm planning on 5.1

The placement of the T.V. is not flexible due to wall space and window issues. Well, I guess everything is negotiable, but I don't see any other place for it. The wall the TV would be placed against is a brick wall. All other walls will be regular old drywall with paint. As you can see, there is lots of glass: one window seat, two large windows, and an 8 foot sliding glass door. I don't have any window treatment plans yet.

There is a little bit of wall sticking out to the side of where I want to place the TV, because of a post (I drew it on the floor plan, it's annoying but is actually useful because this is where the electrical outlet will be since the TV will be against a brick wall.) This bit of wall would be just enough to block the view from the card table area if I placed the flat screen directly on the wall, so I'm figuring on a stand. At this point I'm thinking 42 inch plasma.

The placement of the furniture is 100% flexible; in fact, I don't even own most of this furniture yet; e.g., it doesn't have to be a sectional couch. The only requirement is the HAF. The husband must have his recliner, and must have a good view of the TV from said recliner. The door shown to the left of where I have placed the recliner can be closed most of the time; it's a passthru to the kitchen (direct line from recliner to fridge .

Any and all suggestions/advice are welcome!

For lack of a better place to put it, the floor plan I have created is at this URL (please add the www; I haven't posted enough to be allowed to insert URLs yet)

cheverlykidscare.org/hometheaterlayout.jpg

Thanks!
--Tammie

 

[KeithMoechnig]

How high is the top of the window on the right?(from the ground)? If it's around 5 feet tall with room for a speaker, you could place it right on the left-top of the window and the other speaker on the opposite side. I'd try to refrain from setting the surround speakers right in that corner. Get them around 2 feet behind you and 2-3 feet above you're seating if you can.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Tammie,

It looks like you’ve got a good plan for furniture arrangement. I generally feel that surround sound sounds better with the seating out away from the rear wall. It appears like the seating is about 11-12 ft. from the TV, a decent distance. You could probably even move them forward a little to 9-10 ft.

I agree with Keith on your rear speaker placement: Above the window slightly rearward of the seating, with the other speaker in the same place on the opposite wall would be a good location, if the window allows. An alternate position, if the window there is too high, would be behind the seating, above the patio door and the other window. In this case one would be directly behind the recliner, and the other at the outer edge of the sofa.

As far as all the glass goes, you’re definitely want some serious window treatments, like perhaps heavy drapery. This will greatly improve acoustics (i.e., cut down on reverb and echo). You’ll need something heavy enough to totally black out the light for the rear window/patio, if you plan on using the system during daylight hours. If not, the glare on the TV screen from the reflection will be insufferable.

Another tip: You’ll probably want to put a subwoofer (assuming you’re getting one) in one of the front corners. While the wall is open, have the electrician run an RG-59 or RG-6 coaxial line between the sub location and where your receiver will be located. He can terminate it like a regular cable TV outlet, and you can get adapters for your cables between the wall and the sub and receiver.

While you’re at it, have him install an electrical outlet at the same corner, to plug the sub into. That way you won’t have to drape an extension cord across the floor to an outlet somewhere. It’ll look nice and clean with all the cables hidden.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ChrisWiggles]

A good idea is always to run too much cable. Run internet cable, run sub cables to various places (don't know where the best spot acoustically will be) and run at least 7.1 speaker wire all over the place. Also consider an outlet and conduit to the ceiling if you consider a projector in the future.