Speaker Positioning

Home theater TV and Speaker Positioning plays a vital role in the kind of sound produced and perceived. Most home theater systems come with five speakers comprising of the front left, right, center and the two surround speakers. Some audiophiles go in for a subwoofer in addition to this, which is why you see the 5.1 where the .1 refers to the sub woofer. You will come across 6.1, 7.1 home theater systems with advanced sound. With audio such a major component of the system, speaker positioning becomes absolutely critical. While setting up your home theater, speaker calibration position will help place them for best listening.

As far as position of surround sound speakers is concerned, note that with surround sound, the sounds from the different speakers must emanate from pre-planned positions in your home theater room. Once you have planned this, you can go about surround sound speaker positioning. The thing is, different speakers respond differently depending on your room acoustics. So finally surround sound speaker position is a matter of which ones sound the most pleasing to your own ears.

The most common method for speaker positioning that is followed is placing the left and right front speakers on either side of the TV say, around two feet or so away preferably at ear height to heighten the hearing experience. It is better to place the speakers a little ahead of the screen, facing away from its side. The center channel speaker, which is considered the most important speaker, must be positioned below or on top of the center of the TV screen. This will ensure that you can hear the dialogues and special effects are clearly audible. Some speakers come with controls that help match the center speakers to the left and right front speakers.

Your surround sound speaker position comes next. Since the concept of surround sound is to create that unique atmosphere that lets you hear the movie sounds that create the whole mood and ambience. There are different kinds of surround sound speakers and the position for each varies depending on your home theater room layout. For dipole surround speakers the best place is just adjacent to the best listening position, preferably wall mounted at the sides. These can even be located in the back wall, but not the ceiling as it will spoil the effect. Bipole surround speakers need to be high on the sidewalls. Monopole surrounds are best placed high on the back or sidewalls.

Your subwoofers are best placed against a wall or in corners, as these tend to increase bass sound in the room.