Speaker Placement (again)

Early B.

Every now and then you should "tweak" your system by experimenting with placement. Here's what I did a few days ago -- I always knew my rear-ported HT fronts were too close to the wall, but sometimes you gotta appease the WAF gods. Then I got bold and moved them 5 inches forward into the room. Surprisingly, the wife didn't notice. Anyway, when I popped in a movie, I actually heard surround sound.

Now you may be thinking, how is it that Early B. wasn't getting surround sound on his 5.1 HT setup? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, due to my room configuration, the seating position is on the rear wall, so I don't get the full 360 degrees of surround sound. However, when I moved the speakers forward, it appeared as though sound was coming from all around me. Very strange and quite unexpected.

Of course, the other result was that the sound was a bit louder at the same listening level, but I didn't have an appreciation for the full contribution the fronts make to the entire surround field. I guess it makes sense if you compare it to the soundstage and imaging properties of a good 2-channel music system -- every once in a while you become engulfed in a sea of sound. Pretty neat how that works for the fronts in HT, too.

Skynut

I need to move mine also.
I mounted my rears on the vaulted ceiling just behind the sweet spot aiming down right on the spot.
I can barely hear them most of the time.
I think they need to be back a few more feet but I already have the wire ran and holes in the ceiling and everything so I am screwed till I want to take on a real project.

organ

That's cool. Speaker placement can be very tricky.

I did something similar in my rig the other day. Moved each speaker closer to the center by several inches and my sound improved. Better center image focus and mids.

If your wife didn't notice the 5" shift, try going for more:).

Skynut

Allways gota push or you can never find your boundries.

aaharvel

did you move the speakers forward but NOT change the speaker distance in the receiver?

Early B.

organ wrote:

If your wife didn't notice the 5" shift, try going for more:).

Nah, better not. Right now they're about 9 ft. away. I almost feel they're right on top of me.

Early B.

aaharvel wrote:

did you move the speakers forward but NOT change the speaker distance in the receiver?

Good idea. Maybe I should change it by 1 foot.