how to set up home theater system, speaker placement?

Harman Kardon HKTS 20BQ 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System (Black)

• Complete 5.1 home-theater speaker system
• Eight-inch, 200-watt, powered subwoofer
• Four like peas in a pod, video-shielded, two-way satellite speakers
• Voice-matched, video-shielded, two-way dual-driver center speaker
• Includes all cables, satellite table stands and wall brackets for satellites and center

Exceptional signal quality takes advanced engineering. To deliver an extraordinary listening experience for now's high-definition entertainment, the HKTS 20 satellites and subwoofer have gone through Harman Kardon's world-class engineering and design process. This process gives the HKTS 20 system the routine of a system costing many times its price

List Price: $ 799.00

Price: Too low to show

by Jeff Croft

Answer by The Indispensable Chris Cameron
The thought is that all speakers should be an equal distance from you.

Answer by dburrowsjr
The most basic theater setup is a 5.1 setup. THis typically includes a center speaker (located directly center of your show), two front speakers (left and right) on either side of your show, two rear speakers (left and right) located on either side of your couch or recliners. The actual placement varies from room to room but generally speaking it is everywhere you can fit them. The ideal house for a subwoofer (the .1) is in between your two front speakers. Most people don’t have the room to do this so they usually get tucked away in a corner, which makes them louder, but hinders signal quality.
The best way to set them up is determined by your room by only trained calibrators with the right equipment (SPL meters, acoustic panels, etc.) will be able to do it impeccably. If you could post a sketch of your room with furniture and windows as well as type of speakers (bookshelf, floor, in wall, etc), I could then show you everywhere the best placement for those items is located.

Answer by bbb
hmm try some in depth articles below should help
http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/speakerplacement.html
http://www.zinszer.com/ht-speakers002.htm

Answer by RyanLeeDesign
How do you make a sandwich? Exactly, the variables are endless.

You have to do some research. There are distinct levels of set-up, each with improving results, though, the wallet comes out each time.

Here is the real tale. Go outside, go to a park, go to a store, go see a cascade, go to an air show. Listen. Do you question the signal? Never, because, these are natural sounds occuring in scenery. Each one is everywhere it should be, and at the level it should be.

THIS is the art of Home Theater. Recreating this signal field as accurately and as natural as possible. If you are watching a movie, and you reckon about the signal, you have failed. Do you go to an air show and say “wow, that jet didn’t signal very excellent”. No, it sounds like it is supposed to.

ONE part of many, is to make sure you get full range signal. This means NO WIENER 4″ FRONT SPEAKERS! These are TWEETERS, not speakers. Your front speakers should start with no less then an 8″ driver, and have mulitiple drivers, each one reproducing a range of signal, blended together with crossovers. I told you it would take some research. Never question a sales rep. Question a technician, what sounds excellent. Not that sales reps don’t know, some do, conundrum with reps is they aren’t in the field. If it doesn’t signal excellent, the tech knows about it first. Reps also sell what they make the most money on.

NEVER point speakers into the center of the room. This is 70′s. This makes nulls, or areas of cancelled frequencies, due to colliding with each other. Also, NEVER point ANY speaker at another speaker. This too causes dead a skin condition and accentuated a skin condition. Signal is like ocean waves. When two waves hit together just right, or “in period”, it becomes a larger wave. When they hit contrary, or “out of period”, they cancel, and the wave is less vital then when they started. Same with signal.

Yes, sub in the front, speakers left and right of the Video show, but not too close. When the picture is a jet flying from the left to right, the signal should follow, and I want the signal to go wide, not stop at the edge of the TV. Rear speakers are BEHIND you. Excellent grief, I can’t tell you how many homes I have been in everywhere the rear speakers are in front or on top of the listener. It’s crap. Remember, realistic. Okay, the helicopters chasing Godzilla, one of the greatest movies ever, come in from BEHIND you, and shoot at Godzilla, (he kicks their a**es though). So, these monkeys who call themselves “Home Entertainment professionals” choose these helicopters should magically appear above your head, or, even in front of you. Stupid. Go to a movie theater. Everywhere are the speaker? Reckon there is a reason for this? Yeah. Down with monkey home theater “installers”.

