Putting 803d's in Cabinets

[georgev]

I am faced with a dilemma for my new Cinema room.
Do I place my 803d's and HTM2d inside cabinetry? They will be standing on the floors(in the case of the HTM2d on a stand on the floor), but surrounded by cabinetry. If so how much clearance from the side walls do I need, and from the back walls.
The only other option is to place them in front of my cabinets, which then brings them a wee too much into the room.

First prize would be to place them in the cabinet, but without compromising the sound.
Suggestions please.

My subs are going to be housed in the cabinets(Paradigm Servo 15's x 2.)

George.

[draganm]

First prize would be to place them in the cabinet, but without compromising the sound.Suggestions please.
My subs are going to be housed in the cabinets(Paradigm Servo 15's x 2.)

George.

it's not possible to put a speaker inside a cabinet without compromising the sound. It's like putting a musician inside a closet and telling him to play music and sound as good as a concert hall. speakers need room to breathe, get rid of the cabinets.

[gd]

Ditch the cabinet... seriously.

Those speakers are designed to perform in an open room, not within another box (they're already in a box)... placement varies depending on the room, but you need to consider approx 1-2' away from the walls.

And a sub will perform even worse if placed within another box.

There are makes of speakers that are said to be OK when placed in a cabinet... the ones that come to mind are Aerial and Meridian... and there should be a few others.

I'm sure it's not what you want to hear, but a lot of people get stuck making the choice between room decor and speaker performance – it's difficult to achieve both without considerable effort and/or expense... hopefully, someone else might chime in with a compromise solution for you.

IMO, an HT cabinet is the biggest possible obstruction to good audio performance... getting rid of that clunky wood box is always my first suggestion.

Easy for me to say – no wife, no WAF.

[aud19]

Sorry, same answer. Buying such great speakers and sticking them in cabinets is just a waste. I vote for further in to the room or modifying the cabinetry if possible/desired.

[Kal Rubinson]

Trade them in for CT800 or ones from the custom installation series if you MUST put speakers in a cabinet.

Kal

[jim777]

803D's in cabinets won't sound any better than a 1k$ pair of speakers...

[georgev]

I think the overwhelming response has helped me decide to go for the latter option of placing the further out into the room, and not in the cabinets.
Believe me I would have loved the Custom series from B&W but they are way too expensive for me at least.
What do I do with the servo15's?Would the best option perhaps be for me not to have cabinetry at all but rather perhaps a wood panelled wall on which the screen is hung, and then have the speakers in front of that?
George.

[ShadowZA]

George, you could carpet the wall (don't forget to put some sort of edging around the carpet to prevent sagging)and then wall mount your screen using one of those universal brackets. I've done something similar.

I would go with with losing all cabinets. In fact, I'm sure that if I changed my cabinet setup (and lost it) the sound stage would be much improved. An idea could be to design some in-wall space - say in a side wall - to house hardware - with conduit piping to feed cables to speakers.

Good luck

[georgev]

I actually have no hardware to house as all that is housed in a separate room next door(on a rack with cooling) with conduiting for speaker cables that runs in the walls and the slab, so its only the speakers, subs and the screen that need to be on the front wall.
The cabinet is purely an aesthetic thought.

[Kal Rubinson]

I think the overwhelming response has helped me decide to go for the latter option of placing the further out into the room, and not in the cabinets.

Good.

What do I do with the servo15's?

Put them where they sound best.

Would the best option perhaps be for me not to have cabinetry at all but rather perhaps a wood panelled wall on which the screen is hung, and then have the speakers in front of that?

Yes but you also should consider incorporating acoustic treatment into your plans.

Kal

[gd]

Would the best option perhaps be for me not to have cabinetry at all but rather perhaps a wood panelled wall on which the screen is hung, and then have the speakers in front of that?...The cabinet is purely an aesthetic thought.

Excellent... lose that cabinet while you can!

Wood panelling may not be the best choice for that wall, but at least work with a flat backdrop.

What do I do with the servo15's?

Kal's response – including the smiley – is the exactly correct one... but a good place to start with subs is a room corner... you seem to have two subs, so some trial and error (and lifting and grunting) will be in order (it's not unheard of to stack two subs or place them side-by-side, as well as more typical positioning: both front, diagonal corners etc)... in any event, start thinking of subs as "end tables" if all this is starting to require a furnishing-oriented 'explanation'.

But if you can just lose that HT cabinet, my work here is finished...

[georgev]

[QUOTE=gd]Wood panelling may not be the best choice for that wall, but at least work with a flat backdrop.


What would be the best material to use on that wall.
The floors are going to be carpeted. I had harboured a desire to wood panel the side walls up to about 1.3m and then paint/carpet above that. Bad idea? The wood panelling?

[georgev]

How do you do the quote thing the way it appears in a darker area?

[Alaric]

george , click on "post reply" , when the new screen opens click on the icon directly under the arrow at the right end of the box that says "color". A box opens at the top left corner of your monitor-do the "copy and paste" thing with the quote you want to use. Click OK and finish your post as usual. 8)

[georgev]

Ta. Will try that.

[draganm]

[QUOTE=georgev]

Wood panelling may not be the best choice for that wall, but at least work with a flat backdrop.


What would be the best material to use on that wall.
The floors are going to be carpeted. I had harboured a desire to wood panel the side walls up to about 1.3m and then paint/carpet above that. Bad idea? The wood panelling?

I think it's great people are starting to thing about room acoustics nowadays but be aware that it's possible to deaden a room too much. This is really easy to do in a small room and is almost as bad as no accoustic correction. I would suggest that a wood paneled wall is fine if you put a pair of good sized (2 feet x 4 feet) accoustic panels behind the speaker. I think this would provide much better performance than an entirely carpeted wall IMO. The other really imprtant spot is the first reflection point, a pair of wood diffusers here will do wonders for your soundstage and frequency response. It all depnds on the width, length, and height of your room . This link will help explain some of it.
http://www.primacoustic.com/razorblade.htm
inexpensive kit for building your own

http://www.decware.com/p1324.htm

and if your really bored this link will explain everythign there is to nkow about room acosutics

http://www.realtraps.com/info.htm

[gd]

[QUOTE=georgev]

What would be the best material to use on that wall.

A little beyond my expertise, but regular drywall would be my choice, as finished wood has more reflectivity which may (or may not) be undesirable... though that has a lot to do with the entire room synergy, as suggested above.

I see you have some specific decor ideas in mind, and while this is still formative, by all means check out draganm's links and do other research to find where the middle ground is.

As you read, you'll probably find that the very best acoustic environments aren't visually attractive... but again, a middle ground should be very doable... eg. carpeting is a major step forward.

http://tinyurl.com/yu5ljo

http://home.comcast.net/~thomasw-2/SubwooferSetupandEQpage9.html

http://www.sbrjournal.net/journalsite/archives/acoustics/Acoustics.htm

http://www.realtraps.com/

http://www.fastaudio.com/INT/index.html

[Chris D]

Respectfully, IMHO it is very difficult (although not impossible) for people to OVERLY "deaden" their rooms with too much absorptive material. Virtually all rooms are naturally too reflective, and people need to work on absorption. I have yet to walk into any theater that has too much absorption. The only room I've ever been in that was that way was a jet engine test chamber. (something that can use a lot of absorption, of course) And even that wasn't completely anechoic, which of course is only attainable in theory.