Speaker placement in awkward room

[thomas-h-blum]

Hi all

 

I've got a Lifestyle 38 series III and been trying to optimise the speaker placement for my awkward living room. Had a look online and in this community and struggling to find appropriate guidance so alas reaching out again to see if anyone has any ideas please! 

 

I'm happy with the center and front speakers as well as the acoustimass module as I could follow the directions in the manual for those (including by bouncing the sound from the front speakers off the wall) - see first picture below. 

 

The problem I have is in relation to the rear speakers. We're in the process of buying a smaller couch so we can further back but that would then mean we would sit directly next to if not behind the rear speakers (unless I turn them to face our head directly?). Worse, there is a pillar in the corner so not sure if I should put the RL speaker in position A or B. I thought about placing the rear ones in the ceiling but saw that people generally seem to recommend against this? 

 

Any thoughts appreciated. And please ignore the cable-mess - will embed them properly in the walls once position finalised! 

 

 

[xyz987]

I would rather have the TV on the larger wall to the left side of the couch if there is room for a smaller couch on the opposite wall or closer to the TV if the room is too long for that.

[neonsnight]

---

 wrote:

Hi all

 

I've got a Lifestyle 38 series III and been trying to optimise the speaker placement for my awkward living room. Had a look online and in this community and struggling to find appropriate guidance so alas reaching out again to see if anyone has any ideas please! 

 

I'm happy with the center and front speakers as well as the acoustimass module as I could follow the directions in the manual for those (including by bouncing the sound from the front speakers off the wall) - see first picture below. 

 

The problem I have is in relation to the rear speakers. We're in the process of buying a smaller couch so we can further back but that would then mean we would sit directly next to if not behind the rear speakers (unless I turn them to face our head directly?). Worse, there is a pillar in the corner so not sure if I should put the RL speaker in position A or B. I thought about placing the rear ones in the ceiling but saw that people generally seem to recommend against this? 

 

Any thoughts appreciated. And please ignore the cable-mess - will embed them properly in the walls once position finalised! 

---

These speakers are designed to bounce the sound off of the room's walls to give it a larger sound stage. So having the front 3 speakers inside of an alcove isn't really the best. Though as the TV is mounted I can only assume that moving it to another wall is no longer an option. AdaptIQ should help... but there's only so much it can do.

 

If at all possible, I would mount the rear speakers on the ceiling and have one speaker aimed at your main seating location and another bouncing off of a wall or I would have two speakers covering the extremes of the seating locations in that room. 

 

If you are going to have them on the stands, I would have one speaker aimed along the seating locations and another aimed at the closest wall. Though AdaptIQ would probably try to reduce the rear's volume to try and make sure that they aren't too loud for people sitting there and possibly reduce their effectiveness. But luckily you can manually increase or decrease the volume of the rears via the onscreen menu if you so wish.

 

As for positions A or B, they look pretty negligible from the photos you have shared. I think that how you aim the speakers and how it looks in the room would be more important at this point.

 

I should also mention that I made a guide to help people connect their AV38 receivers to modern HDTV's & equipment. That being said I would look at "Option 4" in that guide as your subwoofer can support the upgraded AV35 receiver. 

 

While the AV35 does not support 4K, ARC, or CEC, it does have multiple HDMI inputs and supports lossless audio. So there is another guide I made for the AV35 receiver, instructing you how to get 4K & lossless audio at the same time.

 

I hope that this helps solve your question. Let us know what you end up doing 🙂

[xyz987]

It's really not hard to patch holes in the wall.

[thomas-h-blum]

Thanks for your response . Trouble is that the room is very long. I had considered putting the TV on the wall next to the sofa but then I'd have a similar problem with the rear speakers, no? RR would either have to be above the fireplace (where my daughter's painting hangs) or in the corner just before it which would mean that the sofa would need to be very close to the TV in order to have the speakers behind the viewer. Not even sure about RL... 

[xyz987]

Can you post a few more pictures so we can see the entire room?  How high is your ceiling?  I sit 14 feet from my 65 LGOLED C7P and Bose Soundtouch 300.  My rear surround speakers are too close but not much sound comes out of them anyway.

 

You might also consider some sort of diagonal arrangement.

[neonsnight]

---

 wrote:

Thanks for your response . Trouble is that the room is very long. I had considered putting the TV on the wall next to the sofa but then I'd have a similar problem with the rear speakers, no? RR would either have to be above the fireplace (where my daughter's painting hangs) or in the corner just before it which would mean that the sofa would need to be very close to the TV in order to have the speakers behind the viewer. Not even sure about RL... 

