First of all, speaking of grunge, look behind your system. Systematically unplug every audio and video connection from your components, (with the power off, of course,) and clean the connectors at the end of each cable. There are a number of fancy "home theater" cleaning kits and sprays manufactured for this purpose. However, I suggest a paper towel lightly soaked in common household rubbing alcohol. If you really want to splurge, go to a pharmacy and buy a bottle of alcohol that's at least 90% isopropyl. ("Isopropyl" is simply a measure of alcohol's purity. Rubbing alcohol that you can buy from most grocery stores for 75 cents a bottle is about 70% isopropyl, meaning it's about 30% water. The less water, or higher its isopropyl, the better it will clean your components and the quicker it will evaporate, thus less chance for oxidation and poor connections to occur.)
After you've done that, look at your home audio system and how it's placed in the room. Are your speakers all placed equally around one focal point? If you have a subwoofer, where is it? There isn't anything blocking any of your speakers, is there? Most websites with something to say on the subject will tell you to place your left and right channel speakers somewhere between 25 to 30 degrees off-axis from your television. This works well if, and only if, you have a 5.1 or 7.1 home theater setup. If, however you're content with stereo speakers, (which simply means one speaker for each ear,) you'll want to spread your left and right speakers about as far apart as possible while still maintaining equal distance from the television. In other words, if your TV is one foot to the left of center of a wall that is 12 feet wide, try to place each speaker five feet from the center of the TV. (With stereo sound, balance and symmetry are most important. Plus, the further apart the speakers are, the "wider" the sound will seem.) Since sound will reflect off hard surfaces, such as walls, try to center the TV in the room, if possible. Your listening experience will be noticeably improved.
Bass frequencies of sound travel equally well in all directions, so if you have a subwoofer it can go just about anywhere in the room. Of course, the closer a person sits to the sub, the louder the bass will sound. One way to use this advantage would be to place the subwoofer as close as possible to the couch, or wherever the listening position might happen to be. With just a little bit of volume, you will literally feel the low end rumble! (Can you say "shake your booty?") Corner placement of the sub will provide the greatest enhancement of this effect. Additional subwoofer speakers placed elsewhere in the room will help it sound more theater-like. (In technical geek terms, this is called "low-end frequency response.")
If you happen to be among the fortunate with 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound in your home, congratulations! Now let's talk about where your optimum speaker locations will be. In a surround sound system, you will have extra speakers, or channels, for center and surround. (The ".1" in, for example, "5.1" refers to the subwoofer, since it only reproduces low-frequency bass and not the full spectrum of sound we humans are used to.) The center speaker goes, you guessed it, in the center! It is commonly placed right above the TV. Left and right speakers don't change positions much, with the exception that there isn't a need to place them as far apart as with a 2-channel or stereo system. The surround channels will take care of the "width" and "depth" of your theater sound. Speaking of which, here's what you want to do with your surround speakers: Left and right surround should be right next to the couch, (or wherever your main listening position might be,) and a little further apart than your left and right front speakers. If there are also left and right rear surround, as in a 7.1 system, they should be placed slightly behind the main listening position, and as far apart as the front left and right speakers.
In a follow-up article, we'll continue our discussion of home theater speaker placement. I'll also tell you how to get the best picture possible, no matter what type of TV you're watching. Thanks for reading!
Brought to you by Michael M. Koch, audio engineer at large.
Copyright © 2009 Michael M. Koch
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