Setting it up.

[kaillum]

thanks for the info guys.... keep it coming

i've only got a small picture of the other side of the room taken by the estate agent..., i'll take a better one at lunch..


ideally i'd really like to keep the furniture layout as it is and just move the speakers about the room...

the stands should be arriving today, so I'm gonna have a play with speaker positioning and get the best sound before I commit to running the cabling...

and on the subject of cabling, Sony provide colour coded wires for each speaker, they have a connector at one end, and coloured wires at the other.. perfect for a n00b like me!

should be a fun weekend!!!

[Howard]

Sounds, good. Have fun!

But please for the love of God whatever you do, put the centre on top of the TV!

[fondie]

i think my suggested positions are about right, i don't agree with you howard about the rear positioning i'm afraid, in a large area where the speakers are a distance away from the listening position then having the rear speakers pointing towards the listening position would work fine, but where they are close there is no chance for the sound to spread out and so many people find the rear effects (these channels are still often used for ambience effects) become very localised, spoiling the effect. it's always best to play around with them though, to see what sounds best for you, 'cos that's what matters.

[kaillum]

Originally posted by Howard
But please for the love of God whatever you do, put the centre on top of the TV!

yeah.. the centre will be on top of the tv....

Thanks for your help Howard & fondie... mucho appreciated...

as for the speaker positioning, i'm gonna go with the fronts where you suggest, either side of the tv, and then have a play with the rears until I get the right sound for me although i'd prefer them either side of the 3 seater sofa, if it dosnt sound to good i'll just use that positioning for normal watching and make a mark on the floor for where they need to go for films..

i'll let you know on Monday where the bits & bobs end up and how much sweat & blood went into setting it up

cheers again guys.. couldnt have worked it out withouy ya

k.

[fondie]

no probs get the wife to do the conduit as she's the one who didn't want to see the wires, and the rest of the setting up will be a doddle you can be sitting down on the sofa watching a good movie while she's still crawling around on her hands and knees trying to sort out the wires maybe that's slightly wishful thinking though!

[Howard]

Mmmm...Woman on hands and knees.....


Yes seriously mate good luck with it, you've got a whole weekend to play with it! I'm going to be adding a port to my HomeMade sub tomorrow

[Zak33]

Originally posted by Howard
The rear speakers shouldn't really be placed facing each other, aparently this is only good for ProLogic where you shouldn't be able to localise the rear ambience effects. With Dolby Digital and DTS they are meant to be more aparent.

And place the subwoofer as close to a corner as you can!

Oh...we're gonna have a proper debate now

When a director films his masterpiece the rear speakers are in his mind...BUT when the bloke at the DVD laboratory is encoding the sounds he has a different agenda! The tracks of sound can be different to the film if need be. Beacuse most peoples house are less than perfect for 5.1 (like the one discussed here) there is a crossover of thoughts as to how it should be encoded.

The following are my findings so far, and as with all things its opinion.

The Dolby Pro Logic IS a rear MONO signal.....it has a much lower frequency response too. The rear sound is good for ambience and atmosphere.

In Pro Logic 2 the rear is stereo and much better frequency response. Game Cube uses Pro Logic 2

DOlby Digital has a very high frequency response in stereo at the rear and same at the front. In a living room environment it is normal to have the rear speakers so close to your head that its hard to make them sound "behind" cos your sofa is nearly always by the wall. The human ear is like a shell shape and blocks sound from directly behind, which is why you know when a sound IS behind you cos it sounds kinda muted.

If you aim the speakers forward and diagonally across the listening area they cross in front of you....... and while you can hear them perfectly well, the fronts are also firing that way. You are hearing the wrong stuff.

If you aim them AT each other, then your ear is forced to hear them from behind.

PLUS: Put them HIGH up at the back. The DVD encoder ALWAYS puts aircraft sounds, and bird calls and stuff on the rears.....it sound better. Much better. PLUS having them firing AT EACH OTHER and above you makes it further from your head.

Imagine the sound "plane" as a flat bit of paper the same shape as your floor.......a speaker at each corner. You want it TILTED....so its high at the rear, and low (TV height) at the front and you sit just under the sheet of paper....just under.....

Next...Bass Box ....in corner....YUP.....find which end has the PORT (big hole with air going in and out) and fire it into the corner.....then move it NEARER the corner for tighter bass, and further out for looser saggier and bigger bass.

And last......GET THE CENTRE CHANNEL under or over the telly, NOT away from it.


WARNING
If you fit the centre speaker away from the TV, then the Technology Police will turn up at your house, with T shirts on that say Zak33 and Howard and Fondie.....and we will beat you with cable until you cry.

Clear ?

[Howard]

Zak I guess you are fairly correct with your rear speaker analysis! I'm gonna play with mine later to see how I can get the best sound.

