Optimum Viewing Angles and Distances and Listening Position

Optimum Viewing Angles and Distances

Figure 1. depicts the optimal viewing angles/distances dependent on current recommendations and display resolutions. One can see that the HDTV format (1080p) is favorable in the case of viewing distances and also lies within the recommended viewing angles. An optimum viewing height will be about one-third of the distance up the screen. This can be achieved either by progressively elevated seating locations or by tilting the back of a chair.

Figure 1: Optimum seating arrangement for a given home theater.

Optimum Listening Position

Figure 2. illustrates a possible seating arrangement for a given home theater (7.3 m × 6.1 m) with a screen width of 2.72 m. The prime listening location as recommended, would be the center seat of the second row. One has to note Small home theaters are limited in offering a favorable sound experience to all the listeners if they are outside the sweet spot.

Figure 2: Optimum seating arrangement for a given home theater.

The perception of envelopment will be reduced as listeners move closer to a single surround loudspeaker and further results in localization effects. Loudspeakers should be aimed towards the sweet spot to deliver strong direct sound since they perform best on-axis.

Advantages!

This also guarantees in case of a broader listening area that more listeners are able to localize the reproduced sound. correctly. Besides the recommendations on the listening position in terms of the perceived envelopment and localization effects, one has to consider the influence of loudspeakers on room resonances and therefore affecting the perceived sound in the bass region.

A listener located in a peak of a resonant frequency will thus experience too much level at this particular frequency resulting in the perception of a boomy bass. This can be addressed by moving the listener towards a pressure null which makes this particular frequency inaudible for the listener. The desired amount of the perceived sound level of the resonant frequency can be adjusted through a trial and error method by moving the listener position between these two extremes.

In this post, we went to the recommendations for optimizing viewing angles, distances and listening locations, and examined its considerations. Items needed to mention audio improvements and other parameters will be published in future posts. These items will pave the way for creating a home theater with the highest quality.

The audio products offered in Saba intelligent systems, which include professional speakers and amplifiers and inakustic cables with their great variety and high quality, make it possible to implement any type of equipment according to the relevant needs.

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