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Part 4: Where to Place Speakers?

Note: The following suggestions are just that – suggestions.  All rooms are different and all families use rooms differently.  That being said, the following points will help you really enjoy your system! 

Left and Right Speakers: These speakers should be to the sides of your TV screen.  If they’re close to a 45° angle from your main listening/viewing position, that’s a good place to start.  (You may have to tweak that a bit in some rooms.)  If you’re putting a music system together, then increase that angle to 60°.

Unless they’re designed for on-wall on in-wall mounting, most speakers sound best when there’s a bit of space between them and any wall. 

Left and Right speakers should both be at the same height with their tweeters at your ear level when you’re seated.  For best sound balance, make sure that they’re at equal distances from your favorite chair or couch. 

Center Channel Speaker: The Center Channel speaker should be as close to the TV screen as possible.  As you can easily imagine, different TV types present different placement options. 

            For Picture Tube TVs (Direct View sets)

• Place the Center Channel speaker immediately above or below the screen with the tweeter as high as the tweeters of the Left and Right speakers.  If you can’t do this, use a shim (a magazine or book, etc.) to aim the center channel tweeter to ear height at your listening position.
• If possible, make sure that the Center Channel speaker is as far from the main listening/viewing position as the Left and Right speakers are. 

For Flat Screen TVs (Plasma, LCD, etc.) 

• One of the major reasons you bought a flat screen TV is because it’s bigger, right?  Well, that presents a challenge for the Center Channel speaker.  In general, follow the guidelines for Picture Tube TVs above.  But be aware that you may need a more imaginative solution and never forget that a well-positioned Center Channel speaker is essential for good home theater sound reproduction. 

For Rear Projector TVs (DLP sets, etc.) 

• One of the problems with Rear Projectors is that there’s rarely room for a Center Channel speaker either above or below the screen. 
• Although many Center Channel speakers that use bass reflex enclosures now have a port or ports on the front baffle, some designs have these ports on the rear.  If that’s what you’ve chosen, don’t place them in a tight compartment just to get them close to the screen.  If you do, you’ll change the way the speaker sounds and that may prove annoying over the long haul. 
• Remember to aim the Center Channel speaker at the prime viewing/listening position.

      For Front Projector TVs (two piece – projector and screen):

• If you’re using an acoustically transparent screen, simply place the Center Channel speaker behind it with the tweeter at the same height as the tweeters of your Left and Right speakers.  Don’t place the Center Channel speaker very close to the back of the screen, however, as that may cause unwanted reflections and muddy the sound.
• If you don’t choose an acoustically transparent screen, follow the guidelines for direct view or rear projection sets.

Surround Speakers:
You’ll find more discussion – and disagreement – about placing surround speakers that about almost every other speaker in your system except for subwoofers.  (More on those in a moment.) 

Here are some suggestions.

If you’re building a 5.1 system and will be enjoying movies as your main source, place the two surround speakers on the side walls slightly behind and at least 1.5 to 2’ above your head when you’re seated. 

If your multichannel system is dedicated mostly to music, we suggest that you mount the surround speakers well apart on the back wall.  Also, keep the tweeters of the Surround speakers at about the same height as the tweeters in your front Left and Right speakers. 

Subwoofer

Face it, most of you want A WHOLE LOTTA BASS from your music or movie system.  But please (please!!!) don’t confuse quantity with quality. 

At this point we could go into a long explanation about a room’s “standing waves” and how they affect bass reproduction.  After all, a loudspeaker in a room is merely one resonant system inside of another resonant system.  But, thankfully, we won’t. 

First, don’t fall into the trap of believing that “because bass is omnidirectional (it spreads evenly into a room), you can place the subwoofer virtually anywhere.”  This is NOT true!  The trick is to take advantage of the acoustical characteristic of all rooms. 

Here are some practical hints.

• For more bass, put the subwoofer in or close to a room corner.  If you do, however, know that the resulting bass response will most likely be very uneven.  Some frequencies will be emphasized.  Others will be suppressed.  And that pattern of exaggeration and repression will change as you move about the room! 
• For a bit less bass but more even frequency response, move the subwoofer away from the corner along one wall. 
• If that still doesn’t please you, then move the subwoofer further out into the room.  You’ll have less overall “boom” but probably higher overall sound quality. 

Once you’ve decided on general placement, there’s another technique that will help you fine-tune your subwoofer’s ideal location.  It’s based on some rather obscure acoustic principals that we don’t need to get into now but it’s amazingly effective. 

• Identify your favorite listening/viewing position. 
• Put the Subwoofer there.  (Yes, we mean put it on or in your favorite chair or sofa.  Don’t worry, the furniture will handle the weight.)
• Play some music or a soundtrack with a lot of bass content.
• Crawl around the room on all fours until you find the place where the bass sounds the best to you.
• Put the Subwoofer there.
• Settle yourself in the chair or sofa. 
• Enjoy! 

Example Graphic for Home Theater Speaker Placement

Simple, wasn’t it? 

We hope you’ve found these pointers helpful in picking out and placing your speakers.  Remember that The Speaker Company wants more than your business.  We want you to be entirely satisfied with our products and the way we sell them.  Good listening!