---

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 wrote:

Can you post a few more pictures so we can see the entire room?  How high is your ceiling?  I sit 14 feet from my 65 LGOLED C7P and Bose Soundtouch 300.  My rear surround speakers are too close but not much sound comes out of them anyway.

 

You might also consider some sort of diagonal arrangement.

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I've gotta agree with Xyz987, more information would be needed to help you with that question 🙂

[xyz987]

Nice painting, by the way.  Mitten, bug, sun, jack-o-lantern, I presume.  Winter, spring, summer, fall.

[neonsnight]

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 wrote:

Nice painting, by the way.  Mitten, bug, sun, jack-o-lantern, I presume.  Winter, spring, summer, fall.

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I didn't even notice that. Yea it looks like "Winter, spring, summer, autumn" it is written next to each hand image. Good observation skills 👏

[thomas-h-blum]

Haha thanks both - I will pass on your compliments to my 3yo! 😉

 

Okay I've measured everything (though the graph is not to scale) and also found the original promotion pictures from the real estate agent which show both sides of the room. The room is 2.4m high.

 

We've ordered one 3 seater couch, one 2 seater couch and two swivel chairs. The last picture shows how I imagined the set-up (speakers in blue, furniture in green. SC = swivel chair). You can see where my daughter has her artistic talent from! 

 

How would you both do that? Or do you still think it's better to mount the TV on the 3.32m long wall (in which case I could swap the position of the 3-seater with the TV but as mentioned worried I may then not have space for rear speakers). 

 

Any thoughts welcome! Thanks again 

 

 

[neonsnight]

---

 wrote:

Haha thanks both - I will pass on your compliments to my 3yo! 😉

 

Okay I've measured everything (though the graph is not to scale) and also found the original promotion pictures from the real estate agent which show both sides of the room. The room is 2.4m high.

 

We've ordered one 3 seater couch, one 2 seater couch and two swivel chairs. The last picture shows how I imagined the set-up (speakers in blue, furniture in green. SC = swivel chair). You can see where my daughter has her artistic talent from! 

 

How would you both do that? Or do you still think it's better to mount the TV on the 3.32m long wall (in which case I could swap the position of the 3-seater with the TV but as mentioned worried I may then not have space for rear speakers). 

 

Any thoughts welcome! Thanks again 

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Your room is certainly an odd shape, but you have options. I would say that if possible you might want to consider going for the 3.32m wall. The front 3 speakers should be around the TV as you have them now. The rear two should either be on stands behind your last seating location like you have now or on the ceiling. An installer might be best if you wish to have all the speaker wire hidden.

 

The one issue is, most likely your seating location opposite of the TV would most likely put you near the fireplace. I am unsure what you or the rest of your family would think of that. 

The rear speaker locations on the image above might differ, depending on what you are going to do. I didn't put in the table as I didn't know where you'd want that.

 

Ideally, the rears should be on the ceiling and be in a position that they could cover most seating locations. Though that will be quite hard considering the odd shape of the room. Since you have a double cube system you could have one cube aiming towards the 2 seater and another aimed towards the 3 seater.

 

If you are going to have them on floor stands, then you would probably have one behind or next to each swivel chair aiming the same way. I would hide both of the rear speaker cables under the carpet going behind the 2 seater and then using some floor chord covers to hide the cables as they go to your stands.

 

I would also think about upgrading your receiver if you ever get the chance.

 

This is possible, but it all depends on what you like or dislike about how your room will look.

 

Let us know what you think 🙂

[xyz987]

Personally, I like the TV on the bigger wall.  I don't like it back in that narrow space.  I suggest you leave it alone until your new furniture arrives.  Then move the furniture around until you find the best location for everything.

 

You need to determine the proper distance for viewing your TV and try to position your swivel chairs at that distance if possible.  

 

Do you have access to an attic above the room?  If so, it would be easy to route wires to your rear surrounds.  I would hang them off the ceiling or top of the wall behind your main seating/viewing location by the proper distance.  I'm not sure what that is, but slightly behind, I think.  They don't need to be perfect.

 

Good luck with it and let us know what you decide.

 

PS:  Don't rule out a diagonal arrangement such as your latest pictures.

[thomas-h-blum]

Thanks all - will let you know once I finish the set up what I ended up with!