[lovespellszz]

so i just got the klipsch 2.1s and im wondering what my optimum speaker placement should be.

right now its this. im wondering if i should move the sub to the floor underneath the desk?

[Hofonom]

I guess it depends how sturdy your desk is. One thing is you probably want to bring it well away from the wall other than that Sub placement isn't too difficult as I don't believe the sound is directional.

[Viyzarei]

Speaker placement for a multimedia system is largely irrelevant for a couple of reasons- firstly, it is so close to you and on your desk that you don't have to worry about the room, secondly, there is a woofer that you have very little control over in terms of bass directionality... you can only move it or turn it, no placing the driver essentially... oh and its mono. Bass is very directional just as any others, it is just easier for it to become smeared in a room without treatment and when there is so much distortion as in most speaker systems with these components today, it is just cheaper to make one sub and call it good enough... which works for these price points but is far from optimal.

Anyway, I would firstly move that woofer. Woofers in corners are awful, all it does is excite room resonances which can appear to give more bass but in reality all it does is add fake bloat. Put the woofer directly under your desk and use it as a foot rest! Move the desk back a little and put as much distance between the satellites and your ears as possible, and don't put them in corners either. Essentially, it is almost irrelevant, it is all too near you.

[sueplydup]

I'd put it on the floor to eliminate any chance of unnecessary vibration.

[gechaheritt]

yeah sub on the floor and u'll be set!

[Hofonom]

Bass is very directional just as any others, it is just easier for it to become smeared in a room without treatment and when there is so much distortion as in most speaker systems with these components today, it is just cheaper to make one sub and call it good enough... which works for these price points but is far from optimal.

I can't get my head around that. Surely the Subwoofer is working in conjuction with the other 5 speakers for instance in a surround system; It is based on the idea that such low frequency sounds will be associated with the rest of that sounds frequency which is being played by one of the satelites. Sound under 50Hz is considered less directional but I guess you have a point as I don't imagine that sub actually producing much volume below that frequency.

[Viyzarei]

I can't get my head around that. Surely the Subwoofer is working in conjuction with the other 5 speakers for instance in a surround system; It is based on the idea that such low frequency sounds will be associated with the rest of that sounds frequency which is being played by one of the satelites. Sound under 50Hz is considered less directional but I guess you have a point as I don't imagine that sub actually producing much volume below that frequency.

Actually the entire concept of modern surround is doing everything cheaply. The point of the subwoofer today is to make the speakers smaller and less capable, to be able to fake extra bass by exciting room resonances (Especially at ~40hz) by encouraging people to put them in corners and by the floor near where the walls meet, and to just be cheaper. Instead of having speaker cabinets with each having 8, 10, or 12" woofers... you have little tiny speakers which go to like 100Hz and then you shove all of the bass frequencies into a single 8 or 10" woofer that is using really poor designs and just puts out distortion into the room causing boom. Of course... there are exceptions to this rule, I mean if you spend many grand and things are actually designed well (eg the sub is only used for real sub, like 20-40Hz), but for anything but the really really expensive setups the entire surround scheme is a fraud and done on the super super cheap.

Listen to a quadraphonic mix using real speakers and compare that experience to a modern 5.1 or 4.1 mix and you will see the difference.

[Nigeopire]

I have full range speakers all around and cross them over at 80Hz using the THX recommendations.

In fact the best bass and the best surround systems I have heard do this. Just because using a sub sat system is cheaper and many of these do sound like relative crap...does not mean that there aren't real technical advantages to seperating the bass from the rest of the frequencies.

It is rare (ok I think impossible) for the ideal location for bass freq to be the same as for midrange. Also bass freqs have long wave lengths which create patterns of constructive and destructive interference in your room...leading to some sounding boomy or loose, very poor response....

Take that situation and compound it with 5 sources of bass which are typically placed in locations ideal for midrange, and you are even worse off.

Sorry I am just trying to clear up some misconceptions. For the setups I am talking about, all the speakers are very capable of sub 80Hz (sub 50Hz) and crossovers are intentionally applied to create better sound from the system.

[lovespellszz]

this is what i talk about when i talk about a good thread.

keep it coming...

