Speaker Placement for my HT room (1 Viewer)

[doug zdanivsky]

I'm in a bit of a pickel..

It's becoming clear that if I want 7.1, I may have to go with speaker stands..

Which would mean exposed speaker cable, no?

As I don't want to go under the carpet with it, and have that ugly line showing up under there.. :frowning:

Here's a top view of the room (which has yet to be built, just like the rest of the house), and my proposed speaker placement:

http://tinypic.com/igwa6p.jpg

All speakers and sub are Paradigm Reference.. The surrounds and rears will be ADP-450's (well, I have APD's for the surrounds, I'll have to see what would be the best match with what Paradigm has out now..).

Man.. That L rear speaker is going to be a pain in the butt..

It'd be totally blasphemous to have the rears in the ceiling, correct?

Thanks for any and all comments!

 

[mylan]

Seems you have mislabled your left front as a surround, but I digress.. having back surround speakers in the ceiling should not be a problem. I too have an open back room with bipolar surrounds on the side walls and have pre-wired back surround locations in the ceiling. To me, as long as all back sound is coming from the same general location ( high and behind you ) it shouldn't be a problem. Seems like a better comprimise than having exposed wire.
You mught want to move all your surround speakers back further so the sound won't be so close to the seating position.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Hmm.. I may have a solution:

http://tinypic.com/igzwgk.jpg

This would kill 2 birds.. I won't have to worry about stands or exposed cable, AND I'll have the room enclosed, which will help with bass, etc..

AND I won't have to resort to ceiling speakers..

What do you think?

 

[mylan]

Well, yeah, you are still going to have an opening into the wet bar area but that wouldn't increase room volume all that much. Is that a full wall between wet bar and the theater area? I still don't see your aversion to ceiling speakers, many people here use them, anyone else out there have an opinion?

 

[doug zdanivsky]

No, that's a bar counter with sink.. It'll come up to about chest level..

I have heard from a number of sources that ceiling speakers are inferior to floor standing speakers..

 

[mylan]

Ok, surround speaker at the front of the wet bar would be ok, a little low still, but ok. The problem I see is with the left back surround. You can run wire around the baseboard to the surround but you have a doorway before getting to the left back surround. Wire would have to be run over the door frame or under the carpet.
I can agree that floorstanding speakers, both towers and bookshelf,will sound superior to all but the best ceiling speakers, but for back surround duty, two ceiling speakers would be ideal, those extra channels only provide spacial cues anyway.
I do not have mine connected yet but I do have two RBH in ceilings installed as mains in my greatroom and the sound is great.

 

[joseph westcott]

I would suggest moving the screen and the speakers so the North (shorter wall) would be your center, fl and fr.

It would be better acoustically and would elimnate the projector issue.

Hiding wire is easy with new construction.

Under the floor, like I did, or through the walls or ceiling, baseboards, crownmoulding, etc.

Happy Holidays!

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Thanks Joseph, same to you..

If I went under the floor I'd still have to come through the carpet..

Though I'll have to screw the stands (if I go that route) down to the sub floor so the kids can't tip them over anyways, so, in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.. :frowning:

What projector issue are you refering to? The throw distance?



You mean the Left Rear?

Yeah, I would have to run that wire over the door frame, inside..

This is all assuming I go the wall route, as opposed to the stans proximal to the listening area route..

I'm still not sure which would be the ideal..

Anyone?

 

[joseph westcott]

The projector issue I was referring to is that any traffic between the kitchen and the family room while a movie is in progress will probably compromise the picture. It can get annoying. (I can not keep my wife out of the kitchen and she will even watch a movie sitting at the island).

I would mount it in the ceiling in the family room with the orientation I suggested.

I think I assumed you own your homecondo. If not, hiding wires can be more difficult. I will assume you own your home and suggest that pulling base boards and drilling holes in the sheet rock is no big deal. It can all be fixed and it makes it look really clean. Or pull them through the attic, or cut a channel in the concrete foundation, like I did. It may sound extreme but when I looked at all the obstructions in my room, the baseboard method was not going to work and I do not have carpet any more.

If you do not own. The baseboard method is still viable as long as you put everything back where it was. Any holes in the sheetrock are easy to patch if you have to move out. Your landlord may even cooperate if he feels it adds value to the property and you do the labor and pay for the cable.

I had 45 holes in my three walls, even with laying the cable under the floors. The lights, surround speakers, dimmer switches, sub and speaker cables, hurricane shutter controls and power, etc.

I doubt you will have that many and your wife would probably love the opportunity to paint the room afterwards.
Get her involved and you would be surprised what you can get done.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Ahh.. No worries there.. I got 'em trained...

It will be my own house having built, but the issue is not how to get the wire back there, but across..

However way you slice it, I still have to come up through the carpet to get to the speaker, unless it is on the wall..

 

[joseph westcott]

I was discussing this issue with another gentleman and another point that came out in the discussion was the orientation gave him another row of seating at a preferred distance.

Using the length of the room may provide that, as well.

I forgot you said you have children. My wires run out of the rear wall into the backs of the speakers, but with kids, that would not be advised.

 

[doug zdanivsky]

Yeah, not really..

I was talking to a technical representative from Paradigm about my placement dilema and he said it's okay if they're on the walls.. In fact the user manual has a diagram illustrating this type of placement, leading me to believe they may have been designed for this application..

As long as I can increase the output for each surround and rear to compensate for the increased distance, I should be ok..