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Home Theater Speaker Setup: An Introduction Home theater is not just watching movies - it is the experience of being immersed into the movie action itself. This would not be possible without the enveloping atmosphere created by surround sound. Home theater sound systems require at least five speakers - front left, right, and center, and two surrounds; an optional sixth speaker is the sub woofer, hence the reference to a 5.1 setup. More advanced audio playback systems may feature six (6.1 setup) or seven (7.1 setup) full-range audio channels for greater realism. For more information on the different audio setups, please check our guide to Surround Sound Formats. Surround sound requires that the various sounds produced by the different speakers originate from specific positions within your home theater room. Knowing these requirements will help re-create the sound producers intended it to be. But... Keep in mind that there are too many variables for there to be a single magic spot for your home theater speaker placement. Different speakers have different response characteristics, while room acoustics differ from room to room. Thus, while knowing the basics of home theater speaker placement is important, yet feel free to experiment - after all, what really matters in the end is how it sounds to you! In this article, we discuss the role of the different speakers in a home theater sound system. This should lead to a better understanding of the different home theater speaker placement requirements in multi-channel audio. In the process, we show you how to best place the respective speakers for optimum home theater sound. We also explain the different speaker placement requirements between home theater sound and multi-channel music.
About this article: Home theater speaker placement is an integral part of any home theater room design. This article should therefore be seen in the light of the rest of a series of home theater design guides appearing on our site. Further more, keep in mind that some manufacturers do offer model-specific recommendations; this home theater speaker placement discussion should be taken in parallel with the information provided by the respective speaker manufactures.
A 1st Step in Home Theater Speaker Placement: The Center Channel The first step when planning your home theater speaker placement is to identify the position for the center speaker. The role of this speaker is to anchor the dialogue and other on-screen sounds to the screen; hence, its position is completely dependent on your TV position. In other words, once you decide on your TV placement, you do not have much choice; rather what you will be doing is to adjust the position of your front left and front right speakers such that the sound originating from these speakers will blend better with that originating from your center channel. Correct home theater speaker placement for the center channel requires the speaker to be placed either centered on top of your TV or just below; this being the case with direct view and rear projection Televisions. This also implies that speakers used for the center channel should be magnetically shielded to avoid any magnetic interaction with your TV display. In the case of a front projection set up, the center speaker may be placed just behind the projection screen. In reality, this represents the ideal position for the center speaker. This is also the position adopted in movie theaters; such placement is not possible with a direct view setup. Worth taking note here, that placing the center speaker behind the projection screen in a front projection setup necessitates the use of an acoustically transparent screen. This means that the projection screen fabric should incorporate micro perforations to render the material acoustically transparent. This would yield better spatial sound definition. For more information on acoustically transparent projection screens, please check our Projector Screen Fabrics article appearing under the Home Theater Screens section of the site. The following placement guidelines apply:
The left front and right front speakers carry the bulk of the music and sound effects in a home theater. Their main job is to provide a detailed focused sonic image. The correct placement of these speakers is particularly important to create the widest, most realistic soundstage possible; the following home theater speaker placement guidelines apply:
There is no 'general' home theater speaker placement rule in that this depends on a number of factors. In particular, it depends on the sound dispersion pattern of the speakers in question. In other words, not all speakers require toe-in; some speakers are designed to sound at their best facing straight forward, while others will have to be positioned angled slightly towards the listening position. The best way is to consult the manufacturer literature accompanying your speakers for any recommendations on home theater speaker placement issues. If the accompanying manuals do not provide any guidance in this respect, simply listen to the speakers both when facing straight forward, and also when angled-in; then choice the position that sounds best to your ears! Remember:
The key to arriving at the right amount of toe-in in any home theater
speaker placement is experimentation: listen, move the speakers, and listen again;
repeat the process as necessary.
Unlike the front speakers, the job of the surrounds in a home theater is to create a cloud of non-localized sound that envelops the viewer. It is this diffused rear sound field, which actually makes you feel like you are in the middle of the movie action. Though preferred surround speaker positioning is very much dependent on personal tastes, yet there are a few home theater speaker placement issues worth taking note of:
There is some difference in surround speaker placement between home theater use and multi-channel music programs. Mixing conditions in film dubbing theaters and music recording studios are different. While in the case of home theater sound, the surround should help create a diffused non-localized sound, multi-channel music listening would require five main identical channels (excluding the subwoofer), all placed at ear level with their tweeters pointing towards the listener. The correct surround speaker placement for music listening requires that each rear speaker is placed at exactly an angle of 110 degrees with the center speaker when measured from the center-most listening position. More specifically, the center-most listening position should represent the vertex of an angle whose sides - one joining the center speaker and the other the surround speaker, enclose an angle of 110 degrees; (refer to the speaker placement diagram for Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II 5.1 audio setup). Together with the 60-degree angle requirement for the front main speakers already referred to above, these settings, represent the optimum speaker placement for multi-channel audio. While the chances are that you will still be happy with the sound of multi-channel audio with your home theater speaker placement optimally set for movie playback, yet a possible solution to make up for the difference in height requirement for the surround channels when it comes to multi-channel audio, is to mount your surround speakers on adjustable height stands. The compromise would be to use adjustable wall-brackets and mount the speakers at a reduced height; simply split the difference in speaker height required for a more diffused soundstage in movie playback as against the more directional radiation preferred in multi-channel music listening. The least demanding of all in home theater speaker placement is the subwoofer - this in view that low frequency sounds are non-directional. This means that in a correct home theater sound set up, the ear should not be able to detect from where the bass sound is originating. If you can pick your sub woofer position when listening to music or watching a movie, it simply means that, your sub woofer sound level is set too high. There are no fixed home theater speaker placement rules here other than this should be placed directly on the floor. However, the following subwoofer placement tips may help improve the bass response of your home theater room.
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More Information at Practical Home Theater Guide
Home theater speaker placement is just one of the many issues one should look at when designing a home theater, but there is a lot more...
Time Delay
Settings in Surround Systems
Surround Sound
Formats
THX Home
Cinema - An Overview
TV Viewing Distance
Home Theater room design basics (1):
Room acoustics and lighting
A
Guide to Home Theater Seats
Home
Theater Equipment Placement
Selecting and Installing Speaker Wire
To access the full range of home theater design guides appearing on our site, click here.
Additional Guides:
Home theater screens – the secret behind great image
projections
Getting the best out of your HT system: Set-Up DVDs
Poster Light Boxes:
Books & Magazines
Home Theater
Note: A digital downloadable version
of HOME Theater is also available from Zinio, Inc.
Practical Home
Theater (2006 Ed.)
Great Escapes
Home Theater Design e-Book A complete home theater design guide on how to research, design and build your own Home Theater. by Duncan McClelland
Featured Home Theater Speaker Systems
Polk Surround Soundbar
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