Need help w/ speaker selection & placement (diagram enclosed) (1 Viewer)

[Chris_Millet]

I'm moving in to a new condo in a couple of months. I will be replacing most of my old gear with new equipment and would like some advice.

I've made a diagram of the floorplan with a couple of pics of what the room looks like to help give an idea what I'm up against. It is a very open floorplan with several half walls and doorways leading to other rooms. There is also vaulted ceilings in the living room that include a loft over the kitchen that looks over the living room. There will be carpet in the living room. Only furniture so far will be a sectional sofa and coffee table.

Speakers: most likely I will need to go with a sub/sat combo in the $1500-$2000 price range due to WAF. I'd like to mount these on the walls instead of using stands. Current candidates are the Mirage Omnisat 6 (leaning towards these), Pinnacle Quantum/Subsonic combo, Velodyne Deco, Morel Supra, etc.

I will most likely be purchasing a 50" Samsung DLP monitor to put in the media niche which is off-center as far as placement in the room goes.

My questions so far:
- Where to place center speaker considering monitor is going to be in an odd off-center position?
- Given I want to do a wall mount solution, I could use some suggestions on front satellite speaker placement height and locations. I imagine this would depend also on whether I get direct firing or omni/bipole speakers.
- Same for rear speaker height and location.
- Ideal sub locations?

Any other tips would be appreciated.

 

[sean_pecor]

Chris,

Nice room!

Your center channel should face the main seating location's sweet spot, even at that odd angle. The center channel should be at eyeball height. With that in mind, perhaps you should place it directly underneath the shelf and above the fireplace. If the fireplace is functional, make sure the rising heat won't cook your speaker - or your DLP for that matter!

Regarding the height of front l/r placement, as well as surround l/r placement. They should be placed as near to eyeball height as possible. If you need to mount them higher or lower than that, you should angle the speakers up/down toward the prime listening position.

Regarding subwoofer locations, one suggestion is to the right of the fireplace, in the corner, another is to place it in the corner where you have that 4.5' wall. Corners boost the output of the subwoofer, so you don't have to drive the sub with as much juice when it's placed in the corner.

In the $1-2k range you might also consider a Cambridge Soundworks speaker package (http://www.hifi.com). They offer tremendous performance at that price, given their direct sales model. This is their most high-end wall mountable speaker-only package:

MC300.5 Speaker System

It's offered at $1,599. As a previous customer, I just received a 15% coupon code via email (15off300spkr) and this should drop the price down to around $1,359. The coupon is good until June 30th. CSW speakers are highly regarded HT speakers, the company was founded by Henry Kloss (who also founded AR, KLH and Advent). If you can't demo them at a CA store, you can easily ship them back if they are not to your liking and receive a full refund less shipping charges (they have a 45 day return policy).

Here are their CA store locations, not sure if any are within driving distance from your location:

http://www.hifi.com/store/category.c...=store_locator

With regard to overall speaker placement, I'd suggest drawing a line on your diagram between the center of the screen, to the center of your listening sweet spot. Then, with this baseline, follow the guidelines set forth at:

http://www.dolby.com/ht/Guide.HomeTh....html#chapter3

To get your front l/r speakers so they are with a 45 degree arc from your listening position. Then, in relation to your baseline, place your l/r surrounds just slightly behind your listening position, if possible.

Hope this helps,

Sean.

 

[Chris_Millet]

We are moved in and I'm about ready to purchase some speakers! I'm still leaning towards starting with the Mirage Omnisat's + LF150 to see how it works in the room. I can get a deal on them (or anything else from Tweeter) at 10% above cost and I can always return them and try something different if they do not sound good.

Any opinions on whether or not these omnidirectional speakers are better or worse than a direct firing speaker in this type of room (high ceilings w/ overlooking loft and lots of open wall area to other rooms - see above pic).

I'm also torn between just putting the surrounds on stands to the left and right of the main seating area or putting them higher up on the wall with wall mounts.