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Thread: HT Setup Tips

  1. #1
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    Lightbulb HT Setup Tips

    Hey Everyone,
    I have a 10 x 11 room. This is where my 5.1 Home Theatre is. For my mains, I have large bookshelf speakers. They are not on stands, however, they are on the floor. To get better sound, I decided to raise the front end off the ground 3/4". I noticed a difference in the listening positon. Heard it way better. Does anyone have any tips or anything that can help me get the best system performance? Thanks in advance

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    M.P.S.E /AES/SMPTE member Sir Terrence the Terrible's Avatar
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    Some bad moves here

    Quote Originally Posted by joel2762
    Hey Everyone,
    I have a 10 x 11 room. This is where my 5.1 Home Theatre is. For my mains, I have large bookshelf speakers. They are not on stands, however, they are on the floor. To get better sound, I decided to raise the front end off the ground 3/4". I noticed a difference in the listening positon. Heard it way better. Does anyone have any tips or anything that can help me get the best system performance? Thanks in advance
    Joel,

    Bookshelf speakers are not designed for floor(or near floor)placement. The best system performance you can do right now is get speaker stands that raise the speakers to ear(or near)level as they were designed for. Even if you raise the front end off the floor by 3/4", the output you hear will still be severly compromised. Get stands man!!!
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  3. #3
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    Ha yea.

    I'd like to, but see those speakers in my display. Those are the ones I have. bit of an awkward shape to get stands for. They're really deep and narrow. They are a large bookshelf speaker. Might look into stands though. Any more tips?

  4. #4
    Oldest join date recoveryone's Avatar
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    Wink stands

    Quote Originally Posted by joel2762
    I'd like to, but see those speakers in my display. Those are the ones I have. bit of an awkward shape to get stands for. They're really deep and narrow. They are a large bookshelf speaker. Might look into stands though. Any more tips?
    Check out Sanus brand stands, they may have what you need, I saw them in a Crutchfield mag
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  5. #5
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    The Paradigm Studio 40s that I use are 22" tall, which is tall for a bookshelf speaker. I match them with a pair of 18" Premier stands, which gets them up to about the right height for my normal listening. The Premiers cost less than $100 a pair and the most essential role of a stand is just to get the tweeters up to about ear level, and keep them from resting flat against the floor.

    Other companies make similar low profile stands. Just make sure that you get a pair that's stable and can hold sufficient weight (it also helps if you get a set with fillable columns, which increases stability by lowering the center of gravity; some would also argue that it helps sound quality because it makes the stand itself more acoustically inert).

  6. #6
    Suspended markw's Avatar
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    Use Blu-Tak (or Fun-Tak*) between the stands and the speaker. This will afford a bit more stable pairing as well as coupling them.

    *Blu-Tak is the more expensive audiophile version of Fun-Tak, which is available in stationary stores and, owing to it's non-audiophile market, is much,much cheaper. Aside from the price and packaging, they are identical.

    Also, it's generally accepted that the tweeters should be about ear level at your listening position. No need to be anal about it but +- 6" or so should be an easy match.

    You may also notice that bass response will suffer when mounting them on stands. That's due to your removing a room boundary from them. Room boundries reinforce bass response, sometimes to an unrealistic level but that's another discussion.

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    Bass...

    I currently don't have a subwoofer so if stands are going to reduce bass then No Dice. I am going to have a look around though and see what I can find, thanks for the help.

  8. #8
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Geez, guys live a little, I built my own speaker stands out of MDF. They cost about 8 bucks each, they're painted black, can easily support my 176 lbs of weight on them, and look as good as anything in the store. It was a bit of work, to cut, sand, and paint them, I'd say the 4 stands I built took about 6 hours of work, but it was kind of fun. I'm no pro woodworker or serious audio modder, but you don't have to shell out 50-100 bucks for a pair of speakers stands. Make your own, custom built to your specs. Cheers!!!

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
    Geez, guys live a little, I built my own speaker stands out of MDF. They cost about 8 bucks each, they're painted black, can easily support my 176 lbs of weight on them, and look as good as anything in the store. It was a bit of work, to cut, sand, and paint them, I'd say the 4 stands I built took about 6 hours of work, but it was kind of fun. I'm no pro woodworker or serious audio modder, but you don't have to shell out 50-100 bucks for a pair of speakers stands. Make your own, custom built to your specs. Cheers!!!
    I guess this is dependent on a) how much the 6 hours of work is worth to some people and b) the level of knowledge they have in a woodshop. Some people just don't have the know-how for this kind of project.

  10. #10
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Good point Keith...if I pay myself my work wages for 6 hours, four stands would have been cheaper. I guess I just love doing anything related to my system so I got a bit of enjoyment out of it. Just an option to people who are hard up for cash this time of year but have some time to spare...It was a Saturday morning project, they're really cool. I attached adjustable wall mounts to them so I can swivel/position the speakers without having to move the whole stand. Took lots of guts though, my Grade 11 shopclass birdhouse...well, let's not talk about that!!!

  11. #11
    ride a jet ski Tarheel_'s Avatar
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    since joining HT in 1999, i value these recommendations the most (and learned them all from this site, thanks everyone! )

    1 speaker placement returns huge results...you just can't imagine the difference until you experiment.
    2. spl meter from Radio Shack...another huge leap in performance
    3. tilting center speaker downward (upward) to listening position. Not a huge leap, but noticable performance increase (if you own a RPTV).
    4. invest in a nice DVD player (don't max the card, but go above the throw away brands)
    5. front speaker toe-in...another experiment that returns a performance increase ( can use laser pen--but i use a flashlight in a dark room)
    6. HT calibration DVD. I own the Sound&Vision disc and for $20 it was a steal.
    7. measure your distance to each speaker and enter into receiver's time delay.
    8. continue to visit this site for great and FREE tips and tweaks!!!

  12. #12
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    Thanks

    Thanks alot everyone for the help! These tips will help me greatly!

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