HT room changes (1 Viewer)

[Rick Radford]

I found out last night that my wife wants to turn the HT room around 180 degrees.. which makes sense in a lot of ways.. but I'm not sure what it'll do soundwise.
The new arrangement will have the 63" wide armoire centered on a 91" wall.. with a corner on one side (14" inches away from the armoire) and a 47" opening to another room on the other side.
My mains (front and rear ported) will fit within the confines of the wall.. and stay out of the large opening, but the left main will be in a 14" wide space that has a cold air return behind it. The right main will be near the end of the wall.. and have a large (47") opening off the right side of it.
The SVS should be able to stay in it's current location.. which will become the right rear corner as pictured below (current left front corner).
The room is 11.5 x 12 x 8 overall w/HW floors and 2 large openings as depicted below. Windows are on the wall not shown.
http://www.geocities.com/speedlever/
The surrounds will have to be mounted on the side walls with the LS probably over the couch.. and the RS over the 20-39cs sub. Both surrounds are DR and will likely be angled in ~30-45 degrees and pointed down to some extent.
I sure would appreciate a tip for a reasonable surround mount from someone!
Any thoughts? Will this destroy or improve an already difficult room?
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--RR
[Edited last by Rick Radford on October 31, 2001 at 09:27 AM]
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 09:24 AM]
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 10:01 AM]
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 10:06 AM]
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 12:41 PM]
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 02:07 PM]
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 03:20 PM]

 

[Rick Radford]

Hmm. Is this too hard? Too easy? Too much info? Too confusing? all of the above?
I just hate to waste a day disconnecting everything and removing the hardware from the armoire, drilling more holes in the floor and the wall, etc... just to find out that I'll have audio problems that I can't adjust.
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--RR

 

[Guy Kuo]

Rick, I think you'll have better luck if you use a JPEG or GIF file for the drawing. The ASCII drawing is total gibberish after the bulleting board software chews it up. Basically, it's too much effort as is to figure out what the room looks like for most people to chip in and give a hand.
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Guy Kuo
Link Removed
Ovation Software, the Home of AVIA DVD

 

[Rick Radford]

Thanks, Guy.
Guess I'll try to figure out how to use geocities and post a link when I get it all figured out.
*** update ****
I drew the diagram and thought I had it loaded to geocities.. but (my first try) it failed. It's there, but won't link correctly. I got some more studyin' to do... and am out of time at the moment. Problems with the index.html file and figuring out that HTML tagging deal, methinks.
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--RR
[Edited last by Rick Radford on November 01, 2001 at 10:08 AM]

 

[Rick Radford]

Between my fumble fingered first attempts to create a web page (so I could post a diagram of my HT) and this site's sluggishness, I've been pretty frustrated!
Anyway, try this site for my proposed HT changes and tell me what you think.
Will that narrow slot and cold air return be difficult to accomodate soundwise?
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--RR

 

[Guy Kuo]

Yes a tough room. You're working with a location that precludes a symmetric environment for your left and right mains. The new adjacency of the 47 inch opening may decrease the bass response of the right main sufficiently to make the imbalance worse. With the prior arrangment, your right main probably had more corner reinforcement than the left. That's going to flip. I doubt the air return is going to be a problem if the speaker is pulled as far forward as you diagram.
I was noting the L shaped couch in the new arrangement. The small left of the L will now separate out a segment of floor space which was previously not lost in the old arrangment. This will reduce the perceived amount of floor space in the room and make it seem more crowded. The traffic flow is equivalent in both arrangements. I don't quite see the advantage of flipping the room. You get less effective floor space, dubious changes in the audio performance, and your couch ends up looking like it doesn't really fit the room.
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Guy Kuo
Link Removed
Ovation Software, the Home of AVIA DVD

 

[Rick Radford]

Guy,
I appreciate your expert analysis. Please allow me to clarify a few things.
In the current arrangement, we have a 2 person (small) couch where the armoire is proposed to be in the new arrangement. The L shaped couch is a proposed replacement to increase seating in this small room.
If we flip the L part with the new proposal, I think part of it will protrude about 2 " into the 55" opening. sigh. OTOH, the L part is detachable.
The good news is.. we haven't bought any furniture yet, so that part of the equation can be easily reconfigured.
I guess the best thing would be to close off that 47" opening.. but thus far, it doesn't pass the WAF test.
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--RR

 

[Rick Radford]

Guy,

I doubt the air return is going to be a problem if the speaker is pulled as far forward as you diagram.

I have the mains about 18" from the back wall now. Think that's sufficient? I could probably make it 2 feet with no problem.
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--RR