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9.4.6 in a 12 ft long x 10.2 ft wide x 9.5 ft high room

Kain

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Is this a good or even possible idea? I've seen 9.1.6 done in a 12 ft x 12 ft room and 7.2.4 done in a 10.8 ft x 8.2 ft room so I guess it is possible? What do you guys think? I am planning on using the JBL 708i all around with 4 subwoofers (2 up front and 2 at the rear). The 708i is a wide dispersion speaker so will it cause issues with having so many of them in such a small room?

I asked this on another forum and one of the replies was as follows:
Not sure what you think you will gain with that many speakers in such a small space. The amount of acoustic treatment to all surfaces to control unwanted reflections will turn the room into an anechoic chamber!

Speakers interact with each other, so the more of them you have, the more sympathetic modulation you will get. Deep bass will be an issue in a small room, so consider using some acoustic transducers in the couch to give more feel to the bass.

I would consider more directional speakers to reduce reflections and speaker interaction. Not sure you will achieve pin point accuracy without speaker localisation, as achieving a spacious sound field just won't be possible.

When I've seen this done in small studios, they have used small active monitors. These provide high accuracy for monitoring, but not sure it makes for a relaxing or immersive viewing experience..

What do you guys say?
 
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hex168

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phoenixdogfan

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I did an ATMOS HRTF 16 channel measurement in my 12 X 12 listening room with my Kef LS 50s, single SVS SB2000, and my Smyth A16 Realiser. It was a first stab, and I'll be doing a new one with my new LS 50 Metas +Sb2000. Even so, it sounds very good, but it's not exactly 16 speakers playing all at once in a small room.
 

AdamG

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Op, if you can post a graphic of said room including primary seating with dimensions of all walls and distance of speakers as related to seating. A picture with dimensions will work as well. I think you will get more input with this. Just a suggestion.
 
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Kain

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I'll see if I can post a quick/crude graphic of the room. Only have Microsoft Paint on my PC.
 
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Kain

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Here's a rough/not-to-scale drawing of the room.

Purple = TV
Green = Floor speakers
Black = Overhead speakers
Red = Subwoofers

Hr5WF0V.jpg
 
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Here's a rough/not-to-scale drawing of the room.

Purple = TV
Green = Floor speakers
Black = Overhead speakers
Red = Subwoofers

Hr5WF0V.jpg
Are the front wide bisecting the angle between the front and side surround? Also you can consider brining in the middle top a little to help imaging the "voice of god" channel if you ever use for Auro 3D. See the Trinnov Speaker Layout Guide (2020) which covers both topics. https://www.trinnov.com/en/blog/posts/trinnov-speaker-layout-guide/

I'm doing similar to your 9.4.6 layout in a 14' x 18', keeping top middle inline with front/rear top (HVAC/joists in way), rear surround is also similar pulling in more, which is what Anthony Grimani recommends. That being said he would also probably say there is too many speakers in a room that size...
 

Jim Matthews

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Is this a good or even possible idea? I've seen 9.1.6 done in a 12 ft x 12 ft room and 7.2.4 done in a 10.8 ft x 8.2 ft room so I guess it is possible? What do you guys think? I am planning on using the JBL 708i all around with 4 subwoofers (2 up front and 2 at the rear). The 708i is a wide dispersion speaker so will it cause issues with having so many of them in such a small room?

I asked this on another forum and one of the replies was as follows:


What do you guys say?
If you have the funding, why not?

I would describe the 708 as having controlled directivity.

I expect that many drivers with sufficient amplification would be very dynamic, and certainly capable of high sound pressure levels.
 

No. 5

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Is this a good or even possible idea? I've seen 9.1.6 done in a 12 ft x 12 ft room and 7.2.4 done in a 10.8 ft x 8.2 ft room so I guess it is possible? What do you guys think? I am planning on using the JBL 708i all around with 4 subwoofers (2 up front and 2 at the rear). The 708i is a wide dispersion speaker so will it cause issues with having so many of them in such a small room?

I asked this on another forum and one of the replies was as follows:


What do you guys say?
The fact that there's a number of cars with excellent sounding multichannel systems that don't use narrow dispersion speakers strongly suggests that doing the same in a small room would be possible. It'll have unique challenges, sure, but nothing that would make it impossible. In my opinion, the best results would be had going DIY/custom since that would allow a system that's built for the space.

