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No problem.
Placing your sub will be critical, but not impossible. You need an overstuffed couch, a thick carpet and, possibly, some corner treatments.
Do you really NEED surround. I'd go 2.1 in a room that size and just use two high-quality, full range speakers in front. Once you've had a helicopter or two fly over your head the beauty of surround begins to escape you, at least it does me.
If you stick with surround, you'll need to run at relatively low levels in that room to keep from overloading it. If you'll do that, it'll be very nice I suspect.
We're a bunch of two-channel lovers here. If you want more atta-boys for surround the AV forums are into that much deeper. Still, we understand your concern.
Dave
You'll do much better to have the half-wall behind you if possible. Reflections off a nearby wall behind you are the main cause of peaks and nulls. If you make that wall half height, you'll cut that problem in half. Literally.
--Ethan
I used the 2-channel layout plan on your website and found it excellent. When you say "nearby wall behind you", is there a common distance when it ceases to be a factor for peaks and nulls, or is it always a function of the room dimensions as calculated in your plan ?
There are two issues here. If the wall is closer than ten feet, the reflections will be considered "early" and can damage imaging and clarity in addition to the bass peaks and nulls. But bass peaks and nulls are an issue even when the wall is much farther away. My home recording studio is 34 feet front to back, and even at that distance I have the entire rear wall covered with bass traps.
--Ethan
Thanks for this information. I hadn't considered these two issues as distinct.
4' wall? Try 9" Nails.
Sorry, Ed. You just can't throw me a line like that. Good luck in getting your room to sound right.
I agree, most people have a budget when it comes to purchases like these. The amount of money being spent on 2-channel system will have higher quality channels than the same amount of money spent on 5 or 7 channels. Speakers, wiring, amplifiers. High quality really does make a difference.
As for bragging rights, I have gotten way more compliments on my 2-channel system than I hear my buddies get on their full blast multi-channel HT systems.
It just seems that with all those speakers firing in a room would cause all types of reflective and combing problems that would make imageing impossible.
A couple of quick notes.
The reply about putting the 4' wall behind you is right on.
Second, for most of us here, realistic, accurate sound is our goal. In my experience, trying to achieve realistic, accurate sound with surround sound movies is a futile endevour. The sound effects from Hollywood are so overdone and in no way realistic. They create a WOW factor but aren't even close to what we hear in the real world.