Gotta go, this is page one of many pages. Get full range speakers, sub in front, speakers never pointed at each other, fill the room with signal, rears behind you, 7.1 is fantastic, but there is no software for it yet, so it is still “psuedo”, still cool though, get excellent equipment like HarmanKardon.

REALISTIC NATURAL SOUND. This is the goal. Never let a monkey in your home. TECHNICIANS only.

Peace be with you my brother.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Desktop Audio Upgrade


Image by Jordanhill School D&T Dept
I needed some new speakers for my desktop computer system at home. I’ve been tolerating JBL creature 2.1 system for a couple of being now and I’d finally had enough. The JBLs suffered from a depressing lack of critical midrange detail. This, coupled with the fact that the kids now hog the main system in the front room, means that I can’t get access to my iTunes library readily.

A few being ago I was doing some research into speakers and I came crosswise the Quad 11l actives. They were very well reviewed in a couple of Australian and New Zealand hi-fi publications. From what I could gather at the time they were not widely available in the UK. When I did eventually track them down their price tag was £600 for a pair. Prohibitively expensive for a desktop audio system. These things are marketed as pro-level near field monitors. They have their own build in amps. Two per speaker. 60W for the bass driver and 40W for the treble driver.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago I chose to have a casual squint at eBay and see if I could pick up a second hand pair at a vastly reduced price. There were none available. One seller was promotion individual speakers new for £250. apiece. Still too expensive. Crestfallen, I gave up. A couple of days later I had another look. Another seller was offering a pair of Quad actives for £229. Stunned, I had a closer look. Apart from a different badge, Quad Industrial, these looked like peas in a pod to the Quad 11l actives. Plus, they were groundbreaking new, in unopened boxes.

After a few hours of research I learned that IAG, Quad’s parent company, has an Industrial division that promote audio equipment for hotels, conference centres, address theatres, and the like. Hence the different branding. The speaker also goes by another name, the Quad QPM1. Other than that it is like peas in a pod in each way to the Quad 11l active monitor.

This was a game changer. Prior to this I was considering the Audioengine 2 model as my desktop speaker replacement. I phoned the supplier to check that there was no mistake in their pricing in the advert. They confirmed that they were on sale for £229 for the pair. I placed my order immediately.

I was very excited to hear these speakers given the reviews I’d read. I’m also a huge fan of the Quad signal. My front room consists of the Quad 12l2s as main speakers in my 5.1 kit, Quad Centre, Quad l-ite satellites for rear and Quad l-ite subwoofer. Now I could have the Quad signal as part of my desktop system at a part of the price.

Quad speakers are renowned for being extremely neutral. In other words they take nothing away from or add anything to the original recording or source. Although my Quads were all very well reviewed at the time of their release, around 2004-2007, there are other fantastic speakers out there. For me I liked the standing associated with being a Quad title-holder. I clearly liked the signal and most importantly I got all the kit at bargain prices. Most of it was ex-dem so I saved at least 20% on the normal retail price. Another vital factor was matching the speakers crosswise the whole 5.1 kit. All of them should work well together. The 5.1 kit is driven by an Arcam AVR 300 that again was ex-dem. The front speakers are bi-amped and bi-wired. This affords them 120 watts per channel and per driver.

