The Basics of Home Theater Design

_____________________________________________________________________________
By Floyd E. Toole, Vice President, Acoustical Engineering
Harman International Industries, Incorporated, Northridge, CA

It would be nice if we could custom-design every room that we equip for home
entertainment, but reality is not so kind to us. We need to be able to make do with many sizes
and shapes of rooms, and with customers who have large and small budgets, and widely differing
tastes in interior décor and tolerance for things technical.
Gone is the concept of the TV and the stereo set. Video and audio now function together,
and the layout of an entertainment system begins with the rules on where things need to go in
order to work as intended. After about 50 years with two-channel stereo, we now are dealing with
5 to 7 channels of audio, subwoofers and video displays of fundamentally different new types −
high definition, and on and on. It is not simple, but neither is it mysterious. So, let’s have a look at
what the pieces are and how they fit together to make a really good home theater.

1. MULTICHANNEL AUDIO/SURROUND SOUND

Although it is through movies that it came into our homes, multichannel audio is
becoming the new standard for music as well. Of course, picture and sound need to be
coordinated, with the three front loudspeakers arranged, left, center and right, with respect to the
video display. Added to these are two surround loudspeakers, which should be located beside
and slightly behind the listeners, making it a 5-channel system. In movie theaters, powerful low-
frequency sound effects (LFE) are delivered by a separate channel. This is the 0.1 channel,
which explains why we call these systems 5.1-channel surround. In home theaters, the low bass
from all five channels is usually combined, added to the LFE, and the total signal is sent to the
subwoofer output. This is called ‘bass management,’ and to properly make use of it you must
remember to go into the receiver or processor setup routine and set the left (L), center (C),
right (R) and surround/side left (SL) and right (SR) loudspeakers to ‘small,’ and then turn the
subwoofer output on by telling it that there is one. ‘Small’ is simply a way of saying that no low
bass will be sent to these loudspeakers, and that all of the bass (including the LFE) will be sent
to the subwoofer. If the customer has two large, full-range loudspeakers, these can be used as
‘large’ front L and R units, and the others can be set to ‘small’. The bass manager will direct all of
the bass to the ‘large’ loudspeakers. A subwoofer then becomes an option if, for example, more
bass is needed to fill a very large room. There are other setup possibilities, and given that
manufacturers do not all follow the same set of rules, it is wise to consult the manual or tech
support for your particular receiver or surround processor to determine what settings are
appropriate for a specific installation.
Most movies and increasingly more music is available in multichannel audio formats,
but it is important to know that there are algorithms/modes in receivers and surround processors
that convert two-channel sources, such as CDs, FM and TV audio, into a multichannel signal.
Harman’s Logic 7® is an excellent example, as is Dolby® Pro Logic® II. Nowadays, multichannel
systems have expanded to include one rear surround loudspeaker (6.1 channels) or two rear
loudspeakers (7.1 channels). There are a few movies that specifically make use of these
channels, but receivers and surround processors create the signals necessary to drive them,
even if the signal source is a 5.1, or two-channel signal. The advantages of the additional two
surround channels can be dramatic, making the sense of perceived acoustical ambience in
movies and music much more realistic, especially if there are several listeners in the room.

1.1. Locating the Front Loudspeakers

The center loudspeaker does more than 80% of the work in movies and TV sound, and
therefore it needs to be a good one – identical to or from the same family as the left and right
loudspeakers. It can be located above or below the picture – centered on the picture – but make
sure that the tweeter is more than about 24 inches above the floor. The picture tends to dominate
our impressions of direction to the point that we tend to localize the sounds to the action on the
screen. But there is a limit, and if the loudspeaker is too far away from the picture, as in the

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ceiling above it, don’t be surprised if a customer complains about ‘detached’ voices. So, if
possible, arrange for the center channel to be on or at least close to the video display.
Ideally, the left and right loudspeakers should be positioned with their tweeters near
seated ear height, about 40 inches above the floor, although there is a generous tolerance on
this. Again, ceiling locations, while attractive from the visual point of view, are least satisfactory
from a sound perspective. Use your charm and expertise to persuade customers to accept in-
wall, on-wall or freestanding loudspeaker alternatives. Incidentally, aiming the tweeter of a ceiling
speaker at the listener does not change where the sound is perceived to come from, although the
high frequencies will probably be louder. Horizontally, try to get the left and right loudspeakers at
± 20º to ± 30º, relative to the center channel when viewed from the ‘money seat’ (this is a left-right
spacing of about 0.8 to 1.2 times the distance from the seat to the screen). Putting them close to
the sides of the video display is acceptable for large screens, but they should be spaced away
from smaller screens; otherwise, some of the spatial and directional effects will be lost, especially
in music recordings.

