With TV speakers becoming slowly infamous for their lack of touch when it comes to the optimal home theater experience, soundbars have quickly risen to popularity.
Their breathtaking listening experience brought about every time you turn on your TV to watch your favorite shows or sporting events at home.
The most common setup in most households is usually the soundbar being positioned just below the TV to bring in that sleek look and excellent sound quality as you enjoy the stunning listening experience offered by the high-tech speakers. But are there other better ways to position your soundbar? Let’s find out.
Can You Mount a Soundbar above the TV?
A soundbar can be mounted either above or below the TV, depending on the type of speakers. In some cases, mounting a soundbar above the TV is inappropriate since it will result in poor sound quality. A soundbar with upward-firing speakers that use reflecting elements located under the TV, for example, will underperform if placed above the TV.
When positioning soundbars, the rule of the thumb is always to align them towards your ears to derive the optimum experience from the speakers.
However, there are some specialized soundbars, such as those with upward-firing speakers, which tend to have different placement requirements.
Should You Mount a Soundbar?
Mounting a soundbar entirely depends on whether you want to place it above or below the TV, though the ideal way is mounting it on a wall. If you want to place it below the TV, both mounting and placing it on the entertainment deck will work. However, to place it above the TV, your options are quite limited to wall mounting only.
When mounting a soundbar, remember to keep a distance of about 15 centimeters between the TV and soundbar.
Additionally, ensure the soundbar is at least 1meter away from the wall sides for optimal sound reflections and dispersions to produce the best sound quality experience.
How High Should I Mount My Soundbar?
For optimal listening experience, always aim at positioning the soundbar parallel to your ears. Most soundbars work best when they are positioned in alignment with the listener’s ears, just as the TVs give the optimal viewing experience when mounted at the same level as the viewers’ eyes to prevent neck strains.
The concept of positioning the soundbars in alignment to the ear level lies in the simple fact that most soundbars usually work, unlike those with enhanced features such as the Upward-firing or the surround soundbars.
In most cases, however, achieving the perfect alignment of the soundbar isn’t just a piece of cake since you also have to balance between the TV eye alignment too for a convenient view.
Generally, people tend to position the soundbar just below the ear level to complement the eye to TV alignment- which works just fine.
How Close Should a Soundbar Be to a TV?
For optimal dispersion and reflection of sound waves to produce the best quality listening experience, always leave a distance of 10 to 15 cm between the soundbar and the TV. Positioning the soundbar too close to the TV will result in inadequate sound reflections, which is the same case with mounting if the distance is too large.
This 10 to 15cm distance requirement is what makes mounting rather mandatory if you want to position the soundbar above the TV.
This is usually the case if you are using the normal soundbars and that you have positioned it under the TV.
Anyway, even the surround soundbars still need this distance to bring about the best sound distributions for the optimum sound production.
The spacing allows the sound waves to undergo just the optimal reflections needed to bring about the perfect sound quality.
Does a Soundbar Need to Be under the TV?
The most common soundbars are the ones, which basically act like a typical enhanced TV speaker, meaning they will work better when placed underneath the TV. However, soundbars with specialized features such as the Upward lifting soundbars do a better job when positioned above the TV.
If you are using the normal soundbars, it is only right that you place it under the TV. Why is this so? As stated earlier, the ideal positioning of the soundbars should be in direct alignment with your ear.
However, achieving this is close to impossible since you also need to ensure the TV also aligns to the eyes to prevent neck strains.
To strike a good balance, it is therefore wise to position the soundbar just below the ear level; and the TV just above the eye level.
This arrangement should bring about the perfect TV to Soundcard spacing (10cm to 15cm).
How to Find the Best Position for Your Soundbar
Most soundbars out there will need to be placed parallel to the ear level for the best listening experience resulting from optimal sound acoustics. However, some soundbars such as the Upward Firing ones do not necessarily need to be aligned to the ear.
This is because the Upward Firing soundbars use a different technique for sound dispersion in comparison to the normal soundbars.
Due to this difference, choosing the best soundbar position will henceforth differ with respect to the soundbar type.
Let’s take a look at the soundbar types and how you can best position them to achieve the optimum sound quality.
■ Soundbars with No Upward-Firing Speakers Can Be Placed above the TV
Soundbars with upward-firing speakers tend to depend on certain specific reflecting elements to emulate surround sound.
Just to jog your memory, surround sound is a mechanism of enriching sound by use of multiple channels to dissipate sound.
So, for the upward-firing soundbars, these reflecting objects have to be readily accessible if the best quality sound is to be produced.
If an upward-firing soundbar requires an element that is present underneath the TV, then you really have no choice but to position it below the TV.
However, if the soundbar has no upward-firing speakers, you can position it above the TV.
