Question for Audiophiles -- On Board 5.1

[Mycroft]

Definitely agree that the center is THE most important. My Klipsch setup had an amazing center speaker. Sigh.

[ryon]

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

I am currently using a subwoofer in my media room at home that could best be described as a "thumper". It's designed to reproduce the bottom bottom of movie tracks, i.e. explosions and crashes. It came to me used, out of a very large system installed on a mega yacht. The original system had one of these units installed in each of the couches in the salon. Set to low volume, they provided a literal kick in the butt every time there was a door slam or explosion. The rest of the system was a 7.1 rig mounted in the overhead. On the whole the system failed. The sound from each channel was too localized. The users destroyed the speakers with excessive volume in vain attempt to hear all the channels from a central seating position. Not long after that the amp(s) were destroyed by an inverter failure. This was a cost is no factor system on a boat with an unlimited budget. It illustrates the difficulty involved. Kiss would indicate a 3.1 system with a sound bar as the most compact and effective solution.

Ha! You just THINK that was an inverter failure that took out that ostentatious floating ghetto blaster. I would have preferred to give them a different kind of kick in the butt, but unfortunately the offenders were too self-centered to be receptive.

[a64pilot]

Most of the sound does come from the center channel of course as that is where the TV is, and that is where you want the sound of people talking to come from.
Luckily it's also almost all mid frequencies, and they are the easiest to produce from a speaker and power wise, and the center channel and the satellites can be small as all the have to reproduce is mid to high freqs.
But to fully reproduce the full spectrum, your going to need a big Sub, luckily low freqs are not directional, so you can get away with just one and placement isn't as critical.
But, I don't see how you could get the correct listening position on a boat for 5.1 to work, it sort of requires you to be in the middle of a room and ideally the walls are covered in tapestries or some other sound absorbent materials.
I go for a good Stereo, with a decent center channel, but don't go overboard with the center channel, they are easy, just need to be loud is all. One of those sound bar things would work for a center channel.


Sent from my iPad Pro using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Most of the sound does come from the center channel of course as that is where the TV is, and that is where you want the sound of people talking to come from.
Luckily it's also almost all mid frequencies, and they are the easiest to produce from a speaker and power wise, and the center channel and the satellites can be small as all the have to reproduce is mid to high freqs.
But to fully reproduce the full spectrum, your going to need a big Sub, luckily low freqs are not directional, so you can get away with just one and placement isn't as critical.
But, I don't see how you could get the correct listening position on a boat for 5.1 to work, it sort of requires you to be in the middle of a room and ideally the walls are covered in tapestries or some other sound absorbent materials.
I go for a good Stereo, with a decent center channel, but don't go overboard with the center channel, they are easy, just need to be loud is all. One of those sound bar things would work for a center channel.


Sent from my iPad Pro using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Well, I think my salon would be ok, acoustically, for 5.1. My boat's beam is 15 feet, and so the salon is nearly 15 feet wide in the middle, and a bit longer than it is wide, maybe 18 feet including the galley and nav station. All of the surfaces are upholstered with alacantra with padding underneath, other than the bulkheads.

The main thing which makes me hesitate in going all the way with this, is overcomplicating it and adding too much of a tangle of wiring.

[tanglewood]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The main thing which makes me hesitate in going all the way with this, is overcomplicating it and adding too much of a tangle of wiring.

In my experience the wiring is only a problem for a brief time while you are setting everything up, at least compared to the real complexity problem with AV systems.

Let's face it, remote controls are the biggest problem with AV systems, by far. THAT's why I hesitate to add 5.1 surround sound at home and on my boat. There is no other reason. I have yet to see a good solution, including the logitech fancy screen thing that I have. It help, but frequently loses track of which devices are on and which are off, and starts turning things on when they should be off and off when they should be on. I think the guys who developed N2K must have build AV equipment, especially remote controls, in their previous jobs

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Well, I think my salon would be ok, acoustically, for 5.1. My boat's beam is 15 feet, and so the salon is nearly 15 feet wide in the middle, and a bit longer than it is wide, maybe 18 feet including the galley and nav station. All of the surfaces are upholstered with alacantra with padding underneath, other than the bulkheads.

The main thing which makes me hesitate in going all the way with this, is overcomplicating it and adding too much of a tangle of wiring.

Can you post a drawing of your salon, with your TV location?

[Zven]

I used to have a home cinema system when I had a canal boat a few years back. It was based around a projector, 100" roll-up screen mounted in the ceiling, and 5.1 surround sound with wired speakers.
I'm not into watching TV, but if I wanted, I could have connected a tuner also.
This worked just fine. I had great sound and picture, but it came at a cost with regards to power consumption, of course.
When I sold the system with the boat, I think it made a good impression on the buyer, and helped close the deal. Probably most people care more about a great AV experience, than some obscure piece of navigational gear at similar cost!
I plan to do the same again when I get my next boat.

Sent from my SM-T805 using Tapatalk