[thumbup]

[help]

[Nigeopire]

Here is a link to a white paper by Harmon on the subject of subwoofer placement. It is very informative, Harmon also has some calculators for best positioning for room excitation and level response. It is all for dedicated systems, and quite a bit more than what the OP is looking for but very nice reading for those that want a deeper understanding.

http://www.harman.com/wp/pdf/multsubs.pdf


For the OP...a lot of "best practices" and some other suggestions just won't apply to a more limited multimedia system (your Klispsh set up looks nice, better than my PC setup, but it is just not as capable as a "real" theater system)

First thing I would do is have each of the sats the same distance and "toed in" so the tweeter point at your ears. Try to minimize refection interference...basically move them a bit in front of your monitor and try to keep things out away from the sides...the sound spreads in a cone and will reflect...try to minimize.

For the sub...it just can't hit anywhere near 20Hz in free space, use the reinforcement from the walls...try the corner on the floor, then move from there.

[Hofonom]

Wendy Carlos wrote some good stuff about different surround sound setups and positioning.

http://www.wendycarlos.com/surround/surround.html

Of course then you have to deal with your room dimensions, I used to have a room that looked something like this...


I had all sorts of fun trying to setup 5, 6 and 7.1 speaker setups in that room.

[Appeselve]

Best spot would be on the floor. You would hear more bass rather than vibration. I would crank a song and try different directions as well.

I find this all very interesting. Maybe I can ask you guys for some input as well?? I am moving in a couple days and my new living room is gonna be big. Picture pretty much a big square with some weird nooks here and there.

I have a Velodyne subwoofer, DPS-12 (12" woofer) pretty nice sub for my home theater setup. I spent about $550 on it a couple years ago. Link below.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums...ad.php?t=19534

I have been putting it facing into a corner for some time now. I know that every room will be different though.

I have 2 front speakers with 15" drivers and I think a 5"-ish mid and a tweater. I also have a center channel with 2 4" drivers/tweater and 2 surround speakers with 4" drivers/tweater each. They are 100 watts a piece and the front large floor standing speakers are 160 watts a piece.

I have the sub doing 40hz and down and the front two doing everything(old Onkyo DR-90 no setting except "front=large" lol).

I'm sure there's gotta be a conflict of bass. I know you don't want different size speakers doing the same frequencies...a.k.a 15" front 40hz and sub 40hz.

IMO the system sounds really kick-ass. Loud, punchy and powerfull. Just great when there is a night of drinking and I can really crank it.

Having this said, what would you guys change about my setup???

[Viyzarei]

Best spot would be on the floor. You would hear more bass rather than vibration. I would crank a song and try different directions as well.

I find this all very interesting. Maybe I can ask you guys for some input as well?? I am moving in a couple days and my new living room is gonna be big. Picture pretty much a big square with some weird nooks here and there.

I have a Velodyne subwoofer, DPS-12 (12" woofer) pretty nice sub for my home theater setup. I spent about $550 on it a couple years ago. Link below.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums...ad.php?t=19534

I have been putting it facing into a corner for some time now. I know that every room will be different though.

I have 2 front speakers with 15" drivers and I think a 5"-ish mid and a tweater. I also have a center channel with 2 4" drivers/tweater and 2 surround speakers with 4" drivers/tweater each. They are 100 watts a piece and the front large floor standing speakers are 160 watts a piece.

I have the sub doing 40hz and down and the front two doing everything(old Onkyo DR-90 no setting except "front=large" lol).

I'm sure there's gotta be a conflict of bass. I know you don't want different size speakers doing the same frequencies...a.k.a 15" front 40hz and sub 40hz.

IMO the system sounds really kick-ass. Loud, punchy and powerfull. Just great when there is a night of drinking and I can really crank it.

Having this said, what would you guys change about my setup???