Being a hi-fi enthusiast makes you a bit picky about what you'll listen to. So how do the Quad actives signal? Well place it this way… I’ve not stopped playing them since the minute they at home in the house. I’ve terrified everything at them. From Led Zepp to Beethoven. Alison Krauss through to Prokofiev. Unbelievable! If anything the Quad actives may signal better than the 12l2s in my front room due to the fact that their bi-amp design is impeccably matched to the drivers in a way that any other amp would struggle to better. There is plenty of power and the signal path is not compromised by additional cabling and junction points. So the signal could be characterised as being clean, clear with tight bass control and a surprising quantity of depth considering the cabinet size. Though being nearfield monitors they are very revealing! If the recording is poor it sounds poor through these. You are very conscious of it. Also after a few days I became very aware of the deficiencies of the iMac’s signal card. There was a constant low hum and other nasties such as buzzing and clicks. Hissing too. Another issue was that I wanted to run an ancient radio tuner through these. All I could lay my hands on at small notice was a phono switchbox. This worked but it was trying to control the volume of the tuner other than messing around at the back of the monitors. Not really ideal.

I realised I need to look for some kind of preamp. Nothing suitable for desktop audio seemed immediately available. Initially I started looking at pro audio solutions. Mixers and the like. Not only were these really expensive but they also took up a lot of desk space. The other thing that seemed clear was that some kind of external signal processing solution would improve on the signal the iMac was competent of producing. Looked like a DAC was vital. This took me into a whole new ballpark. It came down to two companies in the end. Cambridge Audio's Dacmagic or NuForce's uDac or Icon products. Necessarily it came down to my need to switch sources easily and the ability to control volume at the turn of a dial or via an installed remote app on an iPhone. The Dacmagic looked very tempting but there was no preamp function or headphone amplifier. This left me with the NuForce products.

NuForce's website information is confusing. Being new to the world of DACs and desktop audio I knew small about by USB as a means of feeding an external digital to analogue converter with a digital signal. I was familiar with toslink optical links from the Arcam processor but USB was new to me. So I started reading about jitter and the degrading effect is has on signal quality and the technology used by NuForce to take right these issues. I also read some astonishing reviews on their uDac, Icon 2 and Icon HDP products. Turns out NuForce are an American company that specialises in really high end digital amplifiers and DACs. We're talking thousands of pounds. Their 'desktop' range is much more affordable though. The uDac was offered to me for £55 for example. In the end I got a fantastic deal on the Icon HDP. I had to make a couple of phone calls at this point. I can't say how much I saved but I got a better bargain on this than I got on the Quads! The Icon HDP is a combined class A headphone, preamp and top quality DAC rolled into one. Perfect for my needs.

Now we have the combined effect of the iMac and its ability to feed a decently digital signal from iTunes or Spotify Premium to the NuForce Icon HDP via USB and then onto the Quad QPMs. The effect the Icon HDP had on the system was staggering. This truly is a phenomenal product. Undoubtedly the most accomplished, best sounding and most helpful piece of hi-fi equipment I've ever bought. The whole soundstage opened right up. Subtle nuances present in the recordings were revealed in extraordinary detail. A truly three dimensional space is open to the listener. Given I'm used to the full Quad/Arcam experience in the front room it's incredible how lifelike and articulate my bargain desktop audio solution really is. The Quads in themselves are remarkable for the price but the Icon HDP is literally a revelation.

As you'll see from the photos I've experimented with this system in all sorts of combinations. At one point I even hooked up the Quad sub to hear the difference it made. I concluded it's really not vital the system is already competent of producing nearly terrifying levels of deep controlled bass without it. Midrange too is superb. Treble crisp and smear free. I've been particularly enjoying the albums below. I've pretty much went into the backroom! All in all, a pretty excellent October week…

Trentemøller – The Very Last Resort
Mercan Dede – 800
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rachmaninov
Alison Krauss – Lonely Runs Both Ways
John Hiatt – Hiatt Comes Alive At Budokan?
Booka Shade – Memento
Avishai Cohen – Aurora

By the way the Quads are still available on eBay, last few remaining. Other speakers shown for comparison.

Your Ultimate Guide to Home Theater Systems!

