Help with speaker setup

zmn668 · April 2002

I just purchased the following Polk system and need some advice:

Fronts RTi70's
Center CSi40
Surrounds RTi38's on 40 inch stands
Still using my old Eosone 12"sub which actually sounds good

Attached is a diagram (a very poor one) of my room layout. What is the best way to point the surrounds? Right now they are facing towards each other. Wall mounting is not an option and I really like them on the stands for DVD audio. Should I point subs towards the back or side walls to more diffuse surround field? These new Polks do sound so much better than my 5 year old Eosone setup. Just wondering if I can make the surround sound even better.

Thanks,
Bill Zink

juice21 · May 2002

zmn668, welcome to the forum.

tough, the sweetest spot is right in front of the fireplace, where there is no seat. is your fireplace floor to ceiling? if so, the surrounds firing into it would not be the ideal solution. experiment with placement and see what sounds good to you. sub placement is tricky, the best way to determine placement is to put the sub where you usually listen and crawl around and find where teh sub sounds best, this is the ideal spot for the sub, but sometimes it won't work well with your room layout. facing it into/away from a corner/wall is another trial and error thing. play around with it, and see what sounds best to you, that's the most important thing.

check out these helpful links also:

HT handbook

speaker specialist

zmn668 · May 2002

Juice,

Thanks for the reply. The fireplace does extend from floor to ceiling. I was looking at the Dolby website and they show some alternate placements for surrounds. Guess I'll give them a try.You're right that seating in front of the fireplace would be ideal but it just isn't practical. Setup is hard when not dealing with a square or rectangular room. Thanks again.

Bill

juice21 · May 2002

try facing the surrounds towards your front soundstage as opposed to facig each other, see if that provides better results...

Dr. Spec · May 2002

I can't open your diagram - damn work computer.
With that said.........

Bi-directional surround speakers can usually be placed on the sides of the listening area with better results than direct firing speakers due to the dual angled tweeters and the bi-pole / di-pole switching option.

Direct firing surround speakers tend to sound better (IMHO) when placed behind the listener, angled towards the listening area. This gives a more precise location of surround sound effects and a sense of things whizzing past and then behind you (like bullets) as opposed to a more diffuse sound stage acheived with the bi-directional speakers placed on the sides in di-pole mode. It all depends on what type of sound effects YOU like.

Also, 6.1 will give you a rear center channel, and 7.1 will give you side surround speakers on top of that. This provides a much more "diffuse" sound stage than 5.1. In 6.1 or 7.1, many people use a direct firing speaker for the rear surrounds, for better location of sound effects since they already have a much more diffuse sound stage to begin with.

Good luck - experimenting is half the fun!

Spec

zmn668 · May 2002

Dr Spec,

Thanks for the reply. So you are using center channel speakers for surrounds? May I ask how you have them placed as far as angle and height. The support from the club members here is great. Thanks.

Bill

Dr. Spec · May 2002

My CS245i surrounds are placed on a wrap around bookshelf behind the listening area on either side of the fireplace.

They are about 5 feet off the ground, about 10 feet apart, about 6 feet behind the listener, and the angle is about 45 degrees inwards. I have them standing on end like mini-towers.

Its unconventional, I know, but they are not too deep and fit on my bookshelf way better than some of the deeper Polk "bookshelf" speakers. They are timbre matched to the center and mains, and play loud and pretty deep and I really like them for this application.

Spec

mantis · May 2002

I opened your room,
I see where you sit, on the couch and the chair off to the left.You sit outside of the sound stage.For dvd audio it's still the same.
As far as your rears here a trick that might work to help fill the room.Take them off the stand's and fire them up.This might help fill the room better and help with your poor seating.
I would also fire the main's straight.To try to open up the soundstage wide enough to make your seating more enjoyable.
Play with speaker placement....ever think of a corner setup???I never recommend it but in this case it might work.

zmn668 · May 2002

Mantis,

Thanks for the reply. Great minds must think alike. Before I had read your post I did try to position the rears to fire upward and this seems to give me the most diffuse soundfield so far. I built 18" stands and that is how I have them positioned now. I cannot do a corner setup because what I didn't include in the diagram were doors on the side walls to the left and right of the television. Wife says if we ever build a new home I can build a dedicated HT room. LOL. Thanks.

Bill

Help with speaker setup

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