1.2. Locating the Surround Loudspeakers

It may be a hangover from quadraphonics or it may be because we tend to call them
‘rear’ channels, but one of the most common mistakes is to put the two surround speakers in a
5.1 channel system on the rear wall, behind the listeners. This is wrong. If there are only two
surround loudspeakers, they should be positioned to the sides of the listeners. Again, there is a
tolerance and, in practice, they will be found to work acceptably if they are forced to be slightly
ahead, and even better if they are slightly behind. The rear wall is reserved for the additional
surround loudspeakers in 6.1 and 7.1 systems. We recommend 7.1 channels where possible.

Two rooms arranged correctly for

multichannel reproduction of movies
and music. Both work superbly. The
white speakers at the back of each
room are for systems capable of
seven-channel operation, a
recommended option. In the
arrangement at the right, the space
behind the TV is perfect for a
subwoofer and/or a remote-
controlled rack of equipment. The
seating is also much more sociable
than the formal “theater” seating.

Surround loudspeakers should be located about halfway between ear level and the
ceiling or, if the ceiling is very high, about 5–6 feet above the floor. If the ceiling is of normal
height (about 8 feet) in-ceiling loudspeakers are an option if it is not possible to use in- or on-wall
units. Locate them approximately as shown in these diagrams, not above the listeners’ heads.
A common troublesome situation is when the back wall is immediately behind the seats.
There is no place to put the 6th and 7th channel loudspeakers, so don’t even try. Set the system
up as 5.1-channel surround, with the side loudspeakers located just slightly forward of the
listeners, not stuck in the corners. In addition, to tame the powerful sound reflection from the
back wall, try to find a way to get some sound-absorbing material – fiberglass, acoustic foam,
cushions, a fabric wall hanging, etc. – immediately behind the heads of the listeners. Two to four
inches of fiberglass, covered with a loose-weave fabric (so sound can get through it) would be
ideal. High-backed, fabric-upholstered chairs also work.

2. SELECTING AND MOUNTING THE LOUDSPEAKERS

The quality of sound is dependent on two factors: the loudspeakers themselves, and
where they are put. A good loudspeaker in a bad location makes bad sound. Most conventional
‘box’ loudspeakers are designed to sound best when they are freestanding, away from

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everything. But that is not how they always are used. Let’s start by trying to understand what it is
that makes a good-sounding loudspeaker.

2.1. The Loudspeaker/Room System

Sounds radiate in all directions from a loudspeaker. The

first sound to arrive at the ears travels in a straight line
direct from the loudspeaker, but soon afterwards, there
are numerous other sounds that have been reflected from
the walls, floor, ceiling and furnishings of the room. All
of these sounds together are combined in our minds to
form the perceptions of what we hear. Loudspeakers,
therefore, must be designed so that all of these sounds
are good sounds, otherwise the timbre, or sound quality,
of recorded voices and musical instruments will be
degraded. In fact, since most of the sound that we hear
in a room is reflected sound, the off-axis behavior of
loudspeakers is exceptionally important.
Consequently, when we measure a loudspeaker, we measure everything that radiates
from it, in all directions. Then we calculate, from this data, what a listener in an average room
would hear. The measurements must be done in an echo-free environment – outdoors or in an
expensive anechoic chamber – so that they are accurate.

ON AXIS
d LISTENING
EARLY
B SOUND
S
P
10 dB
5 dB DI
0 dB
20 100 1K 10K 20K Hz

The figure above shows a set of measurements that give us a very good prediction of how this
loudspeaker will sound in a room. The on-axis curve describes the direct sound, the
first sound to arrive at the ears of somebody seated in the ‘sweet spot’. The listening window
describes the average direct sound for listeners seated or standing within a ±10º vertical, ±30º
horizontal region directly in front of the loudspeaker – the entire audience in a home theater, for
example. The next curve describes the sound of the average strong early reflections from the
room boundaries, and the sound power is a measure of the total sound output of the loudspeaker
without regard to direction. The bottom two curves describe the directivity (DI is Directivity Index)
of the loudspeaker: how uniformly it radiates its sound into the room at all frequencies. In a truly
good-sounding loudspeaker, the on-axis and listening window curves will be smooth and flat, and
the other curves will be smoothly and gradually changing. This is an example of an exceptionally
good loudspeaker.