Are you bored with how you naturally view television or movies? Possibly it's the image quality that is unappealing. Or, possibly the signal is dreadful, even if you turn up the volume on your television set. Perhaps it's a combination of these things along with a small, outdated TV.

Well, There's A Solution!

Through what is renowned as a home theater system, you can make a cinema right in the comfort of your bedroom, living room or basement. In fact, if your home theater is set up prop

List Price: $ 6.97

Price:

Desktop Audio Upgrade


Image by Jordanhill School D&T Dept
I needed some new speakers for my desktop computer system at home. I’ve been tolerating JBL creature 2.1 system for a couple of being now and I’d finally had enough. The JBLs suffered from a depressing lack of critical midrange detail. This, coupled with the fact that the kids now hog the main system in the front room, means that I can’t get access to my iTunes library readily.

A few being ago I was doing some research into speakers and I came crosswise the Quad 11l actives. They were very well reviewed in a couple of Australian and New Zealand hi-fi publications. From what I could gather at the time they were not widely available in the UK. When I did eventually track them down their price tag was £600 for a pair. Prohibitively expensive for a desktop audio system. These things are marketed as pro-level near field monitors. They have their own build in amps. Two per speaker. 60W for the bass driver and 40W for the treble driver.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago I chose to have a casual squint at eBay and see if I could pick up a second hand pair at a vastly reduced price. There were none available. One seller was promotion individual speakers new for £250. apiece. Still too expensive. Crestfallen, I gave up. A couple of days later I had another look. Another seller was offering a pair of Quad actives for £229. Stunned, I had a closer look. Apart from a different badge, Quad Industrial, these looked like peas in a pod to the Quad 11l actives. Plus, they were groundbreaking new, in unopened boxes.

After a few hours of research I learned that IAG, Quad’s parent company, has an Industrial division that promote audio equipment for hotels, conference centres, address theatres, and the like. Hence the different branding. The speaker also goes by another name, the Quad QPM1. Other than that it is like peas in a pod in each way to the Quad 11l active monitor.

This was a game changer. Prior to this I was considering the Audioengine 2 model as my desktop speaker replacement. I phoned the supplier to check that there was no mistake in their pricing in the advert. They confirmed that they were on sale for £229 for the pair. I placed my order immediately.

I was very excited to hear these speakers given the reviews I’d read. I’m also a huge fan of the Quad signal. My front room consists of the Quad 12l2s as main speakers in my 5.1 kit, Quad Centre, Quad l-ite satellites for rear and Quad l-ite subwoofer. Now I could have the Quad signal as part of my desktop system at a part of the price.

Quad speakers are renowned for being extremely neutral. In other words they take nothing away from or add anything to the original recording or source. Although my Quads were all very well reviewed at the time of their release, around 2004-2007, there are other fantastic speakers out there. For me I liked the standing associated with being a Quad title-holder. I clearly liked the signal and most importantly I got all the kit at bargain prices. Most of it was ex-dem so I saved at least 20% on the normal retail price. Another vital factor was matching the speakers crosswise the whole 5.1 kit. All of them should work well together. The 5.1 kit is driven by an Arcam AVR 300 that again was ex-dem. The front speakers are bi-amped and bi-wired. This affords them 120 watts per channel and per driver.

Being a hi-fi enthusiast makes you a bit picky about what you'll listen to. So how do the Quad actives signal? Well place it this way… I’ve not stopped playing them since the minute they at home in the house. I’ve terrified everything at them. From Led Zepp to Beethoven. Alison Krauss through to Prokofiev. Unbelievable! If anything the Quad actives may signal better than the 12l2s in my front room due to the fact that their bi-amp design is impeccably matched to the drivers in a way that any other amp would struggle to better. There is plenty of power and the signal path is not compromised by additional cabling and junction points. So the signal could be characterised as being clean, clear with tight bass control and a surprising quantity of depth considering the cabinet size. Though being nearfield monitors they are very revealing! If the recording is poor it sounds poor through these. You are very conscious of it. Also after a few days I became very aware of the deficiencies of the iMac’s signal card. There was a constant low hum and other nasties such as buzzing and clicks. Hissing too. Another issue was that I wanted to run an ancient radio tuner through these. All I could lay my hands on at small notice was a phono switchbox. This worked but it was trying to control the volume of the tuner other than messing around at the back of the monitors. Not really ideal.

