Yes in front of the TV is correct, but I'm pretty sure that it's still compromised by the positioning of it.

1) Is it at the edge of your console table?
2) Is it titled upwards so that the tweeter is at ear level when you sit down?
3) What is the crossover set to for the center channel?
4) EXTSTEREO simply means all speakers are playing a 2.0 signal, you are no longer playing a 5.1 soundtrack. The center is louder because you didn't level match them.

1) There then, is your problem. Not only is it off center, the edge of the table is also causing refraction issues for the center channel because it acts like like reflection point.

2) The tweeter should be at your ear level when you sit down. This is important.

3) Crossover is the setting of a point where your speaker crosses lower frequencies it can play well to the subwoofer. A good starting point is usually 80hz, but depending on room and speakers you may want to increase it further.

As for @bolded
That's not the way to level match. In order to level match, you need to have an SPL meter (or use your phone if you want, don't expect accurate results of course) and you sit at your main listening spot. Then you set the volume to 0db, play a pink noise (most receivers has an option to enable pink noise) and check the SPL. All speakers should be reporting 75db, if one isn't you either increase or lower it until it is. This includes the sub as well. After all your speakers are 75db, you can then add 1-2db to your center channel and another 3-6db on your sub. This is the easiest way for beginner to get their speakers playing properly.

Red - try either of those placements.
Green - potential dual sub placement.

Unfortunately (well fortunate if you ask me), you actually need multi subs to cancel out the waves that is causing the nulls and peaks in your room. The real issue is the size and shape of your room, it is neither a real rectangle nor is it big.

You will also need a calibrated mic and REW to see what the actual issues are in your room.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Jul 2 2021, 03:14 PM

My experience and opinion is that dual subs (or more) is one of the top 3 most important things to have if the room is not of a symmetrical shape and the listener has multiple seat locations (like you do). A second sub should definitely be in your next upgrade path.

You can use different subs if you want, but you will need to gain match them. Not very complicated to do, just requires you to put the sub in your first preferred location, set the gain on sub 1 to something you desire then put sub 2 at the same location and match the precious sub'e gain. You will need a SPL meter to verify that their output volume is the same. After that place sub 2 at its intended 2nd sub location. Then you have to time align them by setting the delay on the sub that is farthest away from you. That said, if you don't have measurement tools like a calibrated mic and REW then it's basically impossible to achieve.

Most people will just use the same subs because that way you don't actually have to gain match, you just level match them instead which is much more straight forward.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Jul 3 2021, 04:27 PM

You can do it either way, it's up to you.

I personally like to simplify to as little cables as possible to reduce possibility of handshake problems. Just gotta make sure cable is properly up to spec, so if you're passing through 4k60 then make sure the cable is capable of HDMI 2.0 bandwidth (18gbps).

2 towers and 1 center + 1 sub = 3.1.

In that case they can be 10.2gbps cables (HDMI 1.4), since moves are only 4k24 off the BD player.

Stands do matter - to a certain extent.

Hollow stands will actually cause artificial reverberation, that could then be amplified by nearby boundary. Weak stands may also not be able to handle the weight of a speaker.

Of course, don't be an idiot and buy for some plutonium-infused blast proof glass stand or something.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Aug 4 2021, 09:42 PM

Lol. Damn you're either stupid or a bigot, or both.

Sound of course doesn't come from the stand. Sound is REFLECTED from the stand off the speakers. Every object in the room is part of the sound, including the listener. Ever thought about that? No, because you don't even know how sound travels and interact.

The important thing about surround speaker placement is the height and the angle of them. How tall are those IKEA shelves? Ideally you'd want surround channels to be 2-3ft above your ear while seated. If you're doing Atmos/DTSX, then the surround speakers should be between ear level and up to 1ft above at most.

My opinion get those rosewood looking stands and get them higher than 80cm.

Clarity in center channel has very little (if any) to do with what receiver you pair it with. Proper positioning of the center channel is the only way you're going to get clarity out of the center speaker. Besides that, if your center channel design is the typical MTM array, it's always going to have lobing issues when you sit off axis. That's simply the inherent design flaw, can't do anything about it.

