Hello,
A few weeks ago I got exciting news - we are getting a new house! (yes it is just like getting one more kid, in many ways)
So what does an engineer-audioholic does in such case? Well, gets down to literature, measurements and guidelines to quickly design in a "perfect" listening space before anyone else dares to put any other furniture or room layout in the way of ACOUSTICS! Seriously, my wife was well prepared, so I am doing this.
Now I may know a thing or two about speakers and read some pieces by @Floyd Toole, Harman, Neumann, Genelec, etc. But I may be blind to some issues, overcautious or just stupid in my speaker layout.
So, if you can find flaws and improvement suggestions for my speaker layout, I would be very grateful (sorry, I will not pay you). Perhaps studying this case will give ideas to more people who have similar needs. Note, It will take many months until I will actually install this, because speakers are not the first priority in a new house, but I need to "package-protect" my listening space from the beginning. This will likely be the best listening space that I will ever have.
Maybe someone even has access to acoustics simulation software? I have all the input data, just no software or know-how
Here are the main plans + I attach the actual CAD file for the small, FREE SolveSpace 2.3 program.
Background:
As you can see this is the main living-room in the house with a lot of openings for a total volume on the 1st floor of 230 m3, + there are stairs to the little corridor on the 2nd floor (extra ~35 m3 cubic meters). I already have an ok 5.1 setup in my "other apartment" so to make this space more livable and spend more budget on quality over channel count I will be content with 2-channels + subwoofers. I can place subwoofers in 3 corners, including under the stairs (there even a big one could hide), but in lower right corner there is an oven, so no speakers or subwoofers there.
The main concept:
Top-quality, white, powered monitors mounted under the ceiling so that they are not "in-the-way" and also positioned far away from walls to avoid destructive interference. Because the monitors are not big (cost & size reasons), they will be crossed over at 120Hz. To help with high 120Hz handover to subs, dual subwoofers are placed in the same corners. As I can not escape the ceiling, the plan is to mount monitors with tweeter down (good idea?) and keep the speakers as closse to ceiling as possible. In practice acoustical axis may be as far as 25cm + a few more due to tilting of the speakers down. As it looks, when standing up (180cm height) speaker tilt is only ~10deg. When sitting down (100cm height) speaker tilt down is ~24deg. A TV is not in focus and will get a simpler secondary speaker setup (Adam T5V?) and will be rollable into correct position if there is a plan to use it with the main 2.2 system.
Equipment choices:
I would like to be able to run at reference movie volumes (THX) in the listening position (not 2 rows back), but everything must have civilized, even child friendly look. So the plan so far is:
Concerns, Unknowns:
Updates:
none so far.
A few weeks ago I got exciting news - we are getting a new house! (yes it is just like getting one more kid, in many ways)
So what does an engineer-audioholic does in such case? Well, gets down to literature, measurements and guidelines to quickly design in a "perfect" listening space before anyone else dares to put any other furniture or room layout in the way of ACOUSTICS! Seriously, my wife was well prepared, so I am doing this.
Now I may know a thing or two about speakers and read some pieces by @Floyd Toole, Harman, Neumann, Genelec, etc. But I may be blind to some issues, overcautious or just stupid in my speaker layout.
So, if you can find flaws and improvement suggestions for my speaker layout, I would be very grateful (sorry, I will not pay you). Perhaps studying this case will give ideas to more people who have similar needs. Note, It will take many months until I will actually install this, because speakers are not the first priority in a new house, but I need to "package-protect" my listening space from the beginning. This will likely be the best listening space that I will ever have.
Maybe someone even has access to acoustics simulation software? I have all the input data, just no software or know-how
Here are the main plans + I attach the actual CAD file for the small, FREE SolveSpace 2.3 program.
Background:
As you can see this is the main living-room in the house with a lot of openings for a total volume on the 1st floor of 230 m3, + there are stairs to the little corridor on the 2nd floor (extra ~35 m3 cubic meters). I already have an ok 5.1 setup in my "other apartment" so to make this space more livable and spend more budget on quality over channel count I will be content with 2-channels + subwoofers. I can place subwoofers in 3 corners, including under the stairs (there even a big one could hide), but in lower right corner there is an oven, so no speakers or subwoofers there.
The main concept:
Top-quality, white, powered monitors mounted under the ceiling so that they are not "in-the-way" and also positioned far away from walls to avoid destructive interference. Because the monitors are not big (cost & size reasons), they will be crossed over at 120Hz. To help with high 120Hz handover to subs, dual subwoofers are placed in the same corners. As I can not escape the ceiling, the plan is to mount monitors with tweeter down (good idea?) and keep the speakers as closse to ceiling as possible. In practice acoustical axis may be as far as 25cm + a few more due to tilting of the speakers down. As it looks, when standing up (180cm height) speaker tilt is only ~10deg. When sitting down (100cm height) speaker tilt down is ~24deg. A TV is not in focus and will get a simpler secondary speaker setup (Adam T5V?) and will be rollable into correct position if there is a plan to use it with the main 2.2 system.
Equipment choices:
I would like to be able to run at reference movie volumes (THX) in the listening position (not 2 rows back), but everything must have civilized, even child friendly look. So the plan so far is:
- miniDSP SHD - with 4 XLR outs it allows to do integration of 2 subs by any means necessary, PEQ & even trying out Dirac Live (if it helps).
- Neumann KH120 A in white (with 120Hz crossover) and according to Neumann these should be good up to 104 dB(C) SPL at 2.3m distance. These speakers are legendary in terms of you can get ALL the possible measurements, information and quality guarantees that you can imagine about these, except for a one thing - no review of just this model from amirm (which I seriously don't need for these speakers).
- XTZ Cinema SUB 1X12 - 2 pieces. A pair of these is THX Ultra certified (which to my knowledge is a very strict performance standard), not too massive, quite affordable and acceptable in the looks department. Perhaps too weak?
- XLR analog connections through-out.
- Genelec Z8000-436W white ceiling mount - because it is white, 25cm long and fits KH120.
Concerns, Unknowns:
- Will the two 12" subwoofers work in the room of this size? I need them to perform at the distance of about 4 m (13 feet), but the volume is very big.
- Is 120Hz crossover too high even if the subs are in the same direction as the speakers? I assume subs will run in Mono.
- Any issues with speakers placed near the ceiling?
- Should the tweeter be as low as possible (current design) or should the speaker (and the tweeter in it) be as close to the ceiling as possible?
- Would adding a 3rd subwoofer under the stairs be of any use? (massive extra cost and complexity for an unknown benefit)
- Would placing some minimal acoustical treatments help? (only if they do not make the room look weird)
- perhaps I should not worry about wall reflections and just mount the speakers right "under" the arch or simply on the walls (then the height can be more conventional)?
Updates:
none so far.
Attachments
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