Surround sound ideas

[2DDav]

Looking for some ideas to improve the sound on my current setup.
As things stand at the moment Im using a cobbled togther setup consisting of an old Sony amp, a set of mission hifi speakers, and a Sony sub & centre speaker. Now theres no doubt its a better setup than the standard TV speakers but its far from fantastic.
The issue I really have is the room layout does not lend itself well:



As you can see the room is not square, where the sofa is it basically fits that corner of the room so to put speakers there they would be up above you head, the sofa also cant come forward to accommodate speakers to the rear as the radiator prevents it coming forward (plus you would end up with a speaker right at your ear).
I had also thought about moving things around but trying to get things to fit practically does not really work any other way due to doors & windows etc.

I had thought about installing speakers in the ceiling but Id rather get some advice before spending any money on it.

Any advice appreciated.

[dave_s13]

A good quality soundbar might be an option.

I know nothing of how good/bad they are though but it's something to look up.

[talkssense]

Personally I would just spend the money ona good 3.1 setup and accept that the room layout isn't suited to surround.

Trying to cram rears in you will either end up with them right above your head, right behind your head or in your right ear.

Or just man up and move the sofa into the middle of the room ;-)

[OldSkoolRS]

Not ideal, but you could put some bipole or tripole speaker high up on the side walls each side of the sofa. This would give some distance to the listener and the bipole/tripole effect will help to make the sound less localised.

I have run my set up like this in the past using some M&K K4 speakers (can often be picked up fairly cheaply on eBay or AVforum's classifieds. M&K have gone, but a newer company called MK have developed a newer version of them (also available in white) is the MK4T as per this link:

http://mkloudspeakers.com/products-info.asp?id=198...

[2DDav]

talkssense said:

Personally I would just spend the money ona good 3.1 setup and accept that the room layout isn't suited to surround.

Trying to cram rears in you will either end up with them right above your head, right behind your head or in your right ear.

Or just man up and move the sofa into the middle of the room ;-)

Hey Id do that but Id end up being 3inchs from the tv screen, and whilst great for porn it would make watching home and away difficult.

May go with a 3.1 setup and see how I get on. Either that or start melting walls with sledge hammers.

[FlossyThePig]

talkssense said:

Personally I would just spend the money ona good 3.1 setup and accept that the room layout isn't suited to surround.

Trying to cram rears in you will either end up with them right above your head, right behind your head or in your right ear.

Or just man up and move the sofa into the middle of the room ;-)

You only get rear speakers on a 7.1 (or equivalent) setup. You can mount side speakers in the ceiling or use physically very small units (see the minx thread) either side and lower their volume.

[HiFiHunter]

Agreed put all your money on decent 3.1 (or even just 3.0 setup, if you get some proper floor standers that go low). Getting the front three speakers matching will make a big difference straight away.

Some wall mounted di-poles/bi-poles might work ok for some rear ambiance, if you're really stuck on going surround sound. I have a pair of Wharfdale EVO DFS speakers. Odd things, rather large with 12" square back, but due to their matt black net all over, they appear far smaller when mounted on the wall. Other di-poles from Mission and Eltax often crop up on ebay cheap.

Otherwise some small cube/egg style rears might just work.

Don't even consider 7.1. You're room is too small to benefit from the expense. You'd also need the sofa placed in the middle of the room.

[Salesy]

Take a lok at the Bose solo.

it sits under tv if mounted on a stand.

if you want a soundbar the look at the Cinemate or SR1 sound bar

both vey good and if you live near one of the outlet villages then you will get one even cheaper

[VEX]

Personally, I have used the Polk Soundbars, bot the active and passive ones that work amazingly well for a sound bar.

V.

[2DDav]

Cheers guys, looking at the Bose soundbar it looks a nice bit of kit.


Looking at it, the bar goes directly to the tv, I was thinking of running it through an amp with a seperate sub, is this worth it or just a waste of time/money.

[VEX]

it depends what you want.

The passive polk's need a separate sub and amp to drive them.

V.