Karaoke Forums

Where should i place my speakers if i have a long room, but the people will only be in the front half of the room. The room is 18 ft by 30ft by 10 ft high. The people will be in the first half of the 30 ft. Where and how should i place the speakers?

I currently have them 3 feet from the sides and 1 foot from the back wall. Facing inward like an x. Should i have them Parallel like l l ?

Personally, I do what you are suggesting here. Placing speakers wide and pointing them toward the opposite back corner allows the music to pass through the center of the room. Sitting in the middle of the room allows the listeners to hear from both speakers.

Running them straight only helps to control feedback. The crowd on the sides only hears from one speaker. It's generally aimed right at them and will blast the ones directly in front of it. The sound in the center has voids.

You can add to the sound with a center channel that fills in between the singer and where the "X" crosses. Maybe use a 2nd hookup from the singer's monitor turned outward. Anything behind the "X" gets a partial from the reverberation of the room anyway. Unless your room is filled, these people are most likely talking anyway.

This is just my thoughts, nothing to do with the physics of sound. Others may have a different alternative. But this is a great subject for here and karaoke Blogs everywhere.

Thanks for your thread!!!

If you have long enough wires, put the speakers on one end of the room and the singer on the other end.

This would be the ideal setup for all karaoke applications, it is just not usually practical in a bar setting. In a 18X30 room at home, however, it would be pretty simple if you have long enough speaker wires or want to buy them.

Also, go ahead and put the speakers snuggled up to the corners of the room. This will actually increase your bass response and shouldn't affect your high frequencies at all.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

i remember reading somewhere that PA speakers don't sound good if place snug against the wall.

You don't want the high and high-mid frequencies bouncing off walls, but the bass benefits greatly.

Basically, high and high-mid frequencies out of a HF driver are DIRECTIONAL, so whereever you point them, there they go. You can find the directional angle of the HF driver in the speaker specs to determine the angle you need to keep them away from the nearest wall.

Bass frequncies, however, are OMNI-DIRECTIONAL, so once they leave the woofer, they go in all directions.

When high and high-mid frequencies BOUNCE back to where they were in the first place, you get an ECHO. You don't want an echo of the voice and instrument sounds.

When bass waves bounce off walls and hit other waves, they SUM if in phase, or cancel if not in phase. So, when one bass wave hits another bass wave in phase, you get a bigger bass wave, which = better bass response to the ear.

So, ideally you want to put the speakers in the corners, but at an angle proportional to the directivity of the HF driver.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Wrong, You don't want to put them so they vibrate against the wall, but against a wall gives you a +3db gain.


I place my speakers the same place all the time when possible. 2 Subs dead center of room. Both speakers 8 foot from dead center on 8 foot right one 8 foot left.

If thats not the setup, I have my setup facade.

I setup the same way dj or karaoke it always sounds just fine.

Honestly, I'm having trouble understanding this situation. If you're putting your speakers 1 foot from the wall, where do your singers stand? They should be behind the PA. Either way, for splaying your speakers I would not recommend the X cofiguration. You're going to really exacerbate the effects of comb filtering across the entire second half of your listening area.

With regard to proximity to the wall, as others have mentioned, you can actually notice an increase in bass response by putting your PA closer to the walls. However that should not be your first concern. When considering speaker placement, you have to think about where your audience will be in relation to the PA.

If the audience is going to be up close you might want to consider bringing the speakers closer together and giving them a slight splay (angle) inward. nothing drastic, maybe like 5-10 degrees at most. If they're going to be back a little bit from the PA then you can push it out wider and go straight parallel.

I know I didn't give you an exact answer, you'll have to consider the room and decide that for yourself, but hopefully you've go the logic in order now.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke