Moving and requesting opinions and help

[sikoniko]

I will be moving next month and have some questions from you guys.

Issue #1:Room Layout

The living room is 12x12 if you just count the space designated for living room; however, if the room is layed out long ways, there are no barriers from the dinning room which allows the room to be 12w x 22L.

What I was thinking is using the L of the room to my advantage and butting the back of the couch up against the invisible divider between living room and dinning room.

While this seems to make sense, the issue with this is that the wall that the TV and soundstage would anchor has a large sliding glass door. I have no plans in using this door, as it faces a pretty busy road and I want to block the noise anyways. What I was thinking was covering the door with a piece of carpet taken from scrap, and then putting a curtain up the length of the wall, then putting the TV and system in front of the curtain. The door is not a primary entrance. The carpet should absorb much of the noise from the street, and it seems like a good idea to me, what do you guys think?

Issue #2: Surround Speakers - Mounting

I purchased the B&W SCM1's for the purpose of mounting on the walls and this room will accomodate that well. Generally, what I have done in the past is put my surround speakers at an angle behind the prime listening spot and toe them in. I know dolby says to put them anywhere from about 90 degrees to 113 degrees. If that is the case, at what height would be the most beneficial? I was thinking about 3 1/2ft from the floor to the bottom of the speaker, which would put it over the height of the couch and about ear level. This would put the tweeters of the SCM1's about 1 ft above those of my 804's. For those of you who have wall mounted speakers, what have you found to work best? I have noticed w/ the SCM1's that there seems to be definate areas where they sound dead and that placement could make a significant difference.

Issue #3: Carpet or Tile/Hardwood?

The place I am moving to currently has tile in the dining room but nothing in the living room. The owner is friends w/ my fiances family and is giving up the option, w/in a budget to choose our flooring. If we decided to continue the filing from the dining room in through the living room, there would be an area rug around the seating, but nothing around the front soundstage. I plan on buying sound anchors for my 804's. Which would be better and what are the differences acoustically between the different types of floor?

Thanks for your opinions. I appreciate everyones input.

[Andrew Pratt]

Generally speaking most surround speakers should be mounted so that they're 1 to 1.5 feet above your ears when seated.

A solid tile in front of the speakers is going to be a bit of a problem as it will act as a reflection point and muddy up the sound stage. If you could put another carpet or rug there where the sound bounces before hitting your ears it would help a great deal. The easiest way to find the reflection points is to simple have someone sit on the couch and then slide a mirror around the floor until you can see the speakers (tweeters). If you like do this on the side walls as well to find those refection points also.

[David Meek]

Dan, sorry for the delay in responding. Somehow I just missed this thread (some moderator, huh?) :

On the sliding door issue, by carpeting and curtaining you're killing several nasty birds with one stone:

1) You are eliminating a large light source that would have otherwise caused much grief in properly calibrating and consequently viewing your screen.

2) By putting the carpet up and then curtaining, you are setting up an acoustically absorptive wall which is highly preferrable to the extremely reflective glass surface, along with the fact you already mentioned in that you are reducing external noise.

3) By effectively making this just another wall you give yourself more options with regard to layout and that gives you more options toward taming room interactions.

Speaking of room interactions, if it were my call, I'd go with a carpet floor, again mainly for reduction of sonic reflections, and light reflections also. It can be irritating to be watching a movie at night and then notice just how much light/motion is being reflected off the floor or other shiny objects.