Clearly, a single curve is not sufficient information to describe how a loudspeaker will
sound in a room. When we do double-blind listening tests, it is routine for loudspeakers with
measurements that tend toward the ones shown here to sound good, and get high scores from
listeners. When they show irregularities, even quite small ones, the scores go down. So when
we install loudspeakers into our homes, we need to be sure that we are not changing how the
loudspeaker behaves. As it turns out, each mounting option has its consequences in respect
to how a loudspeaker sounds. Let us look at some common installation techniques.

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 First, a 6-inch two-way loudspeaker is put on a stand, three or more feet away from the
walls, as serious audiophiles might do (a). Then it is hung on a wall (b). Then it is placed into
a cavity, such as in the now-popular entertainment centers (c), and then the space around it is
filled with fiberglass (d). Finally, it is flush-mounted into a wall or custom cabinet (e). The dashed
curves in (e) show the result of turning the bass down to compensate for the gain provided by the
wall. The top curve of each set is the on-axis measurement and the lower curve is total sound
power. The vertical axis is in dB, and the horizontal axis is frequency, from 20Hz to 20kHz, as in
the previous example.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

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 Inspecting these curves, it can be seen that placing a loudspeaker near or in a wall
boosts the low-frequency output. This is because all conventional ‘box’ loudspeakers are
omnidirectional at very low frequencies, and the sound that would have traveled backwards, away
from the loudspeaker, is now reflected by the wall and adds to the forward radiated sound. The
effect diminishes with increasing frequency. This simple effect, if it is the only issue, as in (e),
can be easily corrected with a bass tone control or a simple equalizer. Without correction, the
loudspeaker is likely to sound fat and boomy. If a loudspeaker is designed for in-wall or on-wall
mounting, then the correction will have been incorporated in the original design, and no further
correction is necessary. This is why we build different loudspeakers for different kinds of
mounting.
The other mounting options shown here have additional problems caused by an
acoustical cancellation due to the woofer being the thickness of the loudspeaker away from the
wall (b), or a combination of cavity resonances and diffraction effects (c) – ugh!! Filling the
cavities with sound-absorbing material damps the resonances (d), but some of the problem
remains. If this is done, cover the entire opening with grille cloth, such as polyester double-knit, or
some other open-weave fabric. Mounting (c) sounds particularly bad. Sadly, it is a very common
experience, encouraged by the misleading name that we give to these small loudspeakers:
bookshelf loudspeakers. Ironically, in practice we find that the worst place for a bookshelf
loudspeaker is on a bookshelf. If the spaces around them are filled with books, the situation is
improved, but this is not always done.
The conclusion to be drawn from this set of data is that there are really only two locations
where a loudspeaker can be expected to perform truly well: freestanding, or flush-mounted in a
wall. If a loudspeaker is mounted flush in a wall or cabinet, and it is not an on-wall or in-wall
loudspeaker, then some equalization is necessary to compensate for excessive bass.