I'm not all that into high channel count systems, but I like an engineering challenge, so here's some observations on the replies you received from the other forum:
Not sure what you think you will gain with that many speakers in such a small space. The amount of acoustic treatment to all surfaces to control unwanted reflections will turn the room into an anechoic chamber!
You would gain the same thing that you would in a large room: improved spatial aspects to the sound. The big issue, in my opinion, is the fact that the distance from your ears to each speaker is quite short, so small head movements will make relatively large changes in the arrival times and levels between channels (correlated signals will be more problematic than decorrelated ones).

Some acoustic treatments will likely be beneficial, but I would certainly not recommend going overboard with them.

Speakers interact with each other, so the more of them you have, the more sympathetic modulation you will get. Deep bass will be an issue in a small room, so consider using some acoustic transducers in the couch to give more feel to the bass.
They do interact with each other, but Atmos and other multichannel systems have been around for some time and sympathetic modulation isn't an issue you hear people complaining about. As mentioned above, the big issue is dealing with the short speaker to ear distance.

Deep bass works just fine in cars and headphones, why would it be an issue in a small room? In addition, in your room, deep bass is below the modal region and into the pressure region, so that should actually make things easier for getting good deep bass. However, the modal region will start higher in frequency than it would in a larger room and that will cause issues in your upper bass and lower midrange.

I would consider more directional speakers to reduce reflections and speaker interaction. Not sure you will achieve pin point accuracy without speaker localisation, as achieving a spacious sound field just won't be possible.
Speakers with higher directivity is arguably a good idea in your room, but that would probably necessitate speakers that are large enough to provide high directivity control.

Pin point accuracy and a spacious sound field can be had without speaker localization within a small area, it happens in nearfield setups all the time, but as mentioned, arrival times and levels will affect localization, so the louder, earlier, arriving sound will pull the sonic image. Spaciousness will be a function of the delayed sounds that are being supplied by the additional channels from the recording, so with care taken in setup, spaciousness should be achievable.
When I've seen this done in small studios, they have used small active monitors. These provide high accuracy for monitoring, but not sure it makes for a relaxing or immersive viewing experience.
Why would that be? Sonically, the difference between a high quality monitor and a high quality consumer speaker is only marketing.
 
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Kain

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Can you actually have worse bass response in a room by having too many subwoofers? Or are more subwoofers better regardless of room size and everything else?
 

Ron Texas

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I'd get a bigger house. Just wondering if pushing that much gear into a small room is going to be any better than something less ambitious?
 
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Kain

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Based on the responses here and elsewhere, I'm thinking I could get away with the JBL 708i as LCR and the 705i everywhere else. Should save quite a lot of money and space.
 
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Kain

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If I instead get the 708i for LCR and the 705i for everywhere else, the 705i shouldn't have an issue with keeping up with the 708i during "spirited" listening sessions, right? The 708i LCR/705i everywhere else is a common combo so I am assuming "no"?
 

FrantzM

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Hi

I have a small room roughly 4.5 x 3.2 x 2.85 (L x W x H). I'm shocked by what I hear from my very modest speakers. I spent a life listening then dreaming about a large room ... I have to review that notion of large room for best results ...
This said, one spends what one can, but I would take a lesser speakers count. As some have noted, you will be quite close to the speakers in most instances I believe a less aggressive speaker-count layout may perform better in this small room... 7.2.4 if you ask me.
While Budget may not be an issue ... You could get similar to same results with 708p as LCR and LSR 305 , everywhere else.. In particular and IMHO, in this small room, 705p in the ceiling are a waste.
 
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No. 5

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Can you actually have worse bass response in a room by having too many subwoofers? Or are more subwoofers better regardless of room size and everything else?
In tune with what @Colonel7 posted, when it comes to the modal region, the more sound sources the better.

Based on the responses here and elsewhere, I'm thinking I could get away with the JBL 708i as LCR and the 705i everywhere else. Should save quite a lot of money and space.
@hex168 had a very good suggestion of considering CBT's. At least for the surround channels since you'll be closest to them.
 
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