# How far from the wall?



## kwalikum (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi All,

I'm designing a new HT which is 3400 (11'2") wide by 5200 (17') long by 2700 (9') high. I have not worried too much yet about exact speaker placement until I have firm seating locations and from what I have read being too close to a wall is a basic no-no. What I haven't read, is how far away is generally accepted as far enough?

I am planning on two rows of 3 seats and as the room is not especially long I would prefer to have the back row as close to the back wall as possible. Am I being too ambitions getting 6 seats in this amount of space?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!


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## Guest (Oct 31, 2011)

It actually depends on the design of the crossover. Some DIY designs have a near wall correction option.

For commercial speakers, you might want to ask the manufacture. 

I try and keep my bookshelf speakers at least a foot away from the wall, and 4 feet away from corners. Larger full range towers might even need more.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

The correction in a crossover only addresses how close the speaker itself is to the wall. Unfortunately, it's not going to make up for a listening position being too close and the resulting boomy bass and complete lack of surround field.

In a 17' room, you can certainly have 2 good sounding rows, though the front is going to be pretty close to the screen if you want the 2nd row to not be too close to the wall behind you.

You don't want any seating in the 40-60% of room length if possible. Just too many modal problems there and many pretty low in frequency that are difficult to address.

If the seating is not a reclining type, you can get away with 2 rows and the front row being about 7' or so from the wall behind you. Otherwise you just need to make a compromise on the back row and get it as far from the back wall as possible without sacrificing sound in the front.

Absolute minimum would be 2-3' from the rear wall to get out of the bass boom a bit and have a decent surround field presentation for the back row.

Bryan


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## kwalikum (Oct 31, 2011)

Thanks for both of your responses. I think I'd better start a complete build thread for further questions.


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