2.2. In-Wall/In-Ceiling Loudspeakers

Loudspeakers designed for installation in walls and ceilings are not new, but ones that
sound really good are. There have been exceptions, of course, but, until recently, most of these
products were used in commercial ‘distributed sound’ applications, where sound quality was not a
prime concern. A lot of them evolved from speakers conceived for car audio and, just as in that
application, the lack of high expectations and the absence of rigid enclosures led to an
acceptance of less than stellar sound quality. Now, of course, they are considered as viable
options to conventional freestanding loudspeakers, whether the sound quality is there or not.
The Harman brands have worked hard to elevate the sound quality standards of all
in-wall models. Some of the high-end in-walls actually compare favorably with very good
freestanding models, but such quality is not inexpensive. Careful installation of good in-wall
loudspeakers can result in absolutely first-class sound. Some high-end models even have
vibration isolation, to minimize coupling of the loudspeaker vibrations to the drywall.
At the other end of the quality spectrum are careless and carefree installations, where it
seems that no thought has been given to integrating sound and picture – the video display can be
well away from the center channel – and all of the loudspeakers are in the ceiling because that is
the path of least resistance for those selling the systems or the houses. There is sound, but it is
not good sound. If plumbing systems were designed according to this philosophy, we would find
toilets in closets and sinks in the garage – hide them. Instead, it is accepted that they perform
important functions in our lives, and they are placed where they work best, even though it
challenges decorators to find ways to integrate them visually.
All too often we find the fireplace where the video display should be. Well, the fireplace is
no longer the ‘hearth’ of family life. Television, movies, and music are, so let us arrange our living
spaces accordingly. Architects need to be dragged into the current century. I personally have just
spent thousands of dollars to move a fireplace located by horse-and-buggy-era thinking, to a
location that matches a 21st-century lifestyle. It is a relatively new house, so there is no excuse.
In-wall/in-ceiling loudspeakers radiate their sound primarily in a direction perpendicular to
the surface in which they are mounted. If this is a ceiling, the aiming point is the floor. Although
sound does radiate sideways, it is not the best sound and, even with tweeters that can be
aimed, there is still a compromise. The loss can be more than sound quality; it can be speech
intelligibility, something rather important in television viewing. The ultimate compromise is that

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sounds that were intended to be localized down at the level of the listeners and the video display
are instead coming from above. As said earlier, this can be tolerated for the surround channels,
but it is something to be resisted for the front channels.
For distributed sound applications, i.e., background music for kitchens, bedrooms, baths,
recreation rooms, ceilings are excellent locations. In some areas the fact that the sound fires
downward can be used to advantage, directing it at the locations where the ‘action’ is, by the sink
and stove in the kitchen, for example. If the customer wants to hear ‘sound everywhere’, then the
issue is the density of the units required to achieve uniform coverage. Low ceilings require more
units than high ceilings, acoustically dead rooms require more units than more reverberant
spaces, and so on. Wide-dispersion loudspeakers cover more area than directional loudspeakers.
You may need to do some experimenting.
An important factor in in-wall/in-ceiling loudspeakers that is often overlooked is that the
sound easily can leak into other parts of the house. In-wall loudspeakers obviously can ‘talk’ to an
adjacent room. Ceiling loudspeakers, especially those without back boxes, can fill an attic with
sound that then can penetrate into other rooms. Loudspeakers close to HVAC ducts have ready
made pathways to other parts of a house. All of these cautions need to be carefully considered
and explained to customers who are dreaming of ‘invisible’ loudspeakers.
Some loudspeakers are designed to work best with back boxes of a specific volume,
and some are quite tolerant of the effective volume of the wall space. It is an engineering design
option as far as the bass response is concerned. A back box will help to constrain the sound
within the wall cavity, reducing its tendency to travel throughout the wall, especially if the box is
constructed with perforated steel studs. In any case, it is recommended to loosely fill the wall
cavity or back box with glass or polyester or cellulose fiber.
In-wall subwoofers exist, but if space is available, any subwoofer can be mounted in a
cavity in a wall or cabinet. If there is a port, be careful not to block it, and allow for a generous
acoustical path for the low bass frequencies to escape into the room. If the sub is powered,
allow for ventilation, otherwise it will overheat and lapse into an expensive silence. Since low
frequencies radiate omnidirectionally, it doesn’t matter which way the driver faces.

2.3. On-Wall Loudspeakers

These are loudspeakers that have been designed to sound good when they are hanging
on a wall. The bass balance is correct for this kind of mounting, and the shallow depth minimizes
the problematic acoustical cancellation dip seen in (b) of the previous figure. Many multi-
directional surround loudspeakers fall into this category, and there are a few conventional
forward-firing loudspeakers that can be used either as front or surround channels, or for
distributed sound installations where in-wall mounting is not possible.

