A. Unfortunately, there isn’t one piece of software that works for all Home Theater needs.

Start off by getting CEDIA CEB22 and CEB23 Recommended practice documents.

There are some virtualization programs on the market, but I don’t have direct experience with their results. We have developed an in-house tool, but it is proprietary.

Q. What should be the height for side surround & back surround for two row stepped seating, 1 riser of 300mm, provided we have enough distance to avoid localisation.

A. Side and back speakers should be up 15 degrees from the plane of listener ears. That usually leads to about 1.8 to 2m high. With a 300mm platform I would split the difference.

A. I think you are asking about 4 subwoofers; 2 in the front, and 2 in the back. If that is the case, I am a big fan of this approach, and a big fan of controlling the four subs with individual DSP for level, time, and EQ settings. You can gain up to 12dB improvements in bass levels at the seating area.

A. The results would be different due to vertical standing waves. However, both can be made to work well. Even better is to put to up high, and 2 down low!

Q. Any reason we can't use the ceiling corners for bass traps?

Q. You said you'd rather bass absorption as opposed to diffusion on a front wall. does that change with di-pole speakers?

A. You can’t really make a diffuser deep enough to control bass waves. They would need to be 1meter (3feet) deep… So the middle of the front wall is best treated with absorption. Also, for good soundstage it is best not to diffuse the middle of the front or back walls.

Yes, the frequency series of peaks and dips moves with the position of the speakers. I will have a few slides about this in the April 20 session.