I realised I need to look for some kind of preamp. Nothing suitable for desktop audio seemed immediately available. Initially I started looking at pro audio solutions. Mixers and the like. Not only were these really expensive but they also took up a lot of desk space. The other thing that seemed clear was that some kind of external signal processing solution would improve on the signal the iMac was competent of producing. Looked like a DAC was vital. This took me into a whole new ballpark. It came down to two companies in the end. Cambridge Audio's Dacmagic or NuForce's uDac or Icon products. Necessarily it came down to my need to switch sources easily and the ability to control volume at the turn of a dial or via an installed remote app on an iPhone. The Dacmagic looked very tempting but there was no preamp function or headphone amplifier. This left me with the NuForce products.

NuForce's website information is confusing. Being new to the world of DACs and desktop audio I knew small about by USB as a means of feeding an external digital to analogue converter with a digital signal. I was familiar with toslink optical links from the Arcam processor but USB was new to me. So I started reading about jitter and the degrading effect is has on signal quality and the technology used by NuForce to take right these issues. I also read some astonishing reviews on their uDac, Icon 2 and Icon HDP products. Turns out NuForce are an American company that specialises in really high end digital amplifiers and DACs. We're talking thousands of pounds. Their 'desktop' range is much more affordable though. The uDac was offered to me for £55 for example. In the end I got a fantastic deal on the Icon HDP. I had to make a couple of phone calls at this point. I can't say how much I saved but I got a better bargain on this than I got on the Quads! The Icon HDP is a combined class A headphone, preamp and top quality DAC rolled into one. Perfect for my needs.

Now we have the combined effect of the iMac and its ability to feed a decently digital signal from iTunes or Spotify Premium to the NuForce Icon HDP via USB and then onto the Quad QPMs. The effect the Icon HDP had on the system was staggering. This truly is a phenomenal product. Undoubtedly the most accomplished, best sounding and most helpful piece of hi-fi equipment I've ever bought. The whole soundstage opened right up. Subtle nuances present in the recordings were revealed in extraordinary detail. A truly three dimensional space is open to the listener. Given I'm used to the full Quad/Arcam experience in the front room it's incredible how lifelike and articulate my bargain desktop audio solution really is. The Quads in themselves are remarkable for the price but the Icon HDP is literally a revelation.

As you'll see from the photos I've experimented with this system in all sorts of combinations. At one point I even hooked up the Quad sub to hear the difference it made. I concluded it's really not vital the system is already competent of producing nearly terrifying levels of deep controlled bass without it. Midrange too is superb. Treble crisp and smear free. I've been particularly enjoying the albums below. I've pretty much went into the backroom! All in all, a pretty excellent October week…

Trentemøller – The Very Last Resort
Mercan Dede – 800
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rachmaninov
Alison Krauss – Lonely Runs Both Ways
John Hiatt – Hiatt Comes Alive At Budokan?
Booka Shade – Memento
Avishai Cohen – Aurora

By the way the Quads are still available on eBay, last few remaining. Other speakers shown for comparison.

Answer by Kenneth D
Tweeter has the Bose Acoustimass 5 on sale for $ 399.00, marked down from $ 599.00 I don’t reckon you can beat the Bose for home theater. Yamaha also has a very excellent set for the same price if you want your components to contest. The signal from the Bose will be much better though.

If you don’t want to spend that much, I would check the clearance shelves at Circuit City, Best Buy, Tweeter and Sam’s Club. I got my bedroom speakers, a set of 5 Sony surround signal speakers plus subwoofer, on clearance at Best Buy for $ 100.00 The Subwoofer usually costs that much. Although I generally like Sony products, I would not use these speakers in my main home theater system though.

