I've been lurking about here for a bit, trying to suck up all the information around like a sponge, and have pretty much committed myself to getting a GR-Research system in the next month or so. I'm going to start construction on a theater system in my apartment shortly. The GR-Research speaker kits seem to be ideal, both because of the numerous positive reviews, as well as the fact I love building my own equipment. Thankfully I have a friend who's quite the woodworker, and I'll take any excuse to fire up my Weller, so I don't see too many problems on the construction aspect.
However, actually figuring out how to place speakers in my most definitely non-ideal room is where I claim to have absolutely no experience. Compounded with the fact that the cieling firing AV1-RS speakers aren't exactly traditional, so asking my normal circle of friends that are into speaker design and placement has had them confused as well (they're eager to see how this system turns out - Have to love being the guinea pig
).
As such, I've managed to mock up my living room using my fantastical graphic designer abilities (Note: I'm an EE).
The black box is the equipment rack, the grey the subwoofer, and the brown are AV-3 floorstanders and an AV-3S as a center on top of a 55" Mitsubishi CRT Rear Projector. I like to sit on the couch. The strange looking set of lines along the left wall is a rack with my bicycles mounted on it. There's about 2' of space between the rack and the wall, but I'm guessing that fitting a AV-1RS in that nook would probably be a bad move. That's pretty much set up there, and essentially locked in (no real other way to configure the room). Finding ideal placement for the rears is where I'm starting to find where the fun begins.
I've gone through the different possible configurations and labeled them with letters.
Option #1:Using a 6.1 system, put RS speakers at locations A and C. However, since I've got no experience with this, the problem is that the side-rear speakers (A), would be in line with the front of the couch. In what I've picked up, ideal location would be directly on axis with the listener. I'm also not sure how having the AV-1RS so close to an open wall (left side position A) would affect the sound of the speaker. That said, this would be my ideal solution, as it would mount the speakers up and out of the way, but I'd like to have a good sounding and balanced system first.
Option #2A: 6.1 System, but using AV-1 bookshelf speakers side firing on line with the listening position (Position B). Use a AV-1RS in Position C.
Option #2B: 7.1 System, essentially the same as above. Except instead of AV-1RS at position C, use two AV-1 bookshelves at Positions D. This one makes me hesitant, as I can't imagine that pushing a speaker into the right position D would be anything close to ideal.
As such, I was hoping that there'd be someone here that might have some pointers as to which direction I should be looking. I'm still a complete neophyte to this whole theater design thing, and am eager for any help that anyone can give.
Thanks in advance! I have a bad feeling this is going to be the start of another hobby that I'll be powerless to not sink money into.
