Home theater system speaker placement question?

Question

I getting a samsung home entertaiment sound system, and i have a question about the 2 front speakers. How far apart from the tv should you place them? What's the usual distance. The speakers from samsung are those cool tower ones. I have about 6" on both sides to work with. Is that good enough to get the most of the speakers?

Answer 1

The following Webpages may not be of much help when working with a sound system whose placement is as confined or restricted as yours but they may provide a little more insight into the process of properly positioning your home theater system speakers.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=79&article_id=2138&page_number=1&print_page=y

http://www.audiosignal.co.uk/setupguides.html
 

Answer 2

Ok - a few concepts: You dont need 100+ watts of power for a home theater system. For music yes as you often want to knock people over in the next room. But for movies you circle the room with smaller, efficient speakers (not DJ/Concert hall speakers). Too much power just over-whelms the sound field. Look into the Onkyo TX-SR series of receivers. Lots of options for a line that starts at about $400. Go for one of the higher end units about $700. Subwoofer: This is the secret to a powerful and impressive home theater. Some of the best quality and value is from either SVS Woofers or HSU Research. The guys who founded SVS used to help people design and build their own subs. They also praised HSU subs and I liked the honesty they showed so I bought SVS. Very few people ever regret buying SVS. Plan to spend about $800 on the sub but it will impress. Thats about $1,500 gone/$1,500 left. You should have no trouble hitting the stores and auditioning a 5 speaker set for that money. Take along a favorite CD (not crappy compressed MP3 and not a DVD but music. ) Music is a tougher task for speakers and will show flaws and flavor. One caution: only consider speakers from a company that makes speakers as their main business. They tend to be better, hold their tone longer and be more accurate. Also - speakers have 'flavor'. Just because I like my Definitive Technologies you might prefer the sound of Klipsch or Paradigym. It does not mean any one is 'better' than the other. Buy what you prefer with a music CD you love and you will be fine for home theater. (Actually - I have installed some pretty cheap speaker systems for friends that give a great HT experience. Something about movies just does NOT require the high sensitivity of music caliber speakers.) Hope this helps.

Answer 3

A good rule of thumb is that the difference between the two speakers should be the same distance from each speaker to you. You and the speakers should form an equilateral triangle. If this cause the speakers to get fairly close to the walls, you should consider placing something on the wall to make it less reflective.

Oh, and, for your sake, if that's one of the Samsung systems with the vertical dvd player, buy a protection plan if you can. When I worked at Circuit City, those things were always breaking. Great system really, except that they never lasted very long.

Answer 4

Depending on the size of the room your two front speakers should be as far away as possible from the TV. Try to keep them about 2 to3 feet away from the side walls if possible.Angle them towards you where you sit and try to have the mid-range and tweeter drivers at ear level. This will give you a wide sound stage. Hope this has been helpful for you

Answer 5

Six to Eight feet is standard. But in addition, if they are bass reflex speakers (hole in back for air flow), you should also keep them at least one foot away from the wall. Experiment with the distance. Good overall sound resembles the feeling of one overall sound. The sound should "image", or appear as if it is in the center of you instead of a right and left. Please keep in mind there will be details of the music on the left and right at times and that the overall "imaging" effect has a lot to do with the quality of the electronics and speakers you are using.

Good luck, and enjoy. I hope the system brings you a lot of happiness.

Answer 6

Depending on what your receiver is like, it may come with a callibration tool you can use to automatically adjust the speakers. For example, my sony receiever has a micorphone inbuilt into it, and emits a noise from each speaker which detects the distance of the speakers from the unit and adjusts each speakers volume and balance based on this information.

Not exactley a direct answer to your question, but hopefully it will help a bit with your problem.

Answer 7

There are many variables to consider such as: are the speakers magnetically shielded? (if not they could damage your tv screen), how far will you be sitting from the tv?, etc. The best answer I can give you is to check out the site listed in sources. Lot of good information on home theatre setup.

Answer 8

Check out this link for some speaker placement diagrams and what not: http://www.whydoesmyhometheatersuck.com/speaker.html