Speaker Placement

csnoff

It's been a while since I have been on here. We recently moved into a new house and I managed to get part of my "home theater" room up and running. I am wondering where I should locate my FXIA4's. I was thinking for ease of installation and running wire in behind walls they would work well as front heights. I am open to suggestions so please feel free to chime in.

Operating a Yamaha HTR 6190
M70 Fronts
CS2 Center
M10 Surround
PSW 10 Sub

Have a look at the pano and the crappy pc paint drawing for a better idea.

Cheers and Happy New Year Folks

dalylaleahthor

I place my fxia6 left and right of my seating position. This allow for a greater dispersion of sound. From my understanding of front presense speaker you are better off using directional speakers such as your m10. Maybe use the fxia4 as rear surround and move the m10 to front presence. Maybe somebody else can chime in also.

mdaudioguy

You could always try, however, my thought is that FX speakers are meant to be less locatable, which might muddy your front soundstage.

mdaudioguy

Presence speakers are mounted high. I don't think you want Monitor 10s up there! Otherwise, dalylaleahthor's advice is solid.

rpf65

I would use the M 10's as the front height and mount the FXI A4's on the back wall.

csnoff

I totally boffed the setup. Surrounds are m20 so mounting them is unrealistic. It makes sense to have these as rear surrounds more that front presence. I am guessing I am going to need to get creative with the wiring then. Thanks for the input guys. Will let you know how I make out, if I do.

csnoff

One more thought. If I was to put it at ceiling height approx 9" and angled them down towards listening position would that work or would it benefit more from being mounted flat at or slightly above ear level?

Willow

Seems like your mains are too far apart with too much toe in and too close to the walls. Where is the couch? In front of the fireplace?

csnoff

Couch is at the window. Fire place is behind main seating area. The pano doesn't really show it that well. But we don't normally sit on the couch when watching movies. I will def have to readjust the mains. You say move them in closer eh?

Willow

It is my suggestion, I'd say play your favourite music and start moving them closer together and out from the back and side walls until you like what you hear.
As for going 7.1 or 9.1 as with most on this forum will agree you are better off with a great 5.1 then a mediocre 7-9.1. You would almost be better off returning the extra speakers and investing that in a bigger sub or external amp for better results. If you are happy though, that's all that matters.

From the pics they look to be too toed in and stuffed in the corners. You'll see , well hear the improvement when moving them out and away from the walls and perhaps a bit closer. Rule of thumb is the distance you are sitting from the screen the mains should be separated by roughly that amount. I think from reading it was about 7-12 ft is the average.

With that said, I sit 12 ft from my screen and my speakers are about 7-8 ft apart.

csnoff

Great info. I will give this a go when I get home tonight. Can't return the speakers as I have had them for a very long time. Do you guys think I would likely benefit more with the FXIa4 as rear surrounds than the M20? If that is the case those m20s would make reasonable speaker stands for the time being?

Sub upgrade is on the way down the road. Looking at either the PSW 505 or the BIC F12. Seem to both get ok reviews. I simply can not afford to spend the kind of money on a sub that I would like to and even if I saved up money for that the wife would "steal" it for the kids.

Willow

I've never used any of the fxi or other brand of di/bi pole speakers so I can't comment.

You'd be surprised at the deals you can find on a used svs or hsu. Even at times svs has some killer deals to be had for under 4-500 $.
But I hear you with upgrading and kids. I've got two myself and my upgrades took a major slash for the longest time.

Joey_V

Why are you putting the mains in the furthest corners?

csnoff

The monitor 70 are the mains and it's actually m20 as rear surround. I think I may have mixed a few up with that. They are positioned to the left and right of the TV but in the corner none the less.

bigmike66

Maybe try putting the center on the top shelf of that stand and shimming the front so it angles up a bit towards your ears.

Joey_V

You are inducing a whole lot of issues placing them in the corner like that. Sbir, reflections, comb filtering.

That would the last place I would put the mains.

Joey_V

At 1.5ft from the corner you are getting a large spike in sbir... Approx 188hz. At 2ft, it drops in frequency but the amplitude likely remains, you're at 141hz.

Positioning the speakers at equal distances from rear and side walls enhances these sbir nodes.

Unless you treat it with a bass trap, you are not doing yourself any favors.

csnoff

It hardly seems realistic to move it out from the wall 3 feet both sides which would essentially put it infront of the TV stand. I understand that in a perfect world we would alll have a dedicated theater room that did not have corners or bass traps and still be a functional room. Since this is not the case I am looking for help given the room and the speakers and the setup I currently have, what would be the best possible positioning that I could obtain while still maintaining room functionallity. I hope that makes sense.

halo

Take a look at some of these videos:

myspeakersetup.com/videos/

https://youtube.com/watch?v=84Pf0ycbyBM

rpf65

Bring he fronts as close to your stand as possible. Place the sub on the outside of one of the mains.

Sub crawl to find which side sounds best. That's where I would star at.

F1nut

rpf65 wrote: »

Bring he fronts as close to your stand as possible. Place the sub on the outside of one of the mains.

Sub crawl to find which side sounds best. That's where I would star at.

^ THIS ^

Then use the FXi A4's in the rear. Forget the front height idea.

Joey_V

csnoff wrote: »

It hardly seems realistic to move it out from the wall 3 feet both sides which would essentially put it infront of the TV stand. I understand that in a perfect world we would alll have a dedicated theater room that did not have corners or bass traps and still be a functional room. Since this is not the case I am looking for help given the room and the speakers and the setup I currently have, what would be the best possible positioning that I could obtain while still maintaining room functionallity. I hope that makes sense.

Move it towards the stand, maybe a foot inwards both ways or more. I like the idea of making it nearer the media stand/console and having the sub on the outside.