Best Speaker Placement for a Difficult Room

by Alberto Millan
(Madrid - Spain)

Please could you help me to decide what type of Home Cinema System I should put in this room - and maybe suggest which one? Also, I need help on where to put the speakers, and which is the best solution eg: Yamaha Sound Bar, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1....

Best speaker placement floor plan

Here is a plan of my room and, as you can see, it is not easy to find a good place for the speakers.

Kind regards to all of you!

Comments for
Best Speaker Placement for a Difficult Room

Click here to add your own comments

Red Marks on Picture
by: Alberto Millan

Sorry, I have just seen that I forgot to write on the picture the meaning of the red boxes.

This RED boxes are the Windows of the room.

Choosing a home cinema system
by: Paul - The Home Cinema Guide

Alberto

Gosh, it might be easier to move house!

That's certainly a tricky room you have there for installing a home cinema system.

Firstly, I'm not the greatest fan of the soundbar, but I think the soundbar designers were thinking of your room when they came up with the idea :-)

A soundbar would be the obvious choice as it would give you a decent sound and save you the headache of trying to fit surround speakers around your room.

There are some Yamaha systems which come with a soundbar and a basic receiver for connecting your external devices. Maybe check out the Yamaha YHT-S400 or the Yamaha Air Xtreme YAS-71.

If you really want a receiver and proper 5.1 surround sound speakers (7.1 is definitely not going to happen), then you could get in-ceiling speakers for the two rear surrounds - but that involves cutting holes in your ceiling which you may not want to do.

Small satellite speakers could also be installed on the ceiling pointing down if they had a bracket which allowed them to be angled downwards.

At a stretch, you may be able to install one small satellite speaker on the right wall and another on a floor stand to the left of the sofa by the window. You could point these two speakers at each other and you would get a reasonable surround effect in your seating position.

As for front speakers, the only place for left and right speakers are at the corner of the dinner table/TV and the other side of the doorway. Either on stands or wall brackets.

It's not the end of the world if they are not an equal distance either side of the TV, as the volume of each could be adjusted to compensate a little for the difference.

So, I would go for a soundbar if you want an easy life, but if you really want the improved sound of a separate receiver and speakers then get a system with small satellite speakers and try the positions I suggested.

Let us know what you decide and how you get on.

All the best.

Paul

Feel free to join in this discussion by adding your own comments below...

You Might Also Be Interested In:

Choosing The Best Home Theatre Speakers - Speaker Types and Sizes
Setting Up Surround Sound - Speaker Location and Layout
Home Theater Speaker Placement - General Guidelines

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Surround Sound and Home Stereo Speakers: Forum and FAQ