2.4. Floorstanding Loudspeakers

Floorstanding speakers, whether they are towers or bookshelf speakers on stands, are
affected by where they are put relative to the adjacent walls. Avoid placing them in corners. The
bass will tend to become boomy, voices chesty, and the midrange frequencies will be colored.
If possible keep them two feet or more from the sidewalls. The correct distance from the wall
behind the speakers depends on the speaker itself. Conventional front-firing speakers are
relatively tolerant, and some can work well when quite close to the back wall. Others won’t, so
try them and listen. Again, pay attention to the lower frequencies. Multidirectional speakers, like
bipolar and dipolar designs, need space, and some need to be quite far out into the room before
they work really well.
If you experiment with the positions of full-bandwidth floorstanding speakers you may
notice that several things are changing at the same time, and they may not be agreeing with each
other. For example, as the speaker is moved out into the room, it may sound spatially more ‘open’
and natural sounding. However, the bass may be less powerful, or less even. Bass usually
becomes more potent as a speaker is moved close to a wall, and even more so in a corner.
However, the corner is the worst location for all other frequencies. This is the sort of thing that
has led to the popularity of subwoofers, which can be located where they produce the best-
sounding bass, while smaller speakers can be located where they deliver the best sound and
imaging for the bulk of the audible spectrum.

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2.5. Subwoofers
Because they operate only at very low frequencies, typically below 80Hz, subwoofers are
very tolerant about how they are mounted. At these frequencies the wavelengths of sound are
very long compared to the size of the subwoofer, so the sound radiates omnidirectionally –
equally in all directions. It doesn’t matter which way they are pointed, toward the listener, up,
down or away. The sound will be the same, as long as the driver is free to radiate its sound and
the port, if there is one, is not blocked. Keeping a 4- to 6-inch clearance between the driver or
port and a wall or cabinet should be enough to let the sound radiate freely. If the sub is powered,
be sure to ventilate it. In terms of where in the room the sub should be located, and how many
subs are needed, there are other very important considerations that will be discussed later.
Since most of the acoustical power is needed for bass frequencies, the use of
subwoofers substantially reduces the size requirements for the five or seven main-channel
loudspeakers, allowing us the option of using moderately sized in-wall, on-wall or bookshelf units.

3. ROOM ACOUSTICS
The room is the final audio component and, as such, it can make or break a truly
satisfying listening experience. The shape and size of the room, and how things are arranged in
it, are major influences on the quality of bass we hear. The amount of absorbing material and
furnishings influence how ‘live’ the room sounds, and this affects ‘imaging’ and ‘space’. All rooms
are different, so a guaranteed recipe for success doesn’t exist. However, it is relatively easy to
avoid the worst mistakes.
Let us separate the issues.

1. Room size and volume. These determine whether you need large or small loud-
speakers to satisfactorily fill the space. Obviously, the needs for background music are
fundamentally different from those for a home theater. It is the main determinant of how
much subwoofer power is needed, and here it is important to note that, if the home
theater room is open to other parts of the house, the subwoofer requirements will be
influenced by the entire coupled space, not just the one where the audience is. In
general, larger rooms will have better-sounding bass, but they will need bigger, more
powerful subwoofers to fill the volume.

2. Room shape. Rectangular rooms are fine. Splayed walls, or other exotic shapes are not
necessary for good sound. L-shaped rooms and three-sided rooms force us to be more
creative, but can also work well. The shape of a room has a lot to do with room
resonances at low frequencies. In perfectly rectangular rooms, the resonances can be
calculated with good accuracy so that, if there is a problem, we have a chance of
identifying what is causing it, and fixing it. In nonrectangular rooms, it is not possible to
easily predict what will happen, requiring higher math and a big, fast computer. Notions of
certain room dimensions or proportions that are somehow ‘ideal’ are fanciful, since the
quality of bass that is delivered to our ears is determined by where the loudspeakers are
located within the room, how many there are, and precisely where the seats are located.

3. Acoustical treatment. At some time in our lives, we have all been in a totally empty
room, an experience in ‘untamed’ acoustics. Sounds are extremely ‘live’ − they reflect
and reverberate. Clap your hands and the impact is repeated hundreds of times, as the
sound is reflected among the hard, flat room boundaries. Talk, and voices take on an
artificial ‘richness’ in the lower frequencies, and intelligibility is reduced because each
utterance is prolonged by overactive reverberation. Put some carpet down, and things
improve dramatically. Add drapes, some furniture, and the room is transformed into a
much more pleasant space in which to live, converse, and listen to music and movies.
Fill the room with too much ‘stuff’, including lots of upholstery, cushions, heavy drapes,

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 etc., and the place can become overly dead and stuffy. In a normally well-furnished room,
adjusting room acoustics is mostly a matter of tweaking the furnishings.
If you really get serious about optimizing the room acoustics, be prepared to
modify the décor. The goal is to make the room neither too live nor too dead. A happy
medium is the objective.

