Speaker / wire placement in new construction

Axiom Home Page

Now that I have my receiver squared away, I have a question regarding the side and rear speaker - all QS8's - placement in new construction.

Assuming room dimensions of 25'x12'x9' I plan on putting in a 65" plasma. I have seen recommended seat distances ranging 7.75 feet to over 14 feet. What is your opinion on seating.

The reason why I bring seating distance up is that I am under the impression that based seating is where you place your side speakers. So if I hypothetically sit 9 feet back from the plasma, I would instruct the contractor to run the wire out though the wall 9 to 12 feet back from the front.

Where would you tell the contractor to run the wires through the walls? What dimensions / numbers would you use?

OR should I take the easy way out and order the QS8 speaker stands instead of going with a wall mount?

Next question? How many of you would mount your center channel speaker ABOVE a 65" (slightly more involved) vs. placing it on a stand?

Should I go with TWO center channel speakers? 150's?
Thanks

Quote:

(1) Where would you tell the contractor to run the wires through the walls? What dimensions / numbers would you use?

(2) OR should I take the easy way out and order the QS8 speaker stands instead of going with a wall mount?

(3) Next question? How many of you would mount your center channel speaker ABOVE a 65" (slightly more involved) vs. placing it on a stand?

(4) Should I go with TWO center channel speakers? 150's

1) This depends on where you want the speakers to be placed which depends on what sounds best to you. Given that you are doing an install of the room before the speaker set, you need to guesstimate locations. Typically side surrounds are placed slightly in front or slightly to the rear and a bit above the main seating position. Personally i find the side surrounds slightly to the rear sounds best.

2) Go with the wall mount. Cleaner installation look and really, you can always move the position of the speaker on the wall later on if some excess cable length is left inside the wall.

3)The answer to this will vary. It may depend more on how high you mount the tv. The higher the tv mount the more likely the centre channel should go underneath.

4)The answer to this depends on the total height of your tv/screen and distance to the speakers. A tall tv with a close sitting distance means you will localize the centre channel location alot more easily as being above or below your screen. The further back you sit, the less you will notice/distinguish any of the front speakers regardless as to whether the centre is above or below the screen.

The THX recommended viewing distance for a 65" display is 7.2 feet.

I would recommend around 8 feet I think. I am currently at about 10 feet from a 92" screen and it is not too big at all.

Go here for the distance calculator: Distance Calculator

Now for your wireing, once you know where you will be seated, look at this chart:

Use these angles to determine where your QS8s should go. I have mine about 1-2 feet behind my listening position, the bottom of the QS8 is around 6.5' off the ground on the side wall ( I think).

As for your centre channel, I would opt to do what I am doing to and have 2 M2s, one above and one below your display, It sounds like dialog is coming from the centre of the screen, it sounds amazing.

Those are M3s, I have since switched them out for M2s, and it sounds better to me, YYMV.

WOW! and thanks, that was exactly the info that I was looking for. BTW, Why did you go with the M2's instead of one of Axioms center's?
Are all 4 of your QS8's at the same height?

If I were to sit 8' from the screen, should I place my back speakers somewhat higher in light that they will be about 17' behind me? Seems like a long throw for them.

I perfer a vertically orientated speaker to a horizontal. It has wider dispersion. And Axioms M2 speaker has had rave reviews.

As for the QS8s, I only have a 5.1 system, Although i pre-wired for a 7.1. 5.1 is enough for me now tho.

Wow 17 feet?

If you can, I would suspend the rear surround speakers from the ceiling about 5 feet behind your listening position (using Axioms Full Metal Ceiling Bracket).

If that is not an option, I would recommend getting some M22s for your rear surrounds, not QS8s, as the M22s will be more efficient as a surround from that far back. However, the M2s may work as well, I hope Alan comes in here and comments on surrounds from 17 feet away!!! My guess is that he will recommend M22s for your rear surrounds, and QS8s for your side surrounds.

-Hutz

Well lets see, the room is 25' with a plasma mounted on the front wall. If I sit back from the screen 8'.........

The first set of blueprints had the room dimensions at 20'x12'x8' however there would be a set of French doors about in the middle of the 20' wall and a sliding door wall on the opposite side of the 20' wall. This would have made placing my side speakers very difficult. Due to this, I had the plans redrawn to give me an additional 5' of length (25x12x8+). I was able to have the doorwall moved closer to 12' wall, but the location of the French doors is fixed

I have my sides mounted at about 110 degrees and 13' away and the rears about 11' behind me as you can see below.

I find that to get a good surround effect going for the majority of material, I need to set my surrounds about 4dB higher than the calibrated setting. This puts me at about 6dB out of a maximum 12dB setting on my Denon. Some material like The Eagles: Farewell Tour or U-571, sounds incredible on the calibrated setting. If you put them 17' back, make sure your receiver can support that distance in its settings.

Like others have said, the QS8s disappear into the room (as they should since none of the drivers point right at your ears).

A 106" projection would REALLY solve my problems. I would have an increased viewing distance and the distance to the rears would be cut down to about 13'.

The major reservation that I have against front projection is the bulb life being so short (3000 hours?) and its relative cost. The display would be pulling double duty not only showing movies but TV programing as well. Thus the decision to go with as big a plasma /lcd display that is reasonable. Unfortunately I am not in the $ position to swing 69k for the 103" plasma.

Nice ping pong table by the way

Or you could go with a 130+" 2.35 ratio screen.

Quote:

Or you could go with a 130+" 2.35 ratio screen.

Show off!

Randy? Never.

I'd rather see pictures then have to read an equipment laundry list every other post.

Good point.

Were you wearing a red t-shirt and is that your gut in the picture?

I would love to put in a large screen front projection. However, with the amount of use that it will get watching TV, I am concerned about bulb life / cost. Dollar for dollar, front projection is the way to go. You get more screen size (all things being relatively equal).

I can tell you that watching TV, especially the local HD signals on my 720p projector is pretty jaw dropping. If warranty problems happen, I would rather send in a 10lb unit than some huge tv. Also, 3000+ hours is a lot, that is like 3 hours a day for 3 years.

Heck there are many days the tv only gets turned on for the news at night in our family. That is not really an issue.

I can afford 2-300$ every 3 years for a bulb for the experience of my own theater.

Is 3000 hours the average bulb life for FP's? How often have you had to change the bulb? How difficult is it?

Now you have me re-thinking my opinion of front proj.

Depends on the projector, all mfg's have a different spec. I know some people that have 3-4000 hrs on their bulbs. I only have about 600 hrs on my SanyoZ2 and I've had it for 3 years. It mostly is used for movie night, concert videos, and HD sporting events.

What do you do for ambient light control? How big of a factor is it (ambient light)? I will have a doorwall leading to the outside on the exterior wall and a glass door across from it on the interior wall.