Well ideally you should listen to your stereo music in... oh snap... stereo! So there shouldn't be conflicts going on. If you are processing it such that you are feeding identical info to the woofer you may get phasing issues. First and foremost, move that woofer out of the corner! Put it dead center or as close to it as you can (within reason, I mean sure it could be way off to the side, just make sure it is located such that it can provide decent coverage and isn't caught in a corner), and leave the crossover at 40 and under that sounds appropriate given the potential capability of your fronts. What speakers are they actually? And by the way, wattage is irrelevant because different speakers have different efficiencies and 100 watts may mean absolute maximums and doesn't specify current etc... A better way to discuss it is simply provide what kind of speaker it is (eg: ported, acoustic suspension, etc....) and possibly the range it can do. Anyway, that should help.

[Appeselve]

Well ideally you should listen to your stereo music in... oh snap... stereo! So there shouldn't be conflicts going on. If you are processing it such that you are feeding identical info to the woofer you may get phasing issues. First and foremost, move that woofer out of the corner! Put it dead center or as close to it as you can (within reason, I mean sure it could be way off to the side, just make sure it is located such that it can provide decent coverage and isn't caught in a corner), and leave the crossover at 40 and under that sounds appropriate given the potential capability of your fronts. What speakers are they actually? And by the way, wattage is irrelevant because different speakers have different efficiencies and 100 watts may mean absolute maximums and doesn't specify current etc... A better way to discuss it is simply provide what kind of speaker it is (eg: ported, acoustic suspension, etc....) and possibly the range it can do. Anyway, that should help.

LOL, I know, I listen in stereo when it's music!

I meant that the sub and front speakers are probably doing the same frequency.

Ok, ummmmmm, juat looked and front speakers are not ported. My sub has a slot port on the bottom.

This pic at the top of the review site may help:

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speak...1_2741crx.aspx

What about the sub behind the couch (wrap around) in the corner(yes!, the corner! lol) BUT facing AWAY from the corner??? The speaker is front firing so maybe that helps?

I will, when I move, have space to face it towards me from across the room.

Oh, and the fronts are Sansui speakers. I got them second-hand since I had an issue with my other ones. The surrounds are Aurora(not sure since they a boxed).

Thanks for the input man.

[fygESytT]

I had to move my sub under the desk as it sounded much better.

[lovespellszz]

this thread should not die.

[dots]

[Appeselve]

this thread should not die.

[dots]

No, it shouldn't!

I'm not sure how to really kick it off again though.

My stero actually just died on me!

I think i'm gonna just go with a basic 100watt a channel 5.1 setup, as in just the reciever, already have all the speakers.

I don't think there are enough 7.1 movies to warrant a 7.1 setup.

What do you guys have? What's the vote, 5.1 or 7.1?

[Viyzarei]

No, it shouldn't!

I'm not sure how to really kick it off again though.

My stero actually just died on me!

I think i'm gonna just go with a basic 100watt a channel 5.1 setup, as in just the reciever, already have all the speakers.

I don't think there are enough 7.1 movies to warrant a 7.1 setup.

What do you guys have? What's the vote, 5.1 or 7.1?

the fewer teh speakers the better... unless you have a dedicated room and a huge budget, the more the worse it gets

[Hofonom]

What do you guys have? What's the vote, 5.1 or 7.1?

I used to have 7.1 system. Two Mission M32i's, Four Mission M30s a Mission Volare Center speaker and a BK XLS200 connected to a Yamaha 750SE. I used to really like it, moving to a smaller room meant going to a 5.1 setup and the cost of moving to the States meant downgrading to a cheap and nasty JBL speaker set.

I spent years building up my surround system in the UK, first stereo speakers, then a couple of rears, a regular speaker as a center before a cheap Mission center then a Sub and after that improved receivers and speakers. I'll build it up again one day!

[Nigeopire]

No, it shouldn't!

I'm not sure how to really kick it off again though.

My stero actually just died on me!

I think i'm gonna just go with a basic 100watt a channel 5.1 setup, as in just the reciever, already have all the speakers.

I don't think there are enough 7.1 movies to warrant a 7.1 setup.

What do you guys have? What's the vote, 5.1 or 7.1?

I have a 7.1, with two of the surrounds as directional full range and two as quadpolar or more diffuse type speakers.

Given your question you are almost certaintly better off spending more per speaker on better speakers...go 5.1