Getting the most from your home theatre speakers

You can make or break your AV system by incorrect placement or setup of your home theatre speakers. Here's a few basic hints and tips to help.

There's no substitute for speaker placement. Treat your AV system like a hi-fi system, and try and get the best sound you can from the set up before allowing any digital EQ to do its thing. The better the whole setup sounds before EQ, the less the EQ will have to alter, and you'll be less likely to end up with strange anomalies or something that doesn't sound quite right.

Do run the amplifier's auto set-up, even if you're not going to use its EQ aspect. This will initially set distances and levels. You can tweak to your liking from there, or even better, you can get it professionally calibrated.

Double check crossover points and levels etc that the auto setup has calculated, in case anything odd has cropped up.

They're not always 100% reliable, although they tend to be much better now than early examples.

Measure the speaker's distances and double check them with the amplifier's findings. Adjust accordingly, as they're not always 100% correct or ideal. But please do check with the manufacturer's recommendations, as some don't recommend changing calculated distances, even if they do appear wrong.

The majority of centre speakers, even if they're supposed to be 'matching', should be set to small. Any centre that's not exactly the same as the left and right front speakers, or isn't at least comparable in size and capability, should be set to small.

Having said that, ALL speakers should really be set to small regardless of their size, and a suitable crossover point chosen based on the speaker's capabilities.

Try not to place surround speakers too near to you. Try and place them slightly up above head height firing into the room, not pointing directly at the listening position. Positioning them higher than head height also tends to give your soundfield a better sense of height if only using a 5.1 based system. Also, placed slightly forward or slightly behind the listening position when more than one person is sitting on the ideally placed sofa insures that both get to hear direct sound from both speakers.

Try not to place surround speakers squarely into corners, as high frequencies will reflect off the side wall the speaker is next to. This can cause issues with digital room correction systems.

In this instance, try and point them inwards into the room, either at 45 degrees or towards the centre of the room to reduce HF reflections.

"Tripole" speakers fire sound in three directions - originally designed to emulate multiple side speakers in cinemas - and are designed to be located on side walls. They shouldn't be placed near rear walls or in corners, and certainly not on bookshelves or in bookcases, as the speaker cannot perform as it should, and will be heavily compromised and draw attention to itself - something the speaker was originally designed to avoid!

For small speaker systems, setting the crossover frequency higher will allow them to be played louder. This does require a more capable subwoofer though, one that can perform well above the THX recommended 80Hz point - something not all subwoofers can do.

In speaker systems where all the speakers are different sizes, setting all crossover points to a single frequency (80Hz for example, but usually the point where the smallest speaker in the system can hit) will force all speakers to concentrate on and reproduce the same frequency range, narrowing their tonal differences and giving a more believable and consistent soundstage.

The best place for your subwoofer/subwoofers is unlikely to be where you'd like to place them. If there's limited choice for placement, then that decision is made for you, but do research and test for the best placement in order to produce the best and smoothest response at the listening position/s.

Placing a slab or a heavy object on top of your subwoofer cuts down on cabinet movement when the sub is doing it's stuff, helping the sub sit much firmer. It's driver can work far more efficiently and accurately if there's no cabinet movement. This will help (single driver) front firing and downward firing subs - in theory, no benefit should be gained with subwoofers using dual opposing drive units, as these tend to cancel out movement and vibrations. When adding weight, take into account the effect that may have on any absorbing feet or platforms being used.

In a room with a suspended floor, placing a slab underneath your subwoofer can help tighten up bass.

Isolation feet and platforms are now available to help subwoofers perform better, and reduce the amount of vibration they transfer to your floor, and therefore through walls and into other rooms.

Feel free to contact us for any advice needed (some services may be chargeable).

davidf

info@thelittleaudiostore.co.uk

david@thelittleaudio.company