Yamaha V4A is currently the cheapest entry in Yamaha's latest line up, but if you ask me it's quite overpriced at RM2.5k+.

If you don't need any of the fancy HDMI 2.1 features, perhaps look into the second hand market for 2019 models?

If a receiver doesn't have an option of LPF for LFE, then it is automatically already 120hz by default. The manufacturer don't allow you to change it because it was proven in the pass, people confuse it with the crossover for sub. I don't know about Trinnov and Lyngdorf, but for Yamaha and Pioneer I have measured and verified that their LPF for LFE is indeed 120hz. I assume high end flag ships from Trinnov and Lyngdorf also adhere to the same value.

With a minidsp, if you are really anal about the correct crossover setting you actually need to measure with REW using the time alignment tool to figure out the average median where the main speaker and subwoofer(s) overlap. I will say this and a lot of people will not agree because their religion practices has taught them otherwise: 80hz is NOT the best crossover value, contrary to popular misbelief.

It doesn't matter what speakers you have in your room, you can even have true 20hz-20khz towers like a Sonus Faber Il Cremonese but it all depends on the room dimensions and where you place the speakers, sub(s) and seating position which will determine the best crossover point. For reference, I personally use 100hz for my LCR because that is what measured best and sounds best, eventhough for a long time I kept telling myself 80hz is suppose to be "correct".

Also yes, the crossover value on the sub should be increased to the point where it is much higher than any LFE will ever reach or simply just maxed out. If your friends do not want to disable the crossover on the sub, they will then be using what it is called "cascading bass" value. Unfortunately, without being able to set the LPF for LFE on receivers, you cannot properly fine tune the cascading slope. So unless you know what you're doing, just do it the standard way by disabling the crossover on the sub, let the minidsp or receiver handle the crossover instead.



This post has been edited by SSJBen: Nov 26 2021, 07:07 PM

1) How did you measure with the YPAO mic? Did you use a tripod? A boom arm?

2) How did you exactly place your center channel? A picture would be better to illustrate your issue. Simply tilting the center channel upwards doesn't mean perfect dialog clarity.

3) Is the crossover for the center channel set correctly? YPAO most probably set it to "Large". It should be set to "Small" with a crossover value from 80-120hz.

4) Before increasing the level of the center channel, check the above 3 things I said first. A properly positioned and calibrated center speaker does not require a level boost unless its sensitivity is much lower than the main L/R speakers.

P.S Not all movies are mixed the same way. There exists plenty of movies (even very recent ones) where dialog is either intentionally mixed at a very low volume or the actors just suck at talking.

This post has been edited by SSJBen: Nov 26 2021, 07:16 PM

Point 2: Assuming your center channel is on a console table, is the front baffle of the speaker flush with the edge of your console? Just being behind by 2 inches causes diffraction and if you have it all the way back to the wall, you are also actually causing a phenomenon known as speaker boundary interference response (SBIR). What that means is that the sound (called frequency waves) are being cancelled by the time it reaches your seating position which can cause dialog clarity issues. The other issue is also the low end being amplified due to boundary gain which then clouds the mid range (the vocal region), again causing clarity issues in dialog.

Point 3: Like I explained above, the best crossover can only be chosen if you have a mic to measure its time alignment response. 100hz on paper sounds "good", but the ideal crossover may be lower or higher. You have no way to know without measuring. Of course you could just stick with 100hz and your ears will over time adjust to the response and it'll "sound good", just like how every audiophile came up with this myth of "burn in".

YPAO has never been good, especially when it comes to sub EQ. YPAO has improved over the years, but Audyssey is still ahead. This will never change until Yamaha uses finite response filters for YPAO instead of infinite filters. If you truly want to EQ your sub(s), you will need to buy a measurement mic (like a UMIK1), download REW (free), learn how to measure your room response and build a proper custom EQ with a healthy house curve which you would then export into an external DSP device like a minidsp 2x4HD.


