5.1 Setup Pictures Wanted!

B

BLG

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
308
I'm planning of upgrading to a 5.1 speaker setup when I move into my new apartment (no roommate+more space= :) ) mainly for gaming and listening to music.
I've browsed through the "post your speakers setup" for ideas but 100+ pages = too much time.

I was hoping for some people to put up some innovative setups along with the basic ones. So to encourage my laziness and make me gleeful and fuzzy inside, could you be so kind as to post some pictures of your 5.1 setup ---
 
What works for others probably won't work for you. What we don't know is the size and layout of your room, those factors are very important when determining where to properly put your speakers.

So no, I won't encourage your laziness and instead will point you towards Google where you'll find lots of great articles on how to properly position your speakers. Most people have their surround system terribly misconfigured, as each configuration is different. What works for your friend won't work for you.
 
As was noted: there is no room for innovation with surround sound. The track you listen to was mixed with a specific setup in mind... with level matching and assumed position relative to the listener. Deviating from this will result in you having an iPod-like "experience" and not an actual, accurate rendition of the recording.

More on setup here: http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/s...ome-theater-speaker-layout-an-essential-guide
 
If you're wondering what "the" spec is, note the diagrams from the ITU-R recommendation BS. 775-1 on page 32 of this Yamaha PDF. This is the standard to which most mix stages are designed unless they're following THX recommendations, which are slightly different.

For gaming, the correct configuration is "direct surround". Position your surround speakers at the same angle as your front speakers.
 
thanks for the info guys, not a huge audio guy (though im trying)

phide said:
If you're wondering what "the" spec is, note the diagrams from the ITU-R recommendation BS. 775-1 on page 32 of this Yamaha PDF. This is the standard to which most mix stages are designed unless they're following THX recommendations, which are slightly different.

For gaming, the correct configuration is "direct surround". Position your surround speakers at the same angle as your front speakers.
Click to expand...

so a gaming setup in 5.1 will be different then for listening to music or watching movies?
 
BLG said:
]so a gaming setup in 5.1 will be different then for listening to music or watching movies?
Click to expand...

The idea is that for movies, you have a more diffuse surround field, whereas for multi-channel music, games, and the like, you want exact positioning in the rear. For the more diffuse sound field, you can place the speakers high up, use bi/di-poles, place them on the sides of the listening area, use a bunch of them, and so on. For more accurate positioning you want the rears (assuming you're at 5 channel) to be relatively similar in their angle to the main listening position as the front mains.

Then of course, to address the limitations of the rear surround field, you can move to 7 channel, with or without a stereo surround-back (which also has two different placement options).

For the front, the document listed also touches upon wide or narrow front mains, where the wider mains separation gives you better sense of 'area' for music, but can create problems for precise placement when your viewer has a POS tiny little TV. For instance, if you pan actor X's dialogue hard left when they're on the left of the screen, it should sound like it's coming FROM the left of the screen (where actor X is), not from somewhere off in the left of your listening area. Personally, if you don't have a big TV, you don't exist, so who cares. ;)

This is interactive with depth as well, so the further apart your mains are, the further back you need to be sitting.

In the end it is indeed confusing and no matter what you do you'll never have the optimum setup for all conditions, but you can get in the ballpark most of the time with the multi-channel-music type setup with direct radiating rear channels.

Did we mention the 10.2 setup where you put a speaker on your ceiling too?
 
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