Where to Position Speakers Properly in Your Home Theater

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Invested a lot of effort and time on getting that new home theatre system installed? Well, there’s a lot more to actually getting the best out of it. Getting a quality equipment and Best high end home theater speakers for your home and then not placing them the right way can turn out to be a big low, not giving you the desired output. Spend some time thinking about placing and positioning your high quality speakers properly. Regardless of the number of speakers that come along with a home theatre system, the ultimate aim is the precise placement of the speakers for the perfect special effects and sound quality.

The fact is,

Speaker designers and sound experts put in a lot of energy and thought to offer you a perfectly realistic and enjoyable sound system for your home. But, in order to take complete advantage of all that energy invested in producing some awesome soundtracks and movie scores, you too have to invest a little energy of your own. Every room, every corner of your house is different. Always remember that not all your rooms are going to be in perfect size or shape for your sound system. Some may prefer placing the same in living area and some might love it in the bedroom. Wondering how and where to start?

You don’t have to worry about it as we have already accumulated a few tips on how you can position your premium speakers properly in your home theater. Here you go:

When home theater was newly introduced in the market, a 5.1 system was available. Now even 7.1 is standard and 9-channel and 11-channel surround sound processors are increasingly being launched with other Premium Speakers in India.

  • Avoid placing them in corners because it is where the walls, ceiling and floor meet. The corner of a room can make the sound waves bounce around in your room, especially at the bass end. The bass will often appear ‘boomy’ if your speakers are too close to the corner. Though you can also try placing the sub-woofer near to the corner of some other room to boost the bass in the room as each room is different and something that works well in one room may not work in another. So, go ahead and experiment.
  • Do not place them close to walls, ceilings and floors. As mentioned in the above point, avoid doing so. Because if you place it this way, the bass will be increased and it will artificially change the sound of the speakers. Moreover, the sound waves can reflect off these hard surfaces and delay the sound waves reaching your listening position. This will in turn create poor clarity and stereo imaging. On the other hand, some smaller speakers may actually benefit from being mounted on/near walls. So, note that the bigger the speaker, the more important it is to keep it away from walls.
  • Eliminate any obstruction that comes in the way of the sound reaching your ears. You won’t get the perfect sound from your speakers if curtains, TV, furniture or any other item is obstructing its way. This is because the obstructions will make the sound waves to bounce around the room instead of reaching you.

  • Technical positioning of speakers: The center channel speaker should be centered either below or above your home theatre or monitor in front of the location where you’ll be sitting. You should place the tweeters in the front speakers at ear level for best audio performance. Do compare their height to that of your center channel speaker. Therefore, if the center speaker is higher or lower than the front speaker tweeters, tilt it slightly so that it points directly at your listening area. The sub-woofer can be placed anywhere in the room, usually in the front, to make it easier to run speaker cables.

Finally, surround speakers must be positioned at the 90 degree spots on your imaginary circle and 12-18 inches above ear level and not directly behind your listening spot. These can also be mounted on walls for better sound.

Few tips you can consider:

  • Don’t be afraid to experiment. Every room is different and the methods presented above are general guidelines.
  • You can use masking tape on the floor to mark the speaker positions as you experiment with various placement options.

Home automation system in India is evolving with a great speed with people adapting to fresher lifestyles blended with entertainment. With players like Sound of Music offering the superior quality home theatre and automation systems, one can add to the beauty of perfect entertainment to their homes with an edge.

Thinking of upgrading your listening experience? Follow these tips and guidelines. Do sound off your comments below!

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