Any interest in Physical speaker setup?

mantis

Hello everyone,
I just finished setting up my front new 3 in my system. I haven't talked about it on here on exactly how I do it or even how to do it other than answering some questions over the years.

So it got me thinking that I could go over what I do and how I achieve the best sound I can with what I got in the room and limitations I have . If you're interested in a thread like that , I can continue on this one as such.

Also I would like you to share your ideas thoughts and take my setup , try it out on your system and see what it does for you. Then if you find ideas on how you have to modify it to fit your situation, pleas share with the class.
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So the idea is Physical, not calibration. We can go deep as you want there on another thread , which would be better than doing it on this one. I think this one should stay on track for physical placement.

We can go as deep as you like and we can share pictures of your system and what I think could tweak it to help you enjoy it more.

So post some comments and let me know if you want me to go into this . I'll break it into sections like "setting up the center channel" ,"how to place your front main speakers".

Once we get the front 3 the best our rooms will allow, we can dig into surround placement , Atmos placement and then finally subwoofer placement which can include 1-4 subs in the room.

mantis

HOW TO POSITION YOUR CENTER CHANNEL.

This pertains to table top Center channels in in ceiling , In wall on wall models.

After you remove from the box or if you had it for a very long time doesn't matter. You want to try and position the center channel as dead center as your space will allow underneath the Display.
If you're putting it on top of an equipment cabinet, you want to move it slightly forward so it's not all the way in the back .

REASON

If you have your center channel pushed to the back of the top of your cabinet , you now created a first order reflection. Now you have to address that issue and that could mean deadening material as used as a Doyley type thing so it looks nice while removing your reflection point.

So what I like to do is move the center channel about 2/3 of the way. You can go center if that makes sense to you and your other. Now you still will have a reflection point but being slightly closer to the front you can then angle the speaker upwards.
There are tons of ways to get this done. ISOLATION feet , rubber feet , Home Depot rubber feet or any hardware store, you can go on amazon and find things etc.

I usually throw out the factory small thin rubber feet most speakers come with. I replace them with thicker ones and then I also use rubber feet I keep from when I rack equipment as a lot of nice feet you can collect and find uses later. So the Center channel with the Rubber feet even if level mounted decouples the center from the furniture . Squesy things underneath usually do a fine job at that but if you want to spend alot more money, ISO ACOUSTICS makes some nice stuff. We will keep it simple to get going. You can venture down that road with more experience.

You want to try to get your angle to open up the center channel sound , point it at ear level or even slightly higher.

REASON

This does 2 things 1 it makes voices more clear and open and it helps remove the first order reflection we caused by placing a speaker on top of a piece of furniture.

Here is my new center channel not perfectly dialed in, but my first dial as I 'm gonna sit and watch a movie tonight to hear how it sounds. Check it out.

mantis

daddyjt

What are your feelings on the height consistency of the tweeters on the front 3 speakers? I have always read and been told that this was the ideal. Ironically, my current HT is the first time I have managed to accomplish this, when I built my equipment rack, I measured the height of the tweeters in my main towers, and got to within 1/2” (I blame the carpet for the variance🤣). It does present a very seamless front image between the 3 speakers…

Emlyn

I take Dan's approach and get the video display set up so the tweeters on the main speakers are level with the area somewhere within the bottom half of the screen with closer to the center being best. In my case with systems I've set up the tweeters for the main speakers tend to be level with about 1/3rd from the bottom of the screen. It doesn't have to be exact. The center channel speaker is below the screen and angled up a bit so it's directed at ear level for the listening area. There is more flexibility this way.

I use silicone pads of different sizes to angle the center speaker unless it already has a built in adjustment or is sitting on a dedicated center speaker stand with adjustment features.

The ideal is to have an acoustically transparent screen with the mains and center level with the center of the display screen to anchor the sound right in the center of the screen but few people can do that unless they have a dedicated home theater room and a projector.

mantis

daddyjt wrote: »

What are your feelings on the height consistency of the tweeters on the front 3 speakers? I have always read and been told that this was the ideal. Ironically, my current HT is the first time I have managed to accomplish this, when I built my equipment rack, I measured the height of the tweeters in my main towers, and got to within 1/2” (I blame the carpet for the variance🤣). It does present a very seamless front image between the 3 speakers…

When I do theater rooms with behind the screen speakers, I line up all the speakers at the exact same height. This makes for a very pleasing experience. However in an on wall situation, Speakers mounted left and right of the screen , I usually go center or adjust depending on screen height and the center Channel usually goes below. With speakers mounted on the wall, you have little adjustments.I'll sometimes depending on the limited displacement of how the speakers fire into the room use washers behind the mounting brackets to give the center channel a slight angle upwards. Not really to noticeable so no one Aesthethic gets upset up I've done my job in getting the system to perform the best I can with what I have to work with.

So trying to get all the tweeters on the same level is a very good thing but you can play with angles to try to achieve it sonically instead of physically. When you have in room speakers on wall on floor on furniture with a display above, usually that display gets mounted more eye level and physically it's not possible. So that is where you start to play with angles upwards or downwards if the center gets mounted above the display which I have done many times including in my own home.