A little help with my theater setup

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Attached is a diagram of the living room in my new house that I am closing on tomorrow. Now, the furniture in it is not set in stone and can be moved.

Please let me know what you guys think would be the best setup for the 7.1 surround home theater please......



TV is a 57" Widescreen Hitachi
Surround sound is Yamaha HTR-5790 7.1 surround

Please move things around as you see fit. I greatly appreciate all your help in advance.


Ryan

There are quite a few things in your setup I definately would change. Starting from the front of the room, and working my way back.

Your front speakers and television setup appears to be off center. This will make the imaging from your front speakers appear onesided, as you will have reflections from the side walls arriving at two different times. I would center that out, so both main speakers see the same distance to their respective walls. The will ensure that the front soundstage is balanced.

Your side speakers are placed in front of your listening position. That means all surround effects will be coming from in front of you, instead of the rear. I would move the couch forward so I could properly place these speakers 2-3ft behind, and to the sides of the listening position. This would place effects designed for the surround speakers in their proper place, behind the listening position.

Your center rear speakers are on the backwall, but that is too far from the L/R surrounds for a proper blend. I would move them forward that four extra feet to make them closer to the L/R surrounds. The center rear should be an extension of the surround, not an event all by themselves.

I think your setup is too scattered to blend well. I would tighten up the speakers placement considerably and not use so much of that room.

This is all I have time to cover, but as I think of other things I'll post more.

[ryjam282]

Thanks for the reply Terrence. The reason for the TV being to the right side like that is because the font door is right next to it. Should I just move that one front speaker to the other side of the door? Will it make a difference if one front side speaker is farther away from the center then the other or should I move the center speaker to the absolute center of the room and not worry about the TV? Give me some input on that.

As far as the side speakers, they should be just slightly behind the listening position? I can move them back, that isn't a problem at all.

Now, the rear speakers, how far are the recommended to be away from the listening position? I know they should be around 2-4 apart from each other as well right? The reason I have them on that back wall, is because it is a sliding glass door and I was going to mount them right above it.

Thanks a lot for the advice, I appreciate it. If you could continue on, I would be very greatful.

Also, the room has vaulted ceilings and is all tile. Will that be a problem with the bass or sound quality at all?

[jeskibuff]

The first thing you ought to do is redraw your picture. The dimensions that you give are not proportional to your diagram. The 4' section should be 1/6 of the 24' section, yet it appears to be almost a half of it. The closer you draw it to scale, the better advice you can get from people, although there are some glaring problems with the setup, as have already been mentioned.

[kfalls]

There are quite a few things in your setup I definately would change. Starting from the front of the room, and working my way back.

Your front speakers and television setup appears to be off center. This will make the imaging from your front speakers appear onesided, as you will have reflections from the side walls arriving at two different times. I would center that out, so both main speakers see the same distance to their respective walls. The will ensure that the front soundstage is balanced.

Your side speakers are placed in front of your listening position. That means all surround effects will be coming from in front of you, instead of the rear. I would move the couch forward so I could properly place these speakers 2-3ft behind, and to the sides of the listening position. This would place effects designed for the surround speakers in their proper place, behind the listening position.

Your center rear speakers are on the backwall, but that is too far from the L/R surrounds for a proper blend. I would move them forward that four extra feet to make them closer to the L/R surrounds. The center rear should be an extension of the surround, not an event all by themselves.

I think your setup is too scattered to blend well. I would tighten up the speakers placement considerably and not use so much of that room.

This is all I have time to cover, but as I think of other things I'll post more.

I agree with Terrence and if you can make the stated changes, the system would be close to ideal. But this is the real world with rooms you also have to lived in. As far as the rears are concerned, if you have enough power (I think the Yamaha has 110W) to drive them adequately and your receiver has adequate distance/delay adjustment I think you'll be OK. Many people go cheap on the rears, but with DD/DVD-Audio/SACD providing full range surround channels, cheap speakers will sound just that---CHEAP and ruin the experience. Definitely move the couch and Lazyboy forward and adjust the front R/C/L according to couch placement. As long as center is equidistant from R/L I think you'll be OK here as well. If you can center everything without confrontation from the wife, do it now before she settles on this configuration. Sides need to be just to the rear and above standing ear-level.

Which Hitachi 57" do you have? I have the 57S715, which looks great, but you give up a lot of cabinet, nothing to place the center speaker on. With a 42lb center, I've temporarily placed it on a stand in front of the TV until I can find an appropriate way to mount above the screen. Anyone else have this problem? I'd be interested in your solutions.