| speaker location and type [message #74998] |
Tue, 18 December 2012 06:50  |
Gregw
Messages: 2
Registered: December 2012
Location: Louisville, Ky
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Esquire |
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Hello forum, my first post. I'm building a new house for myself, doing 90% of the work myself. Getting ready to hang drywall and got worried about speaker placement for wire runs. Attached is a schematic of my living room and I'm trying to figure out the optimum speaker locations. I am interested in the sound throughout the whole area not just one listening seat and not too interested in surround sound for movies, but I have furniture in the way no matter where speakers go. I was thinking about corner speakers up in the peak of the vaulted ceiling facing down, I could even build these into the structure itself. Ideas, suggestions? All opinions welcome, Thanks!
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| Re: speaker location and type [message #75000 is a reply to message #74998] |
Tue, 18 December 2012 09:33  |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18789
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Speaker placement depends largely on the type of speaker you choose. Some need to be in free space, not near walls. Others work better when placed close to walls. Some are designed to be placed in corners. Some should be pointed at the listening area, others should not me. However, one thing that is common to all is they should be placed approximately at ear level, never overhead. Surrounds can be placed slightly overhead, but none should be at ceiling level. That is an unnatural sound source location, because sounds rarely come at you from above (except for birds and airplanes). For background music like in an elevator or something, speakers are sometimes placed overhead, mostly for convenience. But it is not good for home theater or hifi.
My expertise in in speakers that provide uniform directivity, meaning they sound the same in all areas of the room. Those should generally be placed near room boundaries and should be pointed so that their axes cross in front of the listeners. They also should be augmented with two to four subwoofers, distributed through the room. Two should flank the main speakers, and sometimes one or two more should be placed further away. This multisub approach works well for all speaker types, because it smmothes room modes.
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| Re: speaker location and type [message #75002 is a reply to message #75001] |
Tue, 18 December 2012 11:13 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18789
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Speakers in corners don't need flanking subs, but they do still benefit from more distant distributed subs. I don't think I'd put a sub immediately below the corner speakers, because then you would have two bass sound sources in the corners, which is a waste. You want to spread them around. Best approach is probably to put the subs in the corners opposite the mains or at the adjacent wall midpoints. If neither of those places is convenient, really any two other spots will work, just don't put them right below the mains. The woofers in the mains will provide the bass sources there.
Soffit-mounted speakers are a great idea, because they remove self-interference from the wall they are mounted in. This also largely reduces the need for flanking subs. It's the same thing for constant directivity cornerhorns - They don't really need flanking subs because they don't suffer self-interference from nearest boundaries. So that gives a little more flexibility in sub placement, and is just a better arrangement all-around. Not everyone has these options, but for those that do, it is the best way to go.
I prefer constant directivity cornerhorns to soffit-mounted speakers simply because cornerhorns remove self-interference from both adjacent walls, whereas soffit mounting only removes self-interference from the wall that the speakers are recessed into. The nearest side wall still presents a problem. Soffit mounting also doesn't usually lend itself to the preferred crossed-axes orientation, because the wall angle and the baffle angle are so different. So for these reasons, I would prefer a constant directivity cornerhorn to an in-wall mounted speaker. You can permanetly mount the cornerhorns, if you wish, making them something like soffit mounted speakers, but there probably is little benefit in doing so.
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