In a bid to try and achieve the best ear level, you might be tempted to place the TV a bit higher, which could, in turn, result in irritating neck strains, thus declining your viewing experience — as common with most households, placing the soundbar just below the ear level to accommodate the TV alignment with the eye may seem more viable, though not entirely necessary.
For a movie theater-like setup, for example, you might as well have the seats facing upwards hence eliminating the need for placing the soundbar with no upward-firing speakers below the TV.
■ Soundbars with Upward-Firing Speakers Should Be Placed under the TV
Depending on the type, the upward-firing speakers will use certain reflectors for optimal sound quality. Soundbars with upward-firing speakers employ the reflection mechanism for proper sound dispersions, which in turn brings about the optimal all-round listening experience.
By allowing the 360 listening experience, the soundbars with upward-firing speakers will henceforth bring about the high tech listening experience similar to that of surround sound.
To achieve this, the soundbars will need to redirect sound waves to certain elements that enable these multiple reflections for the optimal sound experience.
▪️ So, Which Are These Reflecting Elements?
Depending on the make of the soundbar, the upward-firing speakers will require certain reflectors as specified by the manufacturing company.
The Dolby Atmos virtual surround soundbar, for example, requires a Dolby Atmos Bar placed underneath the TV for optimal sound quality production.
For this setup, the Dolby Atmos virtual soundbar will henceforth work best when placed under the TV.
However, the ideal positioning of soundbars with upward-firing speakers is not entirely below the TV. Why is this so? Some of the upward-firing speakers use ceilings as the reflecting element. In this case, it is quite obvious that you have to place the soundbar above the TV to enable the reflection of sound waves.
Positioning the soundbar below the TV will inhibit the necessary reflections of sound waves to the ceiling, meaning you won’t be deriving the optimal listening experience designed to be produced by the soundbar.
Some Issues You Might Encounter with Soundbar Placement
▪️ Wiring
Most of the TVs out there have the remote control receiver situated at the bottom of the screen. At times, the Soundbars may be large such that they obstruct the remote receiver if placed under the TV.
For such cases, it is always wise to place the soundbar above the TV. In some cases, the soundbar wires may not be long enough to allow for the positioning of soundbars above the TV.
In such cases, you may have to place the soundbar below the TV, though Bluetooth connection may still be a viable option.
▪️ Upward Firing or Non-Upward Firing Speakers
When positioning the soundbars, it is obvious that you must consider whether its speakers are upward-firing or not. If a soundbar has upward-firing speakers that use reflectors that are positioned underneath the TV, then there is really no other choice but to place it below the TV.
If a soundbar has upward-firing speakers that use ceilings as their reflector elements, positioning it above the TV is the obvious choice.
However, always ensure you don’t place the soundbars a bit too close to the ceilings. Ceiling oriented soundbars will not produce the optimal desired effect if the spacing towards the ceiling is too small since the sound waves will not undergo the number of reflections required to produce high-quality sound.
Similarly, wall oriented upward-firing soundbars will underperform if they are positioned way too close to the walls.
To achieve the desired effect, always aim at a distance of at least one meter between the ceiling and the soundbar.
So, Are TV Soundbars Worth It?
Definitely, TV soundbars are one of the most affordable and convenient tools that will take your viewing and listening experience to a whole new level. As for the surround soundbars, you get to experience the complete movie theater experience while watching your favorite shows or sporting events at home.
Moreover, TV soundbars are also easy to install since the wire connections are pretty much straightforward.
Just a quick look at the manual, and you will be all set to install the soundbars and get to enjoy a whole new home theater listening experience in no time.
Bottom Line on Soundbar Placement
Purchasing a soundbar can go wrong real quick, especially if you go back home only to be disappointed at the rather low quality produced, which may even have you wondering why there is so much hype surrounding these highly regarded speakers. When using a soundbar, one thing remains certain- the speakers will undoubtedly bring in that booming experience.
Anything less than that means something has to be going wrong. Cases of wrong positioning and placements are among the leading causes of poor listening experience with soundbars.
The rule of thumb is to always check on the specifications stipulated by the manufacturer of the product, and always check on the manual for the ideal wiring and placements that may go a long way in enhancing the listening experience gained from these high-quality speakers.
As a complement to soundbar placement, always check on the audio dampening of your room. Poor room acoustics may be the reason you are not getting to enjoy the full experience of the soundbar speakers.
Cover your windows with heavy curtains to prevent echoes that will, in turn, reduce the quality of sound.
Again, you might as well cover your floors with thick carpets to reduce sound reverberations that will, in turn, eat into the quality of sound received.
And if you are still unsure with the above tips on soundbar placement, go the layman way.
Simply have a friend try various soundbar positions as you listen to determine which spot brings in that exhilarating effect.