Makes a room more “live” Makes a room more “dead”

Hardwood or tile floor with small area rugs.
Thin low-pile or looped-pile carpet.
Light ‘Scandinavian’ furnishings, leather
upholstered chairs and sofas.
Lightweight curtains and drapes. You can see
between the fibers, and blow through the fabric
easily.
Flat, unobstructed walls that act like big
acoustic mirrors.
Wall-to-wall carpet, large thick area rugs.
Thick, clipped-pile carpet with a felt or porous
foam underlay.
Bulky, fabric-upholstered chairs and sofas, with
cushions.
Heavy, dense-weave, velour or velvet drapes.
Fabrics that are more opaque, and that offer
moderate resistance to blowing.
Walls that are broken up with irregularities,
such as fireplaces, bookcases (excellent!),
paintings, display cases, etc., to add diffusion.

If you are partial to hardwood, stone or tile floors, more attention must be paid to
deadening the room with drapes and the type of furnishing. If you are partial to the stylish
wood and leather “Scandinavian” style of furniture, then you’d better think about heavy
carpeting or rugs. A combination of hardwood flooring with the light furnishings yields an
architecturally fashionable, but acoustically hostile, environment for good sound.
Thanks to the built-in ambience of multichannel sound, the error that is easiest to
live with is for the room to be too ‘dead.’ Some styles, cultures and climates encourage
hard, lively rooms, with wood or tile floors, and even plaster or masonry walls to
compound the situation. Others encourage the ‘cozy’ surroundings of heavy carpets,
drapes and soft furnishings. It can be a difficult balancing act, if decorating tastes do
not match the needs for good acoustics.
Of course, there are dedicated acoustical devices that can be purchased to add
absorption or diffusion to a room. These work, but they tend to stand out in a listening
room that is also a normal living space. Be creative, and try to find some furnishings,
artistic wall hangings, window treatments, etc., that maintain the homey atmosphere.
In a dedicated theater room, the rules are very different, and it is much more likely that
optimum acoustics can be achieved.

4. GETTING GOOD BASS

To most people, good bass is a big deal. While novices are easily impressed with the
quantity of bass, more experienced audio folks want more. They want deep, tight, clean, non-
resonant (i.e., not boomy) bass and, ideally, they want it at all seats in the room. Two-channel
stereo, which we have enjoyed for the past 50 years or so, is optimized for a single listener in
the ‘sweet spot’ – it is fundamentally antisocial, even though most of us violate the position rule,
and simply enjoy the music without enjoying the stereo imaging that is also part of the total
experience. However, multichannel audio is fundamentally different – it is social, an experience to
be shared by multiple listeners, seated at different locations in a room. After all, it originated in
cinemas, where hundreds of customers pay to share an audio/visual event.
In very large rooms, like concert halls and cinemas, bass can sound good almost
everywhere. However, in rooms the size of home theaters, resonances cause some bass
frequencies to be too loud and others to be too soft – depending on where the subwoofer is
located, and depending on where the listener is seated. So, the dimensions and shape of the
room determine the resonances. The location of the subwoofer determines which resonances
are energized. The locations of the listeners determine which of these will actually be heard.
Complicated, eh?
It is a situation that can be improved by adding more subwoofers. So, there are three
variables that we can play with: the number of subwoofers, subwoofer location and listener

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location. Simple rectangular rooms allow us to make some basic assumptions, and to
predict from calculations what might happen. For these rooms we have some standard
recommendations, which we will talk about. But rooms with complicated shapes, or that have
large openings to other rooms, are mysteries until they are built, and we can get into them for
acoustical measurements. The solutions here are more complicated. Although most rooms and
room arrangements exhibit problems, others don’t. If you get a good one, thank your lucky stars.
If you get a bad one, don’t despair; it can be fixed if you have the time and the customer has the
budget.

