Front Speaker placement height (RTI-A3)
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Source: BRP Panasonic UB9000, CDP Emotiva ERC3 - Display: LG OLED EVO 83 C3 - Pre/Pro: Marantz 8802A - Amplification: Emotiva XPA-DR3, XPA-2 x 2, XPA-6, Speakers, Mains/2ch-Focal Kanta No2's, C-LSiM706, S-702F/X, RS-RTiA9's, WS-RTiA9's, FH-RTiA3's, Subs - Epik Empire x 2
Cables: AudioQuest McKenzie XLR's/CDP/Amp, Carbon 48/BRP, Forest 48/Display, 2 channel speaker cable: Furutech FS Alpha 36 12AWG PCOCC Single Crystal (Douglas Connection)
EXPERIENCE: next to nothing, but I sure enjoy audio and video MY OPINION OF THIS HOBBY: I may not be a smart man, but I know what quicksand is.
When I was young, I was Superman but now that old age has gotten the best of me I'm only Batman -
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i set AVR lfe crossover to 100hz and the subs rear dial to lfe (which is turned all the way clockwise). I did read somewhere that when feeding the signal via lfe, the sub dial is bypassed, but i turned it to lfe anyways. I dont think my avr has a high-pass filter, nor do the speakers themselves. Im really happy with the bass/midrange/highs. I just want to bring the sound lower on the screen. My stands are 9" too high which is noticeable on a fairly small tv.Polk RTIA3 Fronts
Polk CSIA4 Center
Polk PSW Sub
Pioneer VSX-521-K AVR
And a friendly Labrador Retriever -
i set AVR lfe crossover to 100hz and the subs rear dial to lfe (which is turned all the way clockwise). I did read somewhere that when feeding the signal via lfe, the sub dial is bypassed, but i turned it to lfe anyways..
Typically you turn your sub XO all the way up when running to the LFE jack. Otherwise you'll have cascading crossovers which is not a good thing. Turning all the way up disables the subs amp plate XO so only the pure LFE comes through.
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i set AVR lfe crossover to 100hz and the subs rear dial to lfe (which is turned all the way clockwise). I did read somewhere that when feeding the signal via lfe, the sub dial is bypassed, but i turned it to lfe anyways..
Typically you turn your sub XO all the way up when running to the LFE jack. Otherwise you'll have cascading crossovers which is not a good thing. Turning all the way up disables the subs amp plate XO so only the pure LFE comes through.
Yaaaaaa.......I got one thing right lolPolk RTIA3 Fronts
Polk CSIA4 Center
Polk PSW Sub
Pioneer VSX-521-K AVR
And a friendly Labrador Retriever -
Ok what is staging? . Calibration software that when used properly will help with poor speaker placement. It will not FIX poor speaker placement , it will just HELP with poor placement. Nothing fixes poor placement then placing your speakers as close to correct. Whether he sticks with MCACC or gets a new AVR and goes with AUDYSSEY OR DIREC.
What?Ok,
For a Projector screen, placing the center channel above the screen is completely fine. If you look at the screen and forget about placement, you brain will trick you into believing the sound is coming right out of the screen.
For the left and right channels years ago, we use to follow a 2 ft rule. The Tweeter on the center should not be further away than 2 feet. So it didn't matter if the center was top or bottom, as long as the tweeters where within 2 ft in height from each other, it always sounded great.
Now as far as positioning the tweeters in the center of the screen as a center reference, yeah I do that and it always works out excellent. This also goes away most of the time from the 2 ft rule. The larger the screen the more the 2 ft rule can't be applies UNLESS the screen is a micro Perf design.
I actually like the best performance of the front end of a surround system to have all the tweeters at the same height.
I'm familiar with stereo setup, but obviously the screen height should have some influence on vertical positioning of the fronts. I'm going to try to position my tweeters at the middle of the screen and work down from there. My tv midpoint is probably 10-12" above my ear height. I tried lowering the output of the center channel last night, and that's helping, but my current tweeter height is around the top 1/4 of the screen.
Are you not calibrating your system? Ok refresh me, what AVR or Preamp are you using?
