Question How do I set up my new system?

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Hi all,
Many thanks for the recommendations of what Amp and Speakers to buy in my £500 budget. I now have them, in a box, ready to be set up (I had a massive flood in the meantime, so I had to stop everything and deal with that - entire kitchen floor has been up - thankfully the tiler is coming on Thursday, which should be the end of that disaster).

I bought these speakers - Wharfedal DX1SE: Wharfedale 5.1 Speaker Package

I've attached my room layout. Its basically 2.4m across, and 3.25m from sofa to TV and the sofa is 2.2m wide. One side of the room is totally open, aside from the chimney breast wall which book-ends the wall with the TV.

I'd really appreciate, firstly, some recommendations as to where I should place the speakers, and some suitable wall brackets I can buy to mound them to. I'm really trying to keep the budget down though.

If I can get away with putting the fronts all on the TV Unit - Its 1.50m wide, and the TV itself is 1.10m wide on it - then that would be great. But if its going to ruin the sound quality, I'm happy to put all 4 on stands.

I guess the 2 rears simply go at the sides of the sofa, facing forwards?

Sorry, I'm totally new to all this. I will try to do a search for guides, but so far the 2 I've seen were for systems totally out of my class, so didn't make too much sense to me.
 

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I am trying - just spotted the links on this very forum, and have just watched them. Learned a bit about angling the speakers inwards, and the correct heights.

Main concern now is how wide to go with the fronts (rears are almost fixed - they need to be either side of the sofa as there is little room otherwise).
 
Hi Peter

Looking at your diagram, I personally would just go with that i.e. that the Fronts and the Rears are in line going down the room.

Some people prefer to have their Fronts directly either side of their TV's, but I think that narrows the sound field regarding side to side panning effects and I've always tried to have my Fronts and Rears in line with each other.

You didn't show the location of your Sub or Centre in your diagram? A Subwoofer would usually go between the Front right or Front left and the TV, the Centre should be as close to the screen as you can get it to lock dialogue to the actors' mouths.

You also didn't say which AV receiver you'd be using? And stands are always the preferred method of isolating your speakers from their surroundings, but wall mounting is a good alternative if you're tight for space.

There's plenty of Threads and posts on this subject on the site, but feel free to ask anything. Oh, and a picture might be useful so as to get a sense of what you're trying to achieve!
 
Thanks Derek.

Stands aren't preferred in this case as there's a child who will likely grab and break! So screwing onto wall mounts I think will be best.

The centre, I'm not so sure about. It'll either go on the TV unit, under the TV - or perhaps Ill wall mount that too, above the TV, and then point is slightly down to get it angled right for ear-height on the sofa.

Is there an optimal distance to put the fronts - or with the dimensions I have, should I just look to get them as far apart as possible without being right on the side walls to prevent booming?

The rears will again be wall mounted, equal distance from the sofa, and angled inwards - about 3 feet above ear height if I understand correctly, angled in towards the the centre of the sofa.


The sub will be going to the side of the TV unit, between the TV and the front right speaker.
 
Is there an optimal distance to put the fronts - or with the dimensions I have, should I just look to get them as far apart as possible without being right on the side walls to prevent booming?

I'm not sure about this one. My Front L & R floorstanders are in corners and are not boomy at all, but then I have told my AVR that they're small and to direct all frequencies below 80 Hz to the Sub.

I like the look of your layout, the room EQ should do its thing and your planned arrangement sounds fine to me.

Good luck!
 
Thanks mate - always really good to get some views before starting on this type of thing.
Next step will be working out how the AV Receiver actually works :)
 
Let your room EQ do its thing then make a few manual adjustments afterwards, that's what most people on here do.

Feel free to post any queries regarding your amp on the appropriate Forum, people are always willing to help.
 

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