4.1. The Single Subwoofer Solution

In general it can be said that a single subwoofer is certainly better than none. However, it
is not a complete solution because it normally does not yield similar or good bass at all seats in
the room. A good location for a single sub is in a front corner or somewhere along the front wall.
Start with it in the corner and go to the prime seat and listen to a selection of music with good
bass content – kick drums and bass viols or guitars are excellent test signals. Have someone
move the sub from the corner along the wall and observe how the sound changes. With luck you
can pick a good spot. Finding a good recording is a task in itself, because the problem we are
addressing also exists in recording control rooms. Consequently, not all recordings have well-
recorded bass sounds!
If you are able to do frequency-response measurements you are in good shape, because
what you are seeing is not a matter of personal opinion, and the quality of the recording is not a
factor. For this purpose, an analyzer with at least 1/10-octave resolution is best because it allows
you to see resonant peaks, which can be very annoying. However, even a simple 1/3-octave real-
time analyzer (RTA) will give useful overall indications of what is happening.
Because of acoustical reciprocity, you can do this little experiment alone. Put the
subwoofer at the prime seat location and take your ears or measuring microphone to all possible
locations for the subwoofer. Don’t be afraid to experiment, because the best location may not be
on the front wall. When you have decided on a location for the sub, put it there and do some more
listening. If the chosen location is not on the front wall, pay special attention to whether you can
localize the bass. It is not a good idea if the bass is heard to come from a direction different from
the front loudspeakers. Sometimes it happens because the sub is too close to a seat. Sometimes
our ears are attracted by a fault in the sub, such as vent noise, distortion or buzzes or by rattles in
nearby windows, or furnishings. If everything is correct, it will be very difficult or impossible to
identify the location of the subwoofer if it is crossed over at 80Hz (this is part of the receiver or
surround processor setup). Very small satellite speakers cannot handle low frequencies and,
therefore, need to be crossed over at higher frequencies. This often is the case in HTIB (home
theater in a box) systems or smaller packaged systems. In these cases, the subwoofer needs to
be placed among the front loudspeakers to prevent it from being localized.
Once the best location for the sub is identified, there is still more that can be done –
equalization. With a single subwoofer, the sound at the prime listening location can be equalized
to minimize any residual room resonance effects. It may also work at other seats, but this will be
impossible to predict. Chances are, they will be less satisfactory. Equalization will be discussed in
a later section. If you really want good bass at several seats, you will need more subwoofers.

4.2. Multiple Subwoofer Solutions

This is a case where more are better. Better, in this context, is not more bass in terms of
quantity (which might also be true), but better bass in terms of sound quality and uniformity at
different seating positions. As stated earlier, the problem is room resonances, or standing waves,
which cause the bass to sound different at different locations in the room. If we could acoustically
damp these resonances, removing energy from them in sound absorbers, the problem would be
reduced. The problem is that such absorbers are very expensive to buy, very difficult to build and,
in both cases, very large. This solution can work, but is not attractive for many home theater
installations.
Using multiple subwoofers, it is possible to position them so that they cancel some of the
room resonances, and they do not excite others. The result is more uniform and better quality
bass over the listening area, not just at one seat.

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 These five subwoofer arrangements are some of the best options that came out of an
exhaustive study of how to arrange some number of subwoofers in a simple rectangular room.
They will work for rooms of different sizes and proportions. All subwoofers are driven by the same
signal, from the subwoofer output of a receiver or processor and, ideally, all subwoofers should
be identical. Can they be smaller because there are more of them? Maybe. They work hard to
cancel the resonances, and although there is a small efficiency gain with certain arrangements,
there can also be losses. Overall, stick with substantial subwoofers. If it turns out that they are
loafing a bit, console yourself that the distortion will be lower and there will be more headroom
available for those big movie booms.
If the room is not a simple rectangular shape, if it has a large opening to another room, or
if it is acoustically asymmetrical because one wall is stone, one is glass, and two are drywall, then
the preceding arrangements will not work as advertised. For these rooms a more complicated
solution is under development, but not yet available. If you want to delve into room acoustics and
try to work out some improvements on your own, there is a wealth of information on room
acoustics and how to work with standing waves at www.harman.com, under ‘white papers.’

