♪ SETUP GUIDE ♪
From choosing the room to calibrating your speakers — a step-by-step guide to building a home theater that sounds great. When you're ready, let SonicScape's AI calculate the exact speaker placement for your space.
Pick a room you can darken and control. Rectangular spaces with solid walls outperform open-plan areas. Avoid square rooms — equal dimensions stack up bass resonances. Aim for a dedicated seating wall so you can centre the screen and speakers around one main listening position.
Bare walls and hard floors create harsh reflections and muddy dialogue. Add a rug, soft furnishings, and absorption panels at the first reflection points on the side walls. Bass traps in the corners tame boomy low end. Even modest treatment dramatically improves clarity.
Accurate dimensions drive every placement decision. Measure length, width and ceiling height, and note doors, windows and seating distance. With SonicScape you can snap a photo with a reference object and let the AI estimate the room for you.
Balance your spend across receiver, speakers and subwoofer rather than overspending on one component. A timbre-matched speaker set keeps sound seamless as effects pan across the room. SonicScape returns value, target and stretch builds with real gear that fits your ceiling.
Centre below or above the screen, fronts at ear height angled toward the seat, surrounds beside and slightly behind, and the subwoofer where bass measures smoothest. For Atmos, add height channels overhead. Finish with guided calibration to dial in levels and distances.
At minimum: a display or projector, an AV receiver, a 5.1 speaker package (centre, two fronts, two surrounds and a subwoofer), and a source like a streaming box or Blu-ray player. You can expand to 7.1 or Dolby Atmos later by adding surround and height channels.
A common guideline is a viewing distance of about 1.5 to 2 times the screen's diagonal for a 4K display, so the image fills your field of view without revealing pixels. Your seating distance also sets the angles SonicScape uses to place the surround speakers.
It's not mandatory, but even a rug, curtains and a few absorption panels at the first reflection points noticeably improve dialogue clarity and bass control. Treatment usually delivers a bigger upgrade per dollar than swapping speakers.
5.1 is ideal for most small to mid-sized rooms. Step up to 7.1 (or add Atmos height channels) when your room is large enough to place two extra surround speakers behind the seating without crowding the listener.
Bass response changes a lot with position. Corners maximize output but can sound boomy; try a few spots along the front wall and pick where bass is even across your seats. SonicScape suggests a starting position based on your room shape.