Can in-wall speakers work for a corner HT set up in a really large room? (1 Viewer)

[RickRichardson]

Can in-wall speakers work for a corner HT set up in a really large room?

A friend is building a new house with a huge Great Room (36 X 40 X 20). He can only put his 70" HDTV in one corner. He has been told by a local installer that he can use in-wall speakers and it will sound good because he can compensate with the surround processor. This sure does not seem possible to me. Does anyone have a good example of such a set up working well? I would think the corner location would not allow the in-wall speakers to give good sound reproduction at the listening position in the middle of the room, even if the tweeters could be "aimed" at that location.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You are absolutely right. The only way a corner-set-up like that can work correctly is if everything in the room is turned 45 degrees to give the proper HT set up where the seating faces the TV, and the speakers face the seating area. Most people aren’t willing to do this.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[KrisM]

I had a Grey Cup party last year and moved my TV and speakers to the corner(to fit more people in the room) and it sounded terrible. It was only a temporary set-up for the game, but I tried listening to some music and the imaging was terrible and the bass was boomy. With in-wall speakers and little or no ability to adjust positioning, I would say this is a bad idea.

Regards
KrisM

 

[Todd^B]

I am in the same situation.

I will be setting up a Front Projector into the screen in the corner.

The fronts (probably towers) will face the U- shaped seating and the surround will be right behind the left and right seats.

Will I have problems if the speakers are not "parallel" with the screen? What does this do to the sound? And, how about if I try a calibration in that setup?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

The speakers not being parallel with the screen isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as they are facing the seating position like would be the case in a more traditional arrangement. No special calibration techniques are needed, but it would be a plus if the receiver could adjust the delay on the L/R’s accordingly.

However, having the rear speakers right behind the seats is poor form. When they’re that close you don’t get proper dispersion before the sound wave arrive, and they are too easy to localize. Which means that most of the viewers will hear only one of the speakers, not both. This is an undesirable situation, since Dolby Digital has discrete rear signals.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[RickRichardson]

I have been unable to find specifications on the crossover frequencies of many in-wall speakers to see what part the woofer plays in the frequency spectrum. Since human voice is mostly between 100 Hz and 1 KHz, my concern is that the woofer might be carrying a lot of that information, but cannot be angled to be directed at the listening position. I have heard speakers that crossed over within that range and created very poor sounding dialog because they did not handle the transition well. Having one driver directly aimed at the listener, while another is angled at 45 degrees seems like a formula for poor quality. Also, I don't see any specs on what the limit of the angle is for aiming the tweeter/midrange drivers.