Determining Placement of Speakers in a Home Theater Room

Let’s look at a common scenario… You have spent months debating on just the right sound system to accompany your new plasma television, DVD player and stereo receiver. You have visited all of the major manufacturers as well as websites detailing the specs and giving reviews for home theater speaker systems.

You arrive home with the new sound system, install it and sit down in order to have a listen to your new speakers. Somehow, after all of the work you did in preparing for the purchase, you are disappointed with the results. Perhaps you overlooked something in the purchase process.

That something is the fact that retailers generally provide listening rooms for trying out sound systems while in the store. There are 2 reasons for this, the first being containment of the sound. The second reason for the listening room is the acoustics.

Most people when designing their home theater system do not give ample consideration to the acoustics and materials in the room they occupy.

There are three specific things to consider when looking at the acoustics of your new home stereo speaker system. The first thing to consider, which you obviously did, is the sound output and configuration of the speaker system. This is very important, as is the placement within the room of the speakers. It is of the highest importance to place your speakers within line of sight from the main listening spot in the room. Otherwise, the sound may be distorted to the listener.

The second thing to consider in the room is what objects and walls the sound from your home speaker system will bounce off of in the path to the listener. It is important to pay attention, as the reflecting stereo sound will have certain characteristics depending on the surfaces it contacts.

Finally, you should pay attention to how things sound in other places. For example, if you are in a room with a lot of hard materials such as metal and stone, the sound will be deeper and have echoes. A room with a lot of soft objects, furniture for instance, will have a warmer and richer sound. The reason for this is reverberation of sound, or the reflections of sound from your theater speaker system off of every object in the room.

This was just a brief introduction into the theory behind placing speakers within your home theater room. If you are planning to purchase, or install, a speaker system in your home theater you will want to consider the room and its other contents.

This home building article by:
Michelle McClory with BuildingPlans.com

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