5.1 Speakers or soundbar? Odd shaped living room

rwm24 · 3 Apr 2014 at 21:12

I've recently moved house and now most of the important things are sorted it's time to address the terrible sound my TV produces.

I currently have an Onkyo 507 receiver and Jano A102 speakers that I bought about 4 years ago. However at the moment they are stuffed in a box in the spare room at the moment, due to the layout of the living room.

Here are some pictures:

Bonus cat included in picture 2

Here is a fantastic paint scribble of the layout, without dimensions.

Is it possible to use the speakers I've already got and make it presentable? If so, where should we place the speakers? We don't really want a speaker on the left side of the sofa, as that would be in the middle of the room.

Alternatively if that isn't possible: A soundbar. I have trouble hearing voices, so I've been tempted to purchase a Yamaha YAS101bl which has a "ClearVoice" setting. Unless someone has any better soundbar suggestions?

tom_nieto · 3 Apr 2014 at 21:28

I would set up your current speakers and see how they do rather than splash out without even trying. The rear left speaker would probably sit on top of the bookshelf as close to the seating position as possible. Eventually wall mounting or ceiling mounting would be better. Adjusting the individual speaker levels would be helpful - I don't know if your receiver can do this.

Your Feng Shui is tricky!

EDIT: I would be tempted to turn your sofa 90 degrees and put the TV I'm the opposite corner. Ceiling mount the front speakers or just go with a stereo setup (little point in having a centre if your fronts are forced very close together) or sound bar.

rwm24 · 3 Apr 2014 at 21:30

tom_nieto said:
I would set up your current speakers and see how they do rather than splash out without even trying. The rear left speaker would probably sit on top of the bookshelf as close to the seating position as possible. Eventually wall mounting or ceiling mounting would be better. Adjusting the individual speaker levels would be helpful - I don't know if your receiver can do this.

Your Feng Shui is tricky!

That would mean running speaker cable all the way around the living room to the book case. Another thing we don't really want to do

I know this is probably always going to be the case though.

tom_nieto · 3 Apr 2014 at 21:33

Try it temporarily and see if the sound lives up to your expectation. If yes, run it along the skirting board under the French window and hide it that way. If not, forget about the whole thing and buy a sound bar.

Marsman · 3 Apr 2014 at 23:05

Check to see if your receiver has a 3.1 mode. You could ditch the rear speakers if it does, or maybe use 2.1 if it doesn't. Personally, I'd favour either as your speakers are pretty good, a soundbar will be a certain step down unless you pay a lot. You can have either 2.1 or 3.1 without paying out any more money.

dholdi · 3 Apr 2014 at 23:54

I have the same amp and speakers presuming you mean Jamo ?
If it was me I would ditch the fireplace and put the tv there, move the sofa over a bit and put the speakers as :-

The amp does have speaker positional correction as suggested earlier by tom, you need the supplied mike to do this automatically but it can be done manually. They shouldn't need much adjustment if you go for the layout suggested.

That's assuming you can get ditching the fireplace past the other half

Phate · 4 Apr 2014 at 11:27

I would swivel the sofa round so its facing the wall without the fireplace and blocks off a small part of the sliding door entrance and move the tv to the wall its facing.

Fireplace is kept = Happy Missus
Room for full speaker setup = win win

This is a reason why I cannot stand fireplaces, they always dictate the tv being in the corner of the room!

Skeeter · 5 Apr 2014 at 13:31

I just came here to post almost this exact thread, but I won't derail it with MS Paint abominations of my own living room

.

Just wondering how good Sound Bars are for getting a surround sound effect in odd layed out room?

wesimmo · 5 Apr 2014 at 13:46

I got a soundbar for one of the same reasons as you, we had a baby who would have been caused carnage with the cabling as we have laminate flooring so it can't be easily hidden and we're living in rented accomodation so doing anything more permanent was just more trouble than it was worth.

It's ok, YSP-2200, so not a cheap one, but if you can make traditional speakers work i would.

Also having an odd shaped room won't help a soundbar i wouldn't have thought, the fact we've got a huge window along 1 wall that has big thick curtains across it in the winter and a blind in the summer doesn't help either, though i try and re-calibrate it.

tom_nieto · 5 Apr 2014 at 15:37

Phate said:
I would swivel the sofa round so its facing the wall without the fireplace and blocks off a small part of the sliding door entrance and move the tv to the wall its facing.

Fireplace is kept = Happy Missus
Room for full speaker setup = win win

This is a reason why I cannot stand fireplaces, they always dictate the tv being in the corner of the room!

In front of the French window? It'd block the whole thing!

Could you mount the TV above the fireplace?

ecksmen · 5 Apr 2014 at 22:05

I'd move the TV to the right of the French doors, flush to the wall and put the sofa against the opposite wall (where the TV is now), the TV may be slightly off centre, but hey ho.

gingerbiscuit69 · 6 Apr 2014 at 19:13

id push the sofa right into the wall, put the tv directly opposite [so like half from corner to fireplace], and just run 2.1 or 3.1.

The fact you are considering a soundbar says you don't really need 5.1! All they are is 3.1 [assuming separate sub] in one enclosure, with lots of DSP to make it sound more than it is [Bose style]. The twoddle saying you can get surround off them is mad, regardless of what fancy names they throw around.

Bossk128 · 7 Apr 2014 at 17:51

Phate said:
I would swivel the sofa round so its facing the wall without the fireplace and blocks off a small part of the sliding door entrance and move the tv to the wall its facing.

Fireplace is kept = Happy Missus
Room for full speaker setup = win win

This is a reason why I cannot stand fireplaces, they always dictate the tv being in the corner of the room!

I agree, this is what I'd do and don't care about the window. It's the best reasonable equilateral setup you can go for. If you have to run cable (and of course you do) either put it behind the skirting, or get cable sympathetic to the colour of the skirting and just tack it to the beading. Unless you are going £15pm biwiring etc you'll never notice.

I really dislike sound bars, they are so much of a compromise and not really that cheap either. Nothing beats discrete surround sound!