Placement of Your Home Theater Speakers
Speaker Placement
Proper speaker placement is essential for optimum performance of your home theater sys- tem. The following are basic guidelines for speaker placement based upon idealized condi- tions. You may need to make placement compromises to allow for room shape, furniture placement, windows, doorways, and other considerations. The
Front Speakers
Try to locate your front left and right speakers an equal distance to the right and left of your monitor or projection screen. Ideally, your listening position should be at one point of an equilateral triangle with the left and right speakers at the other two points. To achieve what is commonly called the “sweet spot,” your left and right speakers might sound better facing forward or slightly
Center Speaker
The center speaker’s main function is to reproduce most of the cinema dialog and blend the sonic image from your speakers with the visual image on the screen. It is best to place your center speaker directly above or below the monitor, as close to the same height as the left and right speakers as possible. Be sure your center speaker is shielded to prevent discoloration of the picture tube. If you have a projection screen that is perforated to allow sound to pass through, you should locate the center speaker behind the screen at the same vertical plane as the left and right speakers. The distance from your preferred listening position to the center channel speaker should be the same as the distance from your listening position to the left and right speakers. You can accomplish this by measuring the distance to a left or right speaker and locating the center speaker as far behind the plane of the left and right speakers as required to be the same distance. If you can’t move your center channel behind the plane of the left and right speakers, you can compensate for its shorter distance electronically during setup. The purpose of physical placement or electronic adjustment assures the sound from all three front speakers will arrive at your listening position at precisely the same time.
Conventional Surround Speakers
Surround speaker placement is a little more flexible than the front speakers are. Although
5.1channel processing offers discrete surround channel information, movie soundtracks use the surround channels more for creating an ambient effect than for defining precise sonic images. To avoid drawing your attention from the action on the screen and enhance the blend of sound and picture, you should not be able to localize the sound coming from your surround speakers except momentarily during certain special effects. Therefore, you should try to avoid pointing the surround speakers directly toward your listening position and place them behind you and above your ear level when you are seated. You should be prepared to experiment with surround speaker placement for optimum results.
Dipole Surround Speakers
If you are using front and rear firing dipole surround speakers, locate them above and to the sides of your listening area. This deliberately places you in the “null” of the dipole speakers to minimize localization of the surround speakers. Refer to the owner’s manual of your speakers for further information in locating dipole speakers.
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