New house, new rti150s, need advice on speaker placement

Skywalker

Hey whats up fellas. My brother just moved into a new house he just bought and also just bought a pair of rti150's to use for his fronts. The problem is, where the sitting area is, we are getting some sort of cancelation. Almost like the bass isnt even hitting that one spot. We just need some advice on speaker placement for the best overall bass response and just best quality overall. Here are the specs on the system he is running:


Fronts- RTI150's- Bi-wired
Rears- RT55i's- Bi-wired
Front Center- CSI40- Bi-wired
Rear Center- CSI30
Subwoofer- PSW350
Receiver- Denon 3802


We already know the subwoofer isnt quite up to par with the rest of the system and thats a reason the bass response may not be as well. Unfortunately neither of us have the money just yet to get a good SVS we want.Now, here are the specs on the room:


16'-20'
Carpet floors.

Im also attaching a picture of the room so you can get an idea of what we are working with.

To recap, we just really want some good advice on exactly how we should place the speakers and whatnot..any advice would be appreciated, thanks fellas.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Couple of things to start with:

First, it looks like those front may be 'toed in' a little much, try angling them a little less. It's hard to tell from the picture, but that looks to be the case - Don't think that will make a huge improvement with bass though.

Second, the closer you put those to the wall, the more bass you'll get. Be careful though, becuase going too close may have a negative effect on overall sound quality.

AsSiMiLaTeD

and maybe try moving them closer together...

Skywalker

Thats the strange part. They have fantastic base response everywhere in the room, but for some reason when you step into the seating position where the couch is, it just seems to disapate. just sounds like some sort of cancelation goin on im not aware of how to fix, but thanks i will try to angle of the speakers to see if it helps out any.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Originally posted by Skywalker
Thats the strange part. They have fantastic base response everywhere in the room, but for some reason when you step into the seating position where the couch is, it just seems to disapate. just sounds like some sort of cancelation goin on im not aware of how to fix, but thanks i will try to angle of the speakers to see if it helps out any.

My next suggestion would be to callibrate them properly, with an SPL meter. You can grab one of those at Radio Shack for like 50 bucks.

There are plenty of threads on here on that topic, so you may want to give that a shot if you haven't already...

pjdami

Here's some good reading on the "Cardas Golden Ratio" for speaker setup.

http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

Unfortunately, this may not be practical for everybody's room.

I would get a decibel meter and run some bass sweeps at the sitting position and plot the results. Definitely move the speakers in a little closer and try putting the couch to make a setup as described in the Cardas reading. Try different phase settings on the sub.

Looks like the setup is along the wall that opens up to the breakfast area. This makes for a very long wall. Another option would be to put a curtain on the window and setup along that front wall by the door. Another plus here is that the tv would be viewable from the breakfast / dining area.

I know it is a lot of work, but sometimes trial and error is the best solution. The theory behind it looks nice on paper but it has to work out in the room.