Laying VOT's on their side for Home Theater

[ClassicComics]

I need some experts to tell me if this would be a bad idea or not.... my almost 4ft tall VOT's are limiting my screen size in my theater. I love these speakers and do not want to get rid of them... would it be crazy to lay them on their sides to give me more room? If this would work, I was thinking of building stands to raise them about 10" off the floor, but again on their sides. How would this effect the sound? Also, if this would be ok, which way should I face them? horns both towards the middle or woofers? Also, eventually I would like to match my center speaker to these.... then which way would I face it? Or what would be another good option to match these? My room is 14' wide and 20' long if that helps... here is a picture of the speakers obviously with no screen up right now:

[Douglas G.]

Hello, I was looking into a screen material that is acoustically transparent and found these people...
http://www.seymourav.com/. They have a very good DYI
section.

[Steve Mac]

I'm waiting for a piece of this material right now.
They were very patient, customer friendly and were interested in what "I" wanted. We'll see if the screen itself works.

I would not turn those boxes sideways.
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like it.
They won't project well at all.

FWIW...just my two cents mind you:
1-Pull the horns out of the vents
2-Flip the cabs 180 degrees.
3-Perch the horns atop
4-Now the mid range horn and mid bass are closer, better image
5-Put it behind one of those seymour av screens
6-build one big sub-woofer in the center
7-Place that cab you already got for the cc on top

[ClassicComics]

yeah I was thinking about pulling out the horns and setting them on the top after laying the speakers on the side, but I wasn't sure how that would effect the sound.... that may be my best solution. Thanks for the help! Any other thoughts would be more than appreciated!!

[RonSSS]

I had my A7's set up as follows.
Cabs on their sides with the horn mounted just above the woofer.
Woofers towards the wall.

It worked quite well I might add!
My room is also 14" wide and 20 ft long....in the basement.

Ron

[bfish]

That's one that should be easy enough to judge with a little experimenting, but be aware that eventual changes to the room (i.e. carpet) will make a BIG difference.*

TL 201 gives directivity patterns for your components. You want the dispersion angle(s) of both horns to match at your XO point.

Ignoring cost, placing the speakers behind an acoustically transparent screen that's as big as your projection system will allow would be the ideal, then you don't have to compromise the sound, and it appears to come from where it should...the picture.

Added
*More specifically, floor bounce from near placement of the wider dispersion angle should be noticeably different than curtained wall bounce for the std position where the wide angle is horizontal. Carpet will affect things more when you lay them down.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 13, 2008 05:48 PM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[valhallax]

yeah, like they said, but throw a blanket over them before ya start drywallin'. good set of tunes for a little project allways helps. id also elevate the whole "rear stage" of the 'behind the screen' sound system, to implement a healthy set of subs, somewhere around 25 cubic feet per channel should do..and a couple thousand watts driving the subs. did someone say infra sub?

[Cal Weldon]

I definitely prefer the sound with the horn on top and the reflex at the bottom. Heck I got so carried away, I added an 811 on top of the 511 just for fun. See my avatar.

I agree that turning them on their side might not work for you.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 13, 2008 12:51 PM: Message edited by: Cal Weldon ]</font>

[scharron]

in my home theater, I run them just like you have them. height works well with horns at just about ear level for the seating.sorry, A7 mains and 2x414 and an 811/808 for center, jbl 8300's x3 across the back, def tech super cube reference for low end. it sounds great! 103" electric screen that comes down to just above the center channel speakers. I am really happy with the sound and ironically, since all the speakers came out of theaters around the country, it really does sound like a theater! I do have carpet and would not recommend side placement of the speakers. horn flares are designed for pretty specific placement and I think the result would be less predictable as far as your dispersion to your seating. my room is a converted two car garage, 24x26 with a raised 10 foot ceiling. works out very well for us.
just my .02.

[ClassicComics]

Thanks for all the input guys, and if anyone has any more, keep it coming. There actually is carpet in that room. It's silver berber (can't remember the actual color name right now). The screen size I am looking at is between 56" x 134.4" or 58" x 139.2" (both of them at a 2.40:1 aspect ratio), either would be to big with them standing up as I have 2 layers of drywall (one 1/2" and one 5/8" with acoustic green glue in between) and my ceiling was only about 8' to begin with down there. Figures I have 9' on all the other levels.... With the speakers standing up I could only have a screen height of about 48" and I really want to go bigger. Right now I am leaning towards leaning them on their sides and pulling the horns out and setting them on top of the woofers as RonSS suggested. I can always tilt the horns slightly so they point up towards ear level.... I love the look of these speakers as they are.... but I am ready for a bigger screen... and I can't think of any other options...

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ June 15, 2008 04:42 PM: Message edited by: ClassicComics ]</font>