Subwoofer Placement
The subjective performance of any subwoofer will be
fundamentally influenced by the acoustic character of the room
in which it is used, and its position within the room. Speaker and
subwoofer systems are most often installed in rooms which are
comfortable to sit and talk in, and the typical mixture of carpets,
curtains and soft furnishings help ensure that middle and high
frequencies are reasonably well controlled. There may however
be low frequency problems; either too much or too little bass.
To minimise these problems start with the subwoofer positioned
away from walls and corners, avoiding the midpoint between any
two parallel boundaries. If the balance is bass-light, the sub-
woofer can be moved towards the corner. Use the subwoofer
controls (see Section 5) to optimise satellite integration and for
fine tuning rather than to compensate for inappropriate
positioning. All rooms vary and it is a good idea to experiment
with both listening and speaker positions until a good
compromise is reached.
The subwoofer should be placed in a position which allows
adequate ventilation around the heat sink fins.
Full Bandwidth Speaker Positioning
While each loudspeaker in an AV system should be located
appropriately in its immediate acoustic environment, if an AV
system is to reach its full potential the relative position of each
loudspeaker element must be considered. In professional
environments the relative position is important because it will
fundamentally influence multichannel mix decisions, while in
domestic systems correct positioning will offer the best chance
of programme material being heard as intended.
The basic guidelines for positioning the full bandwidth loud-
speakers of a 5.1 and 7.1 system are illustrated in
Fig 1
. The
elements of an AV system should follow this positioning guide as
closely as possible. There is some latitude for compromise in the
speaker to listener distance of a domestic installation as AV
coders/processors provide facilities to adjust the delay time of all
or some speaker channels. Professional installations however
should adhere strictly to the recommendations of
Fig. 1
and not
use delay adjustment to compensate for alternative speaker to
listener distances.
left
centre
right
left
side
right side
left
rear
right
rear
distance
L
distance C
distance
R
distance LS
distance RS
distance
LR
distance
RR
150°
110°
150°
30°
30°
110°
sub
•
All loudspeakers should be equi-distant from the listening position:
distance L = distance C = distance R = distance LS = distance LR = distance RR
•
For 5.1 systems, position the ‘surround’ speakers between 110 and 150 degrees
•
If ideal positioning is not possible, position loudspeakers as close as possible
Fig. 1
Ideal Full Bandwidth Speaker Positioning of 5.1 and 7.1 systems
All loudspeakers should be equidistant
from the listening position: distance L=C=R=LS=LR=RR=RS.
For 5.1 systems, position the surround speakers between 110° and 150° (ITU spec. is 110°).
The LR and RR speakers shown are applicable to 7.1 systems only.
If ideal positioning isn’t possible, position loudspeakers as close as possible to ideal.
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