Speaker placement halp.

[uno99]

Hey yall. Got a effed up room and I'm planning a HT upgrade.

Currently have Kanto speakers, no receiver. Polk PSW111 sub.
Looking to go to a 5.1 or whatever you nerds suggest. Would like to stay under $2000. Was originally thinking about wireless surrounds but I hear there's no good solution that's affordable. So my issue now is where to I put them and how to hide wires.

North wall probably a good spot in the corner beside the wallflag, but then it would be not the same angle as the opposite side...

South wall

West wall. Should I just put the speaker where the big picture is? it would be in front of the listener which is not ideal?

East wall. Would rather not have to hide cables to cross the hallway but it would be better positioning right?

 

Appreciate everyone's input tyvm!

[ender23]

5.1 seems doable in that space. Though I’d strongly recommend getting an AVR that supports speaker calibration with a microphone

 

Can you get rid of the bookcase to the left of the couch? You could do that, bump the couch to the left and then use speaker stands on either side.

 

Looks like you could run the speaker wire to the rears on the floor under the rug potentially.

[uno99]

7 minutes ago, ender23 said:

5.1 seems doable in that space. Though I’d strongly recommend getting an AVR that supports speaker calibration with a microphone

 

Can you get rid of the bookcase to the left of the couch? You could do that, bump the couch to the left and then use speaker stands on either side.

 

Looks like you could run the speaker wire to the rears on the floor under the rug potentially.

Hey thanks for the advice!! Sort of have a receiver picked out Sony STR-AN1000, leaving around 1k for speakers. It uses "Digital Cinema Auto Calibration IX" which I'm not sure uses a microphone or not... If it doesn't I can keep weighing my options.

 

For the placement, you might be on to a good idea there. Would those rears be a bit too close though? 
Another nice thing with the Sony receiver is it's sonos compatible. I wonder their surrounds would be good enough to put on in the corner next to the wall flag and one above the black cabinet on the east wall.... There is AC power available both locations.

 

 

 

[ender23]

Sure thing.

 

I can’t speak to the Sony unit, but I know many of the Yamaha receivers do come with a mic in the box— you should be able to look up the user guide online but the “Digital Cinema Auto Calibration IX” does sound similar.

 

My rears are placed similarly to what I suggested and it’s fine, again on the Yamaha Receiver I have the calibration is adjusting the distance from each speaker to the optimal listening position (eg where you have the microphone). So if they are close to that seat the system can still make them sound balanced. I’ve had no issues. 

 

The Sonos rears is interesting too. Maybe someone else can chime in on if there would be problems with audio sync when using a combination of wired and wireless speakers (fronts and rears).

[Omon_Ra]

3 hours ago, ender23 said:

The Sonos rears is interesting too. Maybe someone else can chime in on if there would be problems with audio sync when using a combination of wired and wireless speakers (fronts and rears).

 

It's not bad. I've setup wireless speakers with Sonos (though not through a Sony receiver) and Yamaha's MusicCast and they work fine. TBH, having any speakers to the side/behind your main sitting location is better than nothing or 'virtual surround' solutions. Since any audio from surrounds/rears is typically more for 'ambient/atmospheric' sound, it's what I'd consider acceptable. The issue is 99% of people see 'wireless' and then are shocked when they need to be plugged into power , but OP has that already sorted.

 

OP: do you rent or own the house? I'm guessing that part of the ceiling that is lower is boxing for HVAC? Is it possible to fish wire through that or would you even want to? If you're going to go with wireless surrounds, IMO the easiest way is put one on this dresser with all the pictures (assuming there's an outlet behind it):

 

And one on the computer desk:

 

But if you COULD (it might not even be feasible) I'd put them here:

 

 

If there is attic space above this room, you could possibly run wire through the attic to those locations.

[uno99]

Thanks for your input Omon!
I think the wireless speaker idea is sort of dead to me really. It just replaces one cable with another and I think it would be easy enough to run the speakerwire under the rug as ender suggested, but it's nice to have the option and your placement ideas seem plausible. 

Probably what I will do is start out with a 3.1 system and then add the rears at a later date. Lacking the center channel is really terrible for speech in movies and it's driving us crazy.
placing the center channel has it's own challenges with my set up but I think I can rig up a solution.... Maybe it's time to mount the TV to the wall.

[Omon_Ra]

19 hours ago, uno99 said:

Thanks for your input Omon!
I think the wireless speaker idea is sort of dead to me really. It just replaces one cable with another and I think it would be easy enough to run the speakerwire under the rug as ender suggested, but it's nice to have the option and your placement ideas seem plausible. 

Probably what I will do is start out with a 3.1 system and then add the rears at a later date. Lacking the center channel is really terrible for speech in movies and it's driving us crazy.
placing the center channel has it's own challenges with my set up but I think I can rig up a solution.... Maybe it's time to mount the TV to the wall.

I would definitely wall mount the TV. Pick out a center channel, and mount the TV just above the height of your center channel speaker that will sit on the cubby shelf/TV stand. Get something kind of chonky, like this. Not necessarily Klipsch, but at least two 4 or 5 inch mid-range drivers and a tweeter. You could even do more drivers if you really wanted to, though price will go up naturally. The wider ones do look a bit better aesthetically with the width of large format TV's. But if it's possible to hide the wires, I'd move the front right/left to roughly these locations:

 

 

If you can go further apart, ie: the left all the way on the bottom liquor shelf, the right to the far right of the mantle, that would (edit) improve the sound stage more. But you also don't necessarily want the right speaker 'in front' (closer to your sitting position) than the left speaker. Though you could correct that with manual adjustments or built-in room analysis if your receiver has it.

 

For going to 5.1, find some medium size (~20-24" tall) floor standing speakers or bigger bookshelf speakers and replace your current fronts with those. If you go with floor standing speakers, you could leave them where your existing speakers are. Then relocate your existing speakers as the rears.

[sm1th5]

Do not use speakers under 5.25 inch woofers.

Fronts at 30 degrees from center. Some people might say an equilateral triangle. However 30 degrees is actually wider than that. So this means whatever your distance is from the screen to listening position. The speakers need to be spread apart wider than this distance.

 

I would highly recommend moving that couch closer as this just looks r/tvtoofar and the image is really tiny. What size screen is that I can advise on viewing distances to try out based on viewing angles. I suggest a range from 30 for basic tv useage. And uo to 60 degrees for immersive movie watching.

 

Any 5.1 or 7.1 surrounds cannot be in front in any manner and ideally be behind a bit from the seating position. 

 

I'll share the Dolby guidelines to help you decide.

https://www.dolby.com/siteassets/technologies/dolby-atmos/atmos-installation-guidelines-121318_r3.1.pdf

 

https://dolby.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/700000009YuG/a/4u000000lFHc/UYA0IZeD632SUXVmEPmUcr.wIuhpHp6Q7bVSl4LrbUQ