finally moved my 7.1's further back

BIZILL

i used to have my 7.1 rti6's sitting right behind my center recliner. it sounded superb (imho) if you sat in the "sweet spot". but if one were to sit on either opposing recliner, they'd hear the rear-surround effects off-axis, meaning they'd hear sounds from only thier left or right side of their heads instead of evenly behind them.




now i have them set back quite aways so that whilst sitting in any of the three rear recliners, they all become a "sweet spot" with even surround effects. all i had to do was get off my lazy duff and cut the speaker shelfs at work on our handy-dandy lazer and weld it up and mount the rti6's atop them. and i had to "CRAWL" around in the attic as i decided to run the wires up through the roof and through the attic vs. having exposed wire run along the floor or ceiling. it's so much of a cleaner look. good thing i had help to fish the wire through the holes and not to mention, make sure i did not die from heat exhaustion and inhalation of blown-in fiberglass. must've been like 135 degrees at night up there. phwew!

brettw22

The only thing that might compromise the sound a bit is that they're right up against the wall. I saw the shelf is lipped to prevent it, but if you could angle them in a little bit that might improve things with reverb off the sides.

Also, how'd you hang that clock in the corner?

BIZILL

clock is suspended by thin tie-wire, gave it a 3 dimensional effect. and as for the speakers being mounted as they are, that is what i wanted. i didn't want to 'toe' them inward as i wanted as flush a mount as i could create. even with the reflection off the wall, it sounds sooooo much better than it did before.

MattN03

You have some good fabrication skills! Nice setup.

BIZILL

thanks matt. i liked the tribal pattern so much that i used the same one from my custom mailbox to stay with the same theme and altered it to fit a bracket bent at 90 degrees.

brettw22

Cool cool.......the reason you moved them and were having issues is why there are bi/dipole speakers......the direct radiating are harder to play with and get to sound invisible.

Early B.

Awesome looking shelves.

I gotta agree with Brett, though. You need to toe them in, even if it's only a couple of inches from the wall. They'll sound better if you do.

BIZILL

yeah, fxi5's run in bi-pole would have been better in their previous location. dipole wouldn't have worked as i had no rear wall to project the sounds. plus i needed to move the speakers where they are now so that i could regain full usage of my dining table. before it was butted up against the table holding the speakers. and the fxi5's wouldn't work where they are now mounted. all in all i am much happier since i've moved them. it looks awesome and it MAJORLY opened up the soundstage. sounds like i'm in a room bigger than it actually is.

BIZILL

being that they are direct-radiating, if i were to have toed them in, i think it would have left me with almost the same problem as i had with them directly behind the center recliner. but with the way they reflect off the wall now, it's possible that they are acting as though they are indeed, toed in? either way, it sounds friggin' sweet and the speakers are more 'low profile' the way they hug the walls. and if i tried to toe them in, i'd have to make all new shelves as the top plate was dimensioned for the exact size of the bottom of each rti6. i'd have to create a 'wedge' shelf base. but no need. it is crazy-awesome the way it is now.

and the silver is oh so sweet for the color of the shelf as my kitchen is all stainless and black as well as are my polks and harman gear.

cheddar

Cool, good everything worked out. I found that just separating the rear surrounds out from each other helps to improve the imaging. I'm not sure why they designed rear speakers in 7.1 to sit so close to each other on your butt. Seems like this would be very restrictive if you did the same thing to the two front mains. Too easy to localize the sound as you found...

Fireman32

Love the shelv's very cool design.

BIZILL

thanks. my ex thinks they look overly bachelor-like. i said, "good thing i'm a bachelor then, aye?" i was going to originally use some prefab shelf brackets, but i wanted my own personal touch.