DIY Network

Installing the Speakers Learn how to create uniform sound in your new home theater room. From "Home Theater" episode DHTW-104

Host Corey Greenberg and engineer Mark Midyett discuss the placement of the speakers in this segment of Home Theater Workshop.

In the last segment host Corey Greenberg and engineer Mark Midyett installed the home-theater electonics, and now they're ready to tackle the speaker setup. The goal is to avoid vibrations in the cabinetry and create uniform sound throughout the room.

Speaker Placement

• The first step is to place the two subwoofers in the cabinet that was built under the big screen--photo in the first segment of this episode.

Q: Can you place subwoofers anywhere in the room?

A: No. You want to locate the subwoofers in the "front" of the room because in your home theater you're trying to create a uniform sound field where you can't exactly pinpoint the location of any one speaker. And you want the subwoofers to blend seamlessly with the front center, left and right speakers.

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• Homeowner Peter Moore decided to place his subwoofers within a cabinet, and since subwoofer already come in a cabinet, this pose a problem. The solution was to stuff the cabinets with fiberglass insulation (figure A), and once you have the exact location for the subwoofer, you can stuff the rest of the cabinet with insulation.

  Q: Does the fiberglass insulation also help reduce vibrations?

  A: In one word, yes! If you're going to put your left and center and maybe your right or left speakers in a bookcase, you may want to consider purchasing a rubber isolation pad (figure B), which will keep the vibrations from the speakers from transferring into the cabinet and creating unwanted noises.

• The next step is to install the center speaker. Since the screen being used isn't perforated, the center speaker can't go behind the screen. Instead, Mark (with Peter's approval) decided to mount the center speaker above (figure C), rather than below, the screen. This will provide better sound coverage to "all parts" of the room.

Figure A

Figure B

Figure C

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