Most mics are not accurate below 50hz anyways. The idea of an SPL meter is so that you can get the levels of all speakers matched. The level matching has nothing to do with your overall system volume, because that's determined by your receiver.

People have this misconception that all speakers must be 75db average. Actually it doesn't matter what the average value is. You just want it loud enough so that it beats the noise floor in your room, which would make it mask any other noise (fan, AC noise etc.) when the EQ process is taking place.

One of the worst things you can put at the back of the room (opposite of your screen at the front) is glass. Not because it would break but rather more crucially = glass is the worst surface due to how reflective it is.

Not only you will have to deal with nasty anomalies in frequency response, but you would also have to deal with glass reflecting the light off the front projection screen which causes glare. Glass is one of the dumbest things to put in a HT room.

You have to build a room within a room.

For the walls inside the room, I did it similar to this:



Difference is that I'm not using R13 fiberglass, but rather Rockwool 38kg/m3.

What I learned is that I shouldn't have used double 5/8" gypsum wall because it made the walls too stiff, especially for a small room (18' x 13' ft) which created too much room gain for the low frequency response.

ALWAYS use wood framing btw, never aluminum. Low frequency will vibrate the hell out of aluminum frames.

Been about 2+ years since I built my HT room with that said construction.

So far no itch, rashes or any other kind of skin irritation. I think that only happens if you don't seal the drywall properly.

How and what is your room dimensions first? It's critical to determine what kinda setup you should go for.

Example if you do not have adequate space behind your seating position, there's no point doing 7.1.2 if the surround back speakers are going to be 6 inches from the back of your head. It would be better to do 5.1.4 instead in that case.

"Brand and model" is a vague term. Too vague to give an answer to. What are you talking about in those terms? Speakers or receiver?

16x20 is not a rectangle, you'll be dealing with a lot of irregular room modes and 2nd order cancelations.

Screen size is up to your decision if you're placing the speakers behind an acoustically transparent screen or not. If you aren't, then of course you'll have to lower the screen size to accommodate placing the L and R mains.

If you're following the 1/3rd couch placement rule, then you shouldn't have an issue placing the surround back channels to make up the bed layer 7.1 channels. To be frank with you, if you're only going to do 2 height channels then I suggest not to do it at all. It's kinda pointless at that point especially when Dolby Atmos track mixes for home audio is already pretty bad to begin with. I don't see why you can't go for the full 7.1.4 setup though, it'll fit fine in the room if you ask me.

Side note: there is no .2 in the channel designation of a speaker layout (i.e 7.x.2/4/6). The sub channel is ALWAYS a mono signal, not stereo. You can have a hundred subs in the room, it's still only a .1 channel.

Does your budget includes BOTH speakers and AVR (what about room treatments?)? Because if so, it might not actually be enough at max RM30k.

It's a common misconception I think when people mention the number of subs in a channel setup. Because when someone has 2 subs, I guess it's in some way proper to say they have 5.2.2 setup for example. They use the number as how many speakers they have in the system, except that number isn't used for the quantity of speakers, it's actual definition is the number of channels.

Channels =/= to quantity of speakers. When you go to a commercial cinema, you'll see they have like 5 main speakers behind the screen, 18 surround speakers, 20 over heads and 10 surround back speakers and 4 subs for example. But despite that, do you see a THX certified cinema call it a 33.4.20 channel setup? They of course don't because the signal is still just a 7.1.36 (36 being the heights for Atmos). Similarly I have 6 subs in my room, it doesn't mean I call my system 7.6.4 ya know?

I don't have enough experience with projectors in general though, so I'm not the best person to ask regarding projectors. I do know that Optoma UHD35+ is a pretty decent projector however.

There are acoustically transparent screens you can use if you want to put speakers behind it. For movies, it is the best setup because you don't have to compromise on the center channel (which is by far the most important speaker in a multi-channel setup) with a typical horizontal MTM design speaker. You could use vertical (which is the best way how woofers and tweeters should be aligned) MTM bookshelves behind a screen for no issues with lobing or phase shifts when listening off-axis.