Excellent Luck to you.

Answer by shake_um
Keeping in mind that your system will only be as excellent as the weakest link, I would consider not getting too cheap with the speakers. You can start with a nice 5.1 system and then add the extra two speakers later. I also have 7.1 and have found small to nothing that is really 7.1 yet….

Check out these Klipsch speakers…

Answer by Rosco Z
Bose has the absolute worst sounding sub/satellite systems on the promote & Bose is extremely over priced. Their sub’s not even a sub, because it doesn’t go low enough & goes too high to be classified as a subwoofer. Subwoofers play the low notes that aren’t directional. Bose bass module plays notes that are high enough to be directional, so the voices in your movies signal like they are coming from everywhere you have your bass module placed, instead of sounding like it’s coming from the TV screen.

To top it off Bose uses the cheapest buck quality components. If you want to buy Bose that’s fine, but remember you’re paying a premium price for the name & getting low quality junk that won’t last.

The best way to buy speakers is side by side comparison listening. Buy the speakers in your price range that sounds best to you.

Some quality brands for speakers are, Infinity, Polk, Mirage, Boston Acoustic, Klipsch, JBL & Yamaha.

The new “in” thing for HT speakers are the single speaker solutions. Although technically they are a two speaker solution, because they signal best with a subwoofer added.

Polk Audio SurroundBar $ 600
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-YSrw3Fomka5/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?wm=fp&I=107SDASBT&g=12700

Yamaha YSP-1100 Digital Signal Projector $ 1500
(You can choose either silver, or black.)
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-YSrw3Fomka5/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12700&I=022YSP11HB

Yamaha YSP-800 Digital Signal Projector $ 800
(You can choose either silver, or black.)
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-YSrw3Fomka5/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12700&I=022YSP800S

I like the Mirage NANSAT Speaker System $ 800
5 satellite speakers & a subwoofer.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-YSrw3Fomka5/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12700&I=653NANSYPB

I also like the Infinity TSS-750 Speaker System $ 500
4 satellite speakers, a center channel speaker & subwoofer.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Dm9zeDsMmp3/cgi-bin/prodview.asp?I=108tss750c&wm=cl

Remember, there is no such thing as a universal “best” sounding speaker, or speaker system. What one person may reckon sounds fantastic, another may reckon sounds terrible. Just like cars, some people like luxury cars, some people, like sports cars, some people like SUVs, etc.

If you know how to work with wood, you can build an brilliant speaker system & save a lot of money.

Table Tuba
http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/TT.html

SLA Home Theater Center
http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/SLA.html

TLAH Home Theater/PA Mains
http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/TLAH.html

Do not worry about wattage, there isn’t enough difference in home surround receivers’ wattage output.

BTW
One myth is that speakers should have a higher wattage rating than the amplifier’s wattage rating. When in fact the contrary is right. You are much more liable to blow speakers if you under power them, than if you over power them.

Ideally an amplifier’s watts RMS @ 20 Hz – 20 KHz should be 1.5 to 2 times higher than the speaker’s watts RMS @ 20 Hz – 20 KHz (Both amp & speaker at the same Ohms.)

An online guide that matches QSC amplifiers to speakers.
http://www.qscaudio.com/products/amps/rmx/amp_selector.htm
(QSC is a top of the line professional amplifier company for pro audio applications.)

Answer by poncho
I WOULD PROBLY GO WITH POLK AUDIO SPEAKERS NOT VERY EXPENSIVE GOOD SOUNDING , AT DESCENT PRICE

Answer by countb47@rogers.com
I would go to the same house you got the receiver & get speakers that will be compatible for that amp. Unmatched systems are not a excellent plot. Make sure you get speakers that will handle more wattage than the amp can place out, then you won’t blow them.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!