need a little help with dedicated HT room.

[RoyY51]

My son has finally moved out of the house (que the marching band!), and my wonderful wife has given me permission to turn his bedroom into a dedicated home theater. This is the culmination of many years of begging, wheedling, whining, hinting, flattering and other decidedly unmanly acts, but I anticipate that the result will be well worth it. I pretty much have all the basics covered, but there is one nagging question that still needs to be resolved.

The room is 15' long, 9' wide at one end, and 12' wide at the other (due to a 3' deep closet that juts into the room). In addition, the ceiling goes from 8' high on the closet side, down to 7' on the opposing wall.

My question is this: where should the widescreen TV and main speakers go? On the 12' end or the 9' end? My concern is for the overall sound quality. Once I get everything set up, thats where it's going to remain. I doubt if I'll have the energy to do it again.

So, I appeal to all you learned acousticians out there; any insights would be very much appreciated. Am I walking into an acoustic nightmare, or is this truly doable?

Thanks in advance!

[RoyY51]

Hey, guys! Surely, SOMEONE must have an opinion about this! I promise I won't hold it against you if your suggestion causes my home theater to suck. Then again...no, I promised...

[L.J.]

Hey, guys! Surely, SOMEONE must have an opinion about this! I promise I won't hold it against you if your suggestion causes my home theater to suck. Then again...no, I promised...

Someone correct please if I'm wrong, but I say which ever side that's gonna let you properly setup your speakers. Give yourself some flexibility to move your sub and fronts around. I think you'll be fine as long as everything is setup properly. Stay within the guidlines of this attached diagram and go from there. It might help if you make a diagram on paper to get a visual of placement with whatever else your gonna place in the room.

[RoyY51]

Thanks for the prompt response, L.J.

I appreciate the diagram that you included in your message, but my main concern is with the issue of sound transmission from a 9' wide area into a 12' wide area (or vice-versa). I wish that I had the knowledge to include a diagram like the one that you posted, but my computer skills are rudimentary at best. If I could, I think that my predicament would be more easily understood. Let me try something.



--------------------------
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l
l l
-------- l
l l
l l
l l
l l
----------------------------------

How's that? Does it help at all?

[RoyY51]

Well, THAT was a disaster. Sorry!

[paul_pci]

Many things can contribute to the acoustics being a disaster. If it were me, I'd set up the TV, etc. at the 12' end and the seating area at the 9' end. The tapering of the ceiling shouldn't have any adverse effects. My ceiling tapers in a similar way and I don't have any problems from that specifically. Now, you'll want to stock the side walls with furnishings that will diffuse the sound, that is break it up to avoid direct sidewall reflections. So, something like bookshelves and the like are good at that. You should also try and leave two feet behind the listening position for more optimal placement of rear speakers, and if your tv isn't too large, then you could sit closer to the tv and make enough room for a nice 7.1 system.

[Mr Peabody]

You want to put your TV and sound system on the smaller end of the room firing into the larger. The shape of the room will give you a horn effect. I read an article about this guy who had his sound room custom built and he actually designed his room in such a shape. You are lucky enough to already have it. I think he made his ceiling lower over the sound system end and went up as the room approached the listening spot.

Your room is just varied slightly but think about how a megaphone works. To best use your system which way would you fire.

[caniac]

I'd put the screen and front on the 9' side as well. Mainly because the closet jutting out might cause problems for placement of your surround back speakers (if you have them).

[RoyY51]

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to respond. However, the point has become moot. Last night, my wife walked into my future sanctum sanctorum and announced that the furniture would go "there". "There" was the 12' wall. That means that my TV, main speakers and subwoofer will go on the 9' wall. Since this was the consensus opinion of the learned panel, I feel that this decision must be preordained. Then again, we have a saying in my family: "when Mom's happy, we're all happy!"

Thanks, again!

[Eric Z]

I don't think you'll notice much of a difference either way. I'm sure if you set it up both ways, you'll notice a difference, but it will just be that, a difference- not better or not worse, just different.

I agree with LJ and have some flexibility with the front speakers- especially the subwoofer.

Enjoy!
Eric