questions regarding my setup, pretty specific questions, really need your help (1 Viewer)

[Derek Kan]

Please give me your opinions on the following things. Thanks.
After a couple months of hearing speakers, different setups, and managing my budget, I've decided to replace my current satelite setup with brand new speakers:
fronts: energy exl 26 (floorstanding)
center: energy exl c2
surrounds: energy exl r
The things that I'm having trouble with are as follows:
(I live in a standard college apartment room. Dimensions unknown cuz I'm presently living in my home-home for the summer, so I can't measure. But roughly, the room is rectangle, side walls being about 1.25 beds long, and front/back walls being about 1.75 beds long. =) I hope that helps.)
-a basic layout of the room and where I intend to put the new speakers-
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|.........FL...|TVTV_C_TVTV|...FR...........
|................................................. ....... door
|................................................. ....|
|................................................. ....|
|................................................. ....|
|................................................. ....|
|................................................. ....|
|-----------------------...-------........|
|...............................|...|.......|..... ...|
|.......BED.BED.BED.......|...|chair|........|
|SL............................|...|.......|....SR |
|--------------------------------------|
1. When me and my friends watch movies, one would sit in the chair, and about 3 would sit on the bed, with our backs against the wall. The thing I'm worried about now, is the placement of the floorstanding speakers. My bed, if I can estimate correctly, is about 24" high, which is decently higher than most sofas/chairs. My sofa-chair is around 16" I think. Anyways, the energy exl 26s are 36" tall, with the tweeter on top, then one 6.5" cone, then one more 6.5" cone. My question is: are these floorstanding speakers too low when me and my friends are sitting on a 24" bed all the way back with our backs against the wall? The way I picture it is that the sound from the floorstanding speakers are gonna be slighty blocked by the bed or our legs before they reach our ear level. The person in the chair, though, should be fine. If it is indeed too low, what can I do to fix this? I dont' believe it's good to place the floorstanding speakers on some sort of platform, other than the floor, but I could very well be wrong.
2. All my stuff is in my room, meaning I'm pretty limited on space. I don't have a tv stand, as I put my TV on my chest of drawers, which is around 30" tall. This height makes it perfect for eye-level when I sit on the bed, but I'm wondering is it too high for the floorstanding speakers that are 36" tall? I own a 27" Wega, and the center speaker will rest on top. Also, will the center and the floorstanding be too far apart vertically? I read in a previous post, that ideally the tweeters of the fronts should be around the middle of the TV. In my case, the tweeters of the energy exl 26s would be barely above the base of the TV, which also makes it farther away from the center that will be on the top. Do you see this as a big problem? And what can I do to solve it? I could tilt my center speaker down a little, but what do I do about the shortness of the fronts?
3. I want to get the energy exl r's for the surrounds, cuz they are dipolar, and I just seem to like the idea of dipolar surrounds, rather than direct. But I don't know how to place them. The weird thing is, unlike most dipolar/bipolar surrounds I've seen (where the two cones are on adjacent sides), the energy exl r's have the two cones on OPPOSITE sides of the speakers. So If I put up the surrounds on the side walls, the speakers will be facing directly to the front wall, and directly to the back wall. Will that produce good surround sound for me? It seems like I won't even be able to hear the sound since it's pointing directly to the back wall. I guess I could angle the surrounds so the speaker facing the back wall, will face the back wall and also inward towards me, but then the other speaker on the opposite side will face almost straight into the side wall. Any suggestions? What about if I just got the the energy exl 16s (direct) for surrounds. I've heard good things about those, but if the energy exl r's are better for surrounds I much rather spend the extra cash and get those.
Sorry about the length of the post. I just need really specific answers before I purchase my speakers. I'm pretty set on sticking with energy because they are in my price range, and I generally like they way they sound and look. I just need to know how it's gonna work with my setup, and if I have some serious flaws that I need to work out.
Thanks for all your help. I REALLY appreciate it.

 

[Han]

Funny. Since moving out of my old house with my parents and into my new house with my wife, I've had to break up my set of 11 different Energy speakers. Long story short, I figured my best bet was to grab exactly the same speakers you've listed.

Anyway, first thing, the rears (eXL-R). You should place them along the side wall like you have, but not in the corners. Leave some space in the back wall so that the drivers facing the back have a little breathing room. Of course this may break from the tradition that the null spot in the dipoles should be pointing right at you, since in the case I suggest, it'd be pointing across the room slightly in front of you. You could always move the couch up a little to compensate and use the area behind the couch to store junk. I've always thought this driver configuration was normal for dipoles. One set facing the front of the room and one set facing the rear. No matter, they should sound fine when properly set up. I have a pair of Mirage OM-R bipoles for my computer room, and they point diagnally out instead of forward and back. Whatever.
The center (eXL-C2) should ideally be the same distance from the primary listening spot as the two mains. Not in terms of floor space, but absolute distance from the point of the speakers to the ears. You could also adjust delays and whatnot on your receiver to compensate if certain placement issues cannot be avoided. The key is to have the center speaker tilted towards the ear level of the listening area, whether it's above or below the TV.
The mains (eXL-26) should be toed in, obviously. I've always thought they were a little short too, but the eXL-28p speakers aren't tall enough either. Plus, I don't think the powered subs on those things approach the level of a good separate sub. Anyway, I guess try to find something acoustically dead to sit the eXL-26s on while still keeping them sturdy. 6 inches (I'm not sure how many meters that is ) should do right? 30 inches would be way too high unless you then angle the mains down. How about some large MDF boards glued together and top them off with carpeting pieces. It's not going to kill you if one of the drivers aren't pointing right at you. The key here is to establish clearance for the lower mid-range driver.
Oh yeah, I've used eXL-Rs, 15s, and 16s for surrounds before. The Rs are best in my opinion for 5.1. For Yamaha's pseudo 7.1, the 16s work best. For EX/ES, I'd think having the Rs on the side and either 15s or 16s in the back center would be good while avoiding cancellation issues. That's another topic that you aren't worried about now, though... EX/ES setup.
I'm sure many others have differing opinions, but I figured I oughta chime in since I've used many different Energy speakers now, plus, I currently use that exact setup (still working on building my sonosub).
[Edited last by Han on July 18, 2001 at 10:23 AM]

 

[Derek Kan]

Thanks for the info. You have helped me greatly. =) Just a question though, what exactly are MDF boards? some type of wood? Are you sure it's ok to put the floorstanding speakers on top of a platform other than the floor? If so, that'll be perfect, but I want to be sure. I don't want to mess up the sound from the fronts.
Also, anyone else have anything to say in reply to my post. What about how I can raise up the fronts? The more help the better! Thanks, I really appreciate it.