With the subwoofer, you got it the wrong way round son Closer to the corner for deeper, boomier bass, further into the room for tight "musical" bass

Centre speaker, either on top or underneath , but as close to the screen as you can.

Zak can I see a pic of your setup?

[Zak33]

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1439



and a Loewe Xelos 32" wideboy

[Zak33]

Originally posted by Howard
With the subwoofer, you got it the wrong way round son Closer to the corner for deeper, boomier bass, further into the room for tight "musical" bass

You're gonna hate it, but I totally disagree....but only cos its a matter of personal ear 'oles!

On my bass box /\ the speaker is front facing but the port is rear firing....the nearer it gets to the wall, the more it seems to cushion the speaker, and it gets very very tight...less boomy.

If its a foot from the wall its well floppy my bass that is you understand

[Howard]

Ok well if that's the way it works on your system fair enough, but the general word on the street is that the closer to the corner, the more and boomier the bass becomes


What is that videologic system like?

[kaillum]

ok then.. time to resurect this little thread from the darkness of page 2....

after spending Friday & Saturday doing other things around the house, I finally got time on Sunday afternoon and Monday to get my little speakers set up on the stands and all working

I plumped for the Goodmans speakers from Argos.. before you all poopoo the idea of using Goodmans with Sony stuff, i'll just say that there near identical to the Sony ones same size, shape and glass base, the only difference is they dont have Sony plastered over the glass base and they dont arrive at your doorstep with the glass base smashed!!! and there only £29.99 a pair, instead of £60.. so in my eyes I got 2 pairs for the price of one well, that made her a little happier..

so onto the bane of my life.. the wiring.. and where to put it... after mucho discussion with her about how the wiring would 'disapear' and getting a sample of the smallest conduit I could find to which I got the repy "I'd rather see the wires!!" I went for the almost hidden look.. ran the wires for the back speakers, under the window sill, down to the skirting board behind the radiator, and the only visible part goes around the door frame.. hmmm will it pass the female test?
Reply: "so where did you hide the wires? oh there.. that looks ok.."
RESULT!!!

so onto the less labour intensive bits.. fit the stands together, easy.. run the wires for the front speakers.. not so tidy, but no complaints fit all speakers wires into the back of the unit and make them look tidy

and get it fired up for the initial surround setting up.. now then, with the Sony Surround bit, you can adjust the sound field for the distances from the Sitting Position to each speaker.. so, out with the tape measure.. and measure the distance from MY seat on the Sofa to each of the speakers... put the figures into the DVD player and play the Test Tone.. each of the speakers emits sound YAY!!!

ok.. read the destructions from front to back, just to make sure that i've connected everthing and missed nothing.. and its time to pick the DVD for the test play... so Linz was out of the room, in went LOTR Two Towers.. and onto the Battle of Helms Deep words cannot do this justice.. to my ears it sounded and looked better than the cinema... so I watched that twice..
as Linz was still out of the room.. I decided that i'd better get into her good books, so out comes the Robbie Williams live at Slane DVD... and hit play.. I go to get a celebratory beer walk back into the living room and shes sat in MY seat.. eyes wide at the TV.. well, I assume she likes it then...

so, thanks guys.. for all your help, you've made me a very very very happy man.. I'd still be trying to convince her that it was worth the move...

so, if anyones interested i've got a few piccies up on my webspace. didnt want to fill the thread with piccys.. here

[fondie]

hehe, well done mate glad everyone's happy your setup looks very smart indeed you'll have to sort out this sitting in your seat though!!

[kaillum]

Originally posted by fondie
hehe, well done mate glad everyone's happy your setup looks very smart indeed you'll have to sort out this sitting in your seat though!!

cheers fondie.. yep.. everyone *read Linz* is happy

The only problem is that she dosnt actually know its setup for that particular seat of the Sofa.. so I just need to find an easy way of swapping seats..

[Bindibadgi]

You got a DVDRW drive or CDRW drive at least?

Ive got a link at home with all the dolby/THX/DTS trailors on them thatll test ur sound setup to the full. They even have a DVDR iso so that you can burn em all to a DVD and play em on your player. Failing that, you could burn a couple to CDR in SVCD.

Glad all has worked out well. Now u just need to invest in a sticker to stick on the seat that's yours.

[fondie]

Originally posted by Bindibadgi
You got a DVDRW drive or CDRW drive at least?

Ive got a link at home with all the dolby/THX/DTS trailors on them thatll test ur sound setup to the full. They even have a DVDR iso so that you can burn em all to a DVD and play em on your player. Failing that, you could burn a couple to CDR in SVCD.

Glad all has worked out well. Now u just need to invest in a sticker to stick on the seat that's yours.

i would like that link to the DVD iso please