5. EQUALIZATION
Equalization means changing the frequency response of the signal being supplied to a
loudspeaker so that the sound at the listening location is improved. Historically, equalization has
been done with simple 1/3-octave real-time analyzers and graphic filters/equalizers (the ones with
many vertical sliders, side by side). A measurement was made, and the filter sliders adjusted until
a flattish curve was achieved, often over the entire audio bandwidth – 20Hz to 20kHz. The results
were often disappointing, and occasionally disastrous. The reason: It is wrong.
We now know more, and we understand that above about 300Hz to 500Hz the
measurements you can make at the listeners’ locations are unreliable indicators of how a
loudspeaker sounds. Comprehensive data collected in an anechoic chamber can be much more
useful predictors of what will happen in rooms. The problem is that two ears and a brain are much
more analytical than a microphone that simply adds together all of the sounds arriving from all
directions, after indeterminate delays. If a room curve is not smooth, there is no way to know
if there really is a problem and, if there is, whether it is of a kind that can be corrected by
equalization or not. Fortunately, if the loudspeakers are well-designed to begin with – which all
Harman products are – there is no need to be concerned with how a room curve looks at middle
and high frequencies.
At low frequencies, however, the rules change. First, the room, not the loudspeaker, is
the prime determinant of what we hear, and room curves are powerful indicators of how things
will sound. To be useful, however, measurements must be made with a frequency resolution of
1/10 octave or better. The traditional 1/3-octave devices do not have adequate resolution to
accurately show what is happening. The equalizer also needs to be upgraded from the traditional
‘graphic’ to a more flexible ‘parametric’ filter, having one or more filters, each of which can be
adjusted in frequency, Q (or bandwidth) and amplitude – the three parameters. The filters should
be used to pull down obvious peaks in the measured room curve by matching the shape of the
filters to the shapes of the peaks, and then attenuating them. The caution is to avoid trying to fill
dips in room curves. This is a losing game, and attempts to do it will have a high risk of making
things sound worse. The correct way to deal with dips is to move something – the loudspeaker(s)
or the listening location. Sometimes just a few inches will be enough to improve things.

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 Equalization can fix this
BEFORE and
AFTER one band
of parametric EQ

Equalization cannot fix this

The curves above show measurements of a subwoofer in a room that had a very strong
resonance around 47Hz (red curves). The left-hand figure shows high-resolution frequency
responses and the right-hand curves show the corresponding time responses. Originally, it
sounded very ‘boomy’, with strong ‘one note’ bass effects. A single parametric filter was all that
was needed to fix the problem in this room, and when the peak had been attenuated (black
curves) the result was very neutral-sounding bass with excellent transient response. It is
important to remember that, with a single subwoofer, this equalization works only at the
measurement location – one seat. When multiple subwoofers are used to obtain more uniform
bass over a listening area, then the equalization will work at several seats. Since multiple
subwoofers actually attenuate the standing waves, less equalization tends to be needed.
Sometimes none.

6. WIRES
In spite of a lot of marketing ‘smoke’ about other real or imagined qualities, the most
important aspect of any loudspeaker wire is its gauge, or size. The wire should deliver the signal
from the output of the power amplifier to the loudspeaker without changing it. It can do that best if
the resistance of the wire is small compared to the impedance of the loudspeaker. Obviously, the
longer the run from the amplifier, the larger the wire needs to be.

4 OHM 6 OHM 8 OHM The table to the left shows estimates of the
WIRE GAUGE
SPEAKERS SPEAKERS SPEAKERS wire requirements for different loudspeakers
at different distances. These values should
10 70 ft. 105 ft. 140 ft. prevent significant changes in sound
quality, preserving the performance that
12 44 ft. 66 ft. 88 ft. the manufacturer created. Of course, if the
loudspeakers are poor to begin with, none
14 28 ft. 42 ft. 56 ft. of this matters much.
16 18 ft. 26 ft. 35 ft.
HEATER CORD

7. CALIBRATION
We are almost done. The speakers should be aimed so that the best sound gets to the
important seats. Most good speakers have wide enough dispersion to cover large horizontal
angles but others don’t, and some are like acoustical flashlights. Get someone to angle the
speakers while you listen, or move yourself around. A recording of broadband pink noise is a
good test signal. It should sound similar in the important seats.
Using a sound-level meter (the Radio Shack ones work fine) adjust the levels of the
individual channels to the level specified in the manual for the receiver or surround processor.
This should be done for the prime listening location in the room. From this same location,
measure the distance to each of the front and surround channel loudspeakers, and follow the
manufacturer’s instructions for adjusting the delays in each of the channels. If the system is set

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up to play DVD-Audio and/or SACD, these adjustments may need to be done in the DVD multi-
player as well, because the receiver or surround processor will be in analog bypass mode.
None of this is very difficult but, like many things in life, a little extra effort at the beginning
can pay off handsomely in long-term satisfaction. And the best thing of all is that most of what we
have discussed costs little or nothing.

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