Howdy SEA Fans, Welcome to another blog post  and today we are going to talk about speaker placement and how to get a lifelike sound from it.

There are many questions raised by the students of sound engineering as well as from working sound engineering professionals regarding the placement of speaker.

Audio Setup is a very crucial part in getting your system to sound correctly. Proper speaker placement can elevate an average-sounding system to an elite home theater experience.

When you want to purchase a speaker setup for your home, what you usually do is to visit a store near by and choose the best one which sounds the best. It is a fact that those speakers which sound great in the showroom doesn’t usually sounds best in your home.

Why is it so?

The speakers placed inside the showroom is kept at locations where is produces optimal sound based on the showroom’s conditions. When you take them home everything is going to be changed in terms of the amplifier, size of the room, where those speakers are kept and based on all these parameters you audio system is going to act.

Equal Speaker Distance and Angle

Let’s talk about some quick few tips on where to place the speakers in your room for the best performance.

1.One thing to keep in mind is, that you should keep a equal distance between the speakers and the place you are sitting, it is just like a equilateral triangle in which you are at the top and 2 speakers on the sides at equal distance apart.
If you are sitting 10ft back then both your left and right speakers should be 10 ft apart. In that way you are going to get a fairly nice sound stage. As you are sitting on the sweetspot, listening to the music or vocal you will feel that it is coming from the center and that is the first part to be taken care of about speaker setup.
Angle your speakers slightly towards the seat that’s directly in front of the TV.
The tweeters should be at ear level when you’re seated.
Place your center channel right above or below your TV, and line it up with the midpoint.
In a 5.1 system, your surround speakers are best placed to the left and right of your listening position. Aim them directly towards you for the best sound.

Bass Setup and Sub woofers

In terms of the base response in your room, every room is different and once you place the speakers into your room the sound will be less clearer and with chaotic sound reflections, but what is recommended is top keep both of your speakers up against the wall and listen to it.

Listen to the speakers which are kept near to the wall and play one track continuously which has got good baseline or which has got some sort of a beat. After carefully listening to the same, if it sounds good then that is the best place to keep the same or else move accordingly to get the best output. If the base is little bit thick or rather boomy then bring both the speakers little bit forward and keep going out until the setup suits your room.
It is recommended that like stand-mounted bookshelf speakers, floor standing speakers, or tower speakers, should also be moved two feet away from any boundary or wall. Doing this will ensure that your speaker is working as it was designed and not emphasizing bass frequencies from being found in proximity to a wall.
Placing your subwoofer near a wall will generally result in more bass. Placement near a corner where three room boundaries come together will get you even more.

Tow Speakers

With regard to towing of your speakers, depending on how your image sounds you might want play around with towing-in your speakers. You can also talk to you speaker manufacturer on what is recommended for tow-in the speakers.

Don’t worry about perfection

The good news is that you don’t need to find the “perfect spot” for each speaker. Many home theater receivers offer automatic speaker calibration that takes care of things for you.

As a sound engineer do you have any other tips in mind, which you feel, will be useful to others? Do share it with the world in the comment box below.

Thanks for reading and Happy Sound Engineering.