Placement is very important but calibration is everything. If you don't calibrate your system I don't care how perfect you position your speakers, your system will not perform correctly. Both go hand and hand but I can fix poor placement with calibration not the other way around.
Talk to me about your calibration procedure.
Mantis, what calibration are you referring to? The only calibration I'm aware of is crossover points and distances of each speaker. I've not found this to fix poor staging.
Look here is the bottom line. Learn how a properly placed home theater system is supposed to be installed. Then get as close to this as possible with the limitations of your room. Not everyone has a perfect room to place your speakers perfectly like we all would love. So you work with what you got, get as close as you can, treat your room with treatments if possible, yes this makes a huge difference, run your calibration software and your done.
There is no need to worry about every little detail if your placement can't be right. You make it as good as you can then sit down and enjoy what you have.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Ok what is staging? . Calibration software that when used properly will help with poor speaker placement. It will not FIX poor speaker placement , it will just HELP with poor placement. Nothing fixes poor placement then placing your speakers as close to correct. Whether he sticks with MCACC or gets a new AVR and goes with AUDYSSEY OR DIREC.
What?Ok,
For a Projector screen, placing the center channel above the screen is completely fine. If you look at the screen and forget about placement, you brain will trick you into believing the sound is coming right out of the screen.
For the left and right channels years ago, we use to follow a 2 ft rule. The Tweeter on the center should not be further away than 2 feet. So it didn't matter if the center was top or bottom, as long as the tweeters where within 2 ft in height from each other, it always sounded great.
Now as far as positioning the tweeters in the center of the screen as a center reference, yeah I do that and it always works out excellent. This also goes away most of the time from the 2 ft rule. The larger the screen the more the 2 ft rule can't be applies UNLESS the screen is a micro Perf design.
I actually like the best performance of the front end of a surround system to have all the tweeters at the same height.
I'm familiar with stereo setup, but obviously the screen height should have some influence on vertical positioning of the fronts. I'm going to try to position my tweeters at the middle of the screen and work down from there. My tv midpoint is probably 10-12" above my ear height. I tried lowering the output of the center channel last night, and that's helping, but my current tweeter height is around the top 1/4 of the screen.
Are you not calibrating your system? Ok refresh me, what AVR or Preamp are you using?
Placement is very important but calibration is everything. If you don't calibrate your system I don't care how perfect you position your speakers, your system will not perform correctly. Both go hand and hand but I can fix poor placement with calibration not the other way around.
Talk to me about your calibration procedure.
Mantis, what calibration are you referring to? The only calibration I'm aware of is crossover points and distances of each speaker. I've not found this to fix poor staging.
Look here is the bottom line. Learn how a properly placed home theater system is supposed to be installed. Then get as close to this as possible with the limitations of your room. Not everyone has a perfect room to place your speakers perfectly like we all would love. So you work with what you got, get as close as you can, treat your room with treatments if possible, yes this makes a huge difference, run your calibration software and your done.
There is no need to worry about every little detail if your placement can't be right. You make it as good as you can then sit down and enjoy what you have.
Staging in a HT system is basically the 3D version of a stereo Soundstage.
Instead of the audio moving infront of you, it can move literally anywhere in the room because of the surround sound setup. It's actually phenomenal what a good 7.2 system can do with sound (it's terrifying how realistic the sound is lol). The goal would be to make sure that every tweeter is aligned on the same horizontal axis that way the sound moves perfectly 360° around your head.
Of course this is simply not possible alot of the time, or is it? Well for my setup I could turn the RT3000p satellites upside down and the tweeters are within an inch on my center. I just think it's ugly so I didn't bother.
Since OP has bookshelves, he could easily get the front stage tweeters in line with each other and probably have them at or slightly below ear level. Your brain will pinpoint the sound to the center of the TV because it likes to play tricks on you.
Either way, I agree with everything you said, just want to clarify that calibration won't fix the staging. It does fix a lot of things though and my Onkyo even accounts for room reflections and the fact bass gets louder the further back you go. It's kinda crazy how well it works. Otherwise, the biggest difference you'll get is placement. Acoustic treatment is another good one.
