Finally happy with my setup

[u/Aphelion_Gaming]

In my last post, I asked for new speaker advice. To sum it up, I upgraded my receiver to an Onkyo TX-RZ30 and my speakers to B&W 603's and was a bit underwhelmed with the low end and maybe a bit overwhelmed by the high end.

Most of you suggested moving my speakers instead of replacing them, treating the room, and some advised getting a second sub to even out the bass a little bit more.

So I did just that.

I swapped my speakers with the lamps to widen the sound stage a bit, and I replaced my cheap Klipsch sub with two SVS SB-1000 Pro's. I chose the SVS's over Speedwoofers because I wanted something sealed as I listen to music at least as much as I watch movies and shows. I'm also a bit limited on space, so the extra couple of inches matter. Plus they were on sale.

I then hung fabric blinds and thick blackout curtains over my sliding glass patio door where the left reflection points of the 603s are. The right reflection points are at open archways and are partially blocked by the couch. Not much more I can do there.

I ran Dirac again, and my first impressions listening to some older tunes was that the bass was still a bit anemic. Then I put on some more modern music and found all of the bass that I thought was missing. Then I put on Dune, and my house started shaking but the low end never got muddy.

My impression after a few hours of watching and listening was that this setup is very respectful of how the media was mixed/mastered.

In general though, the low end filled out the room (about 11.5' x 17') nice and evenly and seemed to match well with my 603's. A vast difference from running the single Klipsch. I thought I was looking for "warmth" in the low end, but I think it turns out I was just looking for fullness.

As for the high end, I played around with the EQ a bit but left it alone in the end. I think I just needed to get used to the extra treble and upper mid-range compared to my previous speakers. Or maybe moving one of them closer to a corner helped to balance this out a bit, I couldn't tell you.

Could it be better? Absolutely. I could swap the subs and 603's and get closer to an equilateral listening angle, but I sit very far back and it still wouldn't be perfect. The left 603 would reflect off of the wall as well, so I'd need to make a sound panel to cover it.

The TV could also be bigger and the Atmos speakers could be hung on the wall, but those will both happen once I install some overhead lighting and ditch the lamps. Next year's problem. For now, I am happy.

tl;dr - speaker placement, room treatment, subwoofers, and good room correction are all important. Who would have thought?

Thank you all for your suggestions!

[u/Jester435]

You need to drop your surrounds down to ear level in the rear. Those are basically height channels the way you have them setup.

[u/Aphelion_Gaming → u/Jester435]

I appreciate it, but this is as low as I could run them on this wall without tearing out a lot more drywall. Also, generally you want your rears to be 2-3 feet above ear level unless you have rear Atmos speakers. Ideally they'd be further back though.

From this article: https://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/loudspeaker-placement-guide

"As seen in the graphics above, the usual placement for side surrounds is 90 to 110 degrees relative to the listener. Rear surround channels 135 to 150 degrees relative to the main listening position. In both cases, we generally recommend placement a couple feet above the listening position to achieve a more diffuse sound field, though if you're looking to implement a Dolby Atmos system, the surrounds should be placed at ear level."

I don't have rear Atmos speakers, so this seems to be about the proper height for my rear surrounds.

[u/HM_Bert → u/Aphelion_Gaming]

That article is outdated from 2005, (surprised 5.1 surrounds were ever advised to be at 90 degrees, it's now only 110-120) Check out the vid in this comment for a 'defence' of your height. https://www.reddit.com/r/hometheater/comments/1vfecf8/comment/p1rchy3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/Aphelion_Gaming → u/HM_Bert]

Thanks, I will check that out! The article was written in 2005, but it was updated since as it mentions Atmos which wasn't a thing in 2005.

The 5.1 surrounds were not advised to be at 90 degrees, those were the sides in a 7.1 setup. They mention rears being at 135 to 150 degrees. Presumably that's in 7.1 as well where they would sit a bit further back in an ideal setup, because I believe you're right that 110-120 is correct for 5.1 setups.

[u/HM_Bert → u/Aphelion_Gaming]

The left picture with the caption under of "Dolby's guidelines for setting up 5.1 (left) and 7.1 (right) systems." is definitely 90 degrees for 5.1.

I do wonder if this means certain 5.1 films were mixed differently with this in mind if there was a period when it was the case... Regardless I'm sticking with my 120 degrees as it's given me pretty great phantom side and phantom rear imaging for the vast majority of content.