How do you ensure all seating arrangements get the same 5.1 sound?

[arnprasad]

Hi,

I am in my 25th year of using a 5.1 set up. I bought the Akai 5.1 (maybe the first mass 5.1 released in India) in 1997 and hence feel odd asking this now, but I am upgrading my HT setup including the seats and started feeling this recently and hence asking. I will search on the net as well for answers.

My first floor set up is a 20+ feet wide room. There is a door in the middle and I use the space on the right of the door for my HT which is wide enough to host my 120 inch projection screen. On either side of this screen are my Pioneer Andrew Jones Floor standers and of course the center speaker is in the middle.

So say from left to right.. its around 12 feet wide with my floor standers on either side. 15 feet in front of it are my seats. Earlier it was a mix of us sitting on the floor (bean bags) and sometimes sitting on a sofa which is to the wall...16-17 feet from the screen. Because the seating arrangement was not set in stone - we moved around a bit to ensure we are seated to get the best surround sound.

Last week I bought three Wakefit single seat recliners which are wide enough to occupy the 12 feet space left to right. Unlike earlier where we could move freely, now we are stuck to the recliners and that is when I started noticing that the left most guy would hear the left most floor stander clearly and same went for the right most guy. Only the middle guy seemed to hear the intended sound.

I do understand that in movies, the center channel has 95% of the sound due to dialogues and hence the surrounds have a limited role to play. Even then when I sit on left or right I could clearly feel the sound was one sided. Guess this seating arrangement issue is even more of a bigger deal in movie theaters. Also not everything I watch is in 5.1. A vast majority is Youtube where I am guessing sound is going to all five speakers equally (need to check this and see if I do something in windows or the receiver to make it 5.1)

So what is it that you guys do to ensure all the seats get uniform sound as much as possible?

 

[Nitin K]

Hi,

I am in my 25th year of using a 5.1 set up. I bought the Akai 5.1 (maybe the first mass 5.1 released in India) in 1997 and hence feel odd asking this now, but I am upgrading my HT setup including the seats and started feeling this recently and hence asking. I will search on the net as well for answers.

My first floor set up is a 20+ feet wide room. There is a door in the middle and I use the space on the right of the door for my HT which is wide enough to host my 120 inch projection screen. On either side of this screen are my Pioneer Andrew Jones Floor standers and of course the center speaker is in the middle.

So say from left to right.. its around 12 feet wide with my floor standers on either side. 15 feet in front of it are my seats. Earlier it was a mix of us sitting on the floor (bean bags) and sometimes sitting on a sofa which is to the wall...16-17 feet from the screen. Because the seating arrangement was not set in stone - we moved around a bit to ensure we are seated to get the best surround sound.

Last week I bought three Wakefit single seat recliners which are wide enough to occupy the 12 feet space left to right. Unlike earlier where we could move freely, now we are stuck to the recliners and that is when I started noticing that the left most guy would hear the left most floor stander clearly and same went for the right most guy. Only the middle guy seemed to hear the intended sound.

I do understand that in movies, the center channel has 95% of the sound due to dialogues and hence the surrounds have a limited role to play. Even then when I sit on left or right I could clearly feel the sound was one sided. Guess this seating arrangement issue is even more of a bigger deal in movie theaters. Also not everything I watch is in 5.1. A vast majority is Youtube where I am guessing sound is going to all five speakers equally (need to check this and see if I do something in windows or the receiver to make it 5.1)

So what is it that you guys do to ensure all the seats get uniform sound as much as possible?

Ideally if your center speaker has a good horizontal dispersion, then the adjoining seats from the mlp will have good off axis response. Not sure if the surrounds can sound uniform for all the seats due to their offsets in positioning. The link below should help in understanding.

 

[liverpool_for_life]

Hi,

[..]now we are stuck to the recliners and that is when I started noticing that the left most guy would hear the left most floor stander clearly and same went for the right most guy.

Check to see if pointing your left speaker at the right most seat and the right speaker at your left most seat helps.

 

[headcase]

Correct set up is the key. Most simple aspect often misunderstood and people start looking else where or new hardware.

Follow the Dolby set up guide as per ur need.

5.1 Virtual Speaker Setup

Use our speaker placement guide to optimize your home theater with 5.1. virtual speaker setup with Dolby Atmos sound. Enjoy your entertainment in Dolby.

www.dolby.com

1. Clear path - that's to say that place surrounds at 1.5 ft above head so path is clear for tweeters to reach out all audiences and cover a wider spectrum. (No obstructions)

2. All Tweeters should fire at ear level - Doesn't mean speakers should be placed at ear level but their position should be adjusted such that the tweeters should be firing at ear level.

3. Adjust ch vol level - Don't hesitate to increase ch vol level if u feel it doesn't sound right or close enough. These are the adjustments required to fine tune and achieve best results. (Room correction software is just the basic set up) further manual adjustments will be icing on the cake.

4. Centre ch - Should not be in an enclosure (furniture) or cramped up space. See if ur AVR has a dialogue enhancer feature, use it. Very very useful.

5. Use carpets or sound absorbers if u hear resonance coming from a perticular direction or wall behind centre ch.

Hope it helps.