Implications of Room Setup

[mac7719]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum and although I'd love to discuss the layout of a new home theater room, I have to make a small living room work for now. The room is 14'Wx10'Dx8'H and I am forced to put my main speakers on one of the 14' walls since both short walls have a door and don't have enough space for the speaker-tv-speaker configuration. This forces my sofa (primary listening position) against the back wall. I have read that this is not optimal due to reflections, but I am curious how this issue manifests itself. Is it typically a high frequency problem, low frequency problem, both, or are generalizations a waste of time because each room is unique. I have played with sub crossover and sub location in an attempt to address boominess. My sub seems to have less of a problem at the problem frequencies than my mains. I've also noticed a sort of effervescence at high listening levels. Is this normal in a small room with hard walls? I'd love to hear thoughts and ideas to address these issues.

Thanks,
Mike

[SpOoNmAn]

Well, I'll tell ya about my experiences in a small room. My first "theatre"(if you want to call it that) was in a room that was 10 x 14. I was in the same predicament as you. With the speakers I had back then, I believe they were JBL of some type, the most annoying thing was the mid bass band. Very boomy and distracting. The sub actually wasnt terrible. I had it in the far right corner, on the same front wall the mains were on, with the woofer running parallel with the wall, pointed at the mains. It sounded decent on the back wall as well, directly across from where it was on the front wall.

I had to put up with experimenting for a few years until I got a bigger room. I could never get away with a small room now, as my deftechs are pulled out about 28".

Trial and error my friend, trial and error. Every room will give different results, even if they are the same sizes. Doors and windows in different areas will produce different results, as will placement of rugs or curtains. Just keep moving things around until your ears are happy.




Life is short, Play it LOUD!