Montreal apartment (2020-2021

October 2020,

I've finally left Alberta and the Canadian military for a significant career change that brought me back to my Quebec roots. After 15years in the military and multiple relocations, I'm happy to once again call Quebec my home.

While currently waiting to buy a property, I've settled in a temporary apartment close to my new place of work.

Efforts to adjust the sound and optimize the acoustics will be kept minimal, as I'm just content to have an average sounding system for the time being. When I say average… I mean it. It’s really average.

Due to neighbours all around me and poor sound proofing in the building, I've chosen to use my JBL 306P and my two dual 12" subwoofers. I'm using a budget DIY ClassD amplifier for the subwoofers (based on the TPA3116D2 chipset)

Placement of the subwoofers is not ideal, and totally against common sense for acoustic optimization. Pretty much the worst case you see in, unfortunately, most neophyte setups.

Moreover, I use both subwoofers as speaker stands. Talk about not following my own rules...

As usual, the system is all active:

-JBL 306P (active, internal crossover at 1400hz) and cut at 70 hz to the 2 subwoofers.

-Both subwoofers are 12 hz to 70 hz band. Because I'm forced to listen at low SPL, I boost the lower frequencies and reach as low as 12 hertz. (4x 12" subwoofers can't output that much SPL in the teens, but they can for limited SPL)

-Independent DSP on every channel is applied via Jrivers media player 23.

-Focusrite Scarlett 18I20 interface. (capable of 10 analog channels, and I'm using 9, just one spare left)

Enthusiasm of class D amplification will like me here, as I'm using an all ClassD system. LOL

All power supplies are SMPS too! (computer, Focusrite, JBL and subwoofer amplifiers).

Did I mention the system performance is average? Getting me here.

I admit, after only 12 days in the apartment, it’s a mess of wiring, cardboard boxes, extra power bars etc. Here’s version 1.0 as it stands:

Update January 2021

New job is going terrific and I can't wait to have my position secured and buy a new home.

Despite not particularly enjoying my transition appartement, I've set few addition with my 7.1 full surround journey.

I've learnt a lot by experimenting attenuation and surround speaker placement and what I prefer the most for the rendering of the soundstage. Great advantage of moving bookshelf around is that it takes less than 2 minutes and you can test again. Not so much the case with my horn system...

Pic on left: I've attached 2 JBL LSR305 (predecessor of the JBL 305P) on the wall to act as my rear channel.

From my listening position, they are 110degree from my center line (exactly as dolby 7.1 recommend)

As per my page on the 305p and 306p, I've added internal bracing to stiffen the enclosure and changed a few capacitors to improve subjective dynamics

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below: you can see the living room with the 7.1 final speaker position (inspired by Sony SDDS placement).

Note: The center channel only play from 52hz to 78hz, acting as a low frequency reinforcement for the L+R channel before the subwoofer kick in at 52hz and below. I don't use the center channel as a real center chanel anymore.

Side channel (2x JBL 305P) are at 60degree from my listening position and are set at -3.5dB relative to my L+R channel. L+C+R are JBL 306P set at -30, 0 and 30 Degrees.

ITU 7.1 placement

As you can see, ITU is very vague in the recommended placements it provide, observe that the rears and side channel, as long as they are in the grey zone it is good. No surgeon precision here.

I use the center channel as a 3rd woofer for my L+R channel and it does only play from 55hz to 78hz... Not exactly as planned but that what work out to be the best compromise.

Result is that I have a row of 5 active JBL speakers in front of me, and 2 more not shown on picture as rear channels.

the 2 bookshelf speakers (generic big box store model) that support the 55'' TV aren't connected and only act as TV stand.

The 2 white box on far left and far right are my sealed Max Fidelity PR65NEO midrange, used as speaker stand to rise my 2 JBL to proper ear level. I still think the PR65NEO are good and could be worthy of a listening chain. That why I've never sold them despite not using them in years. Their street value is relatively low anyway.

As hinted above, the center channel is more for show than anything as it plays a minuscule band. It turned out that the surround matrix always created artefact in the voice that annoyed me while listening to certain music. It changed the tone and color of the voice, impossible to remove this effect despite my best to tune it. After long tweaking and trial and error of multiple parameter, I concluded that Jrivers software was the root cause and unfortunately, I have no control on the proprietary matrix used to up sample 2.0 to 7.1.

I ended up reversing the center channel and use the center as a phantom one (aka using stereo signal)

The small band the center chanel plays does add weight to the tone and it does benefit to the overall sound, even if it is slightly, you can tell if it's on or off on certain type of music, therefore, it remains in the system.

I end my new job probation period in late March 2021, I likely will be keeping the system as is till I buy my house and start building an ambitious system again. Montreal market is pricey, hope to find a good home with a a audio room to be of the dimension I search.

Martin Poulin

Update January 2021

New job is going terrific and I can't wait to have my position secured and buy a new home.

Despite not particularly enjoying my transition appartement, I've set few addition with my 7.1 full surround journey.

I've learnt a lot by experimenting attenuation and surround speaker placement and what I prefer the most for the rendering of the soundstage. Great advantage of moving bookshelf around is that it takes less than 2 minutes and you can test again. Not so much the case with my horn system...

Pic on left: I've attached 2 JBL LSR305 (predecessor of the JBL 305P) on the wall to act as my rear channel.

From my listening position, they are 110degree from my center line (exactly as dolby 7.1 recommend)

As per my page on the 305p and 306p, I've added internal bracing to stiffen the enclosure and changed a few capacitors to improve subjective dynamics

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below: you can see the living room with the 7.1 final speaker position (inspired by Sony SDDS placement).

Note: The center channel only play from 52hz to 78hz, acting as a low frequency reinforcement for the L+R channel before the subwoofer kick in at 52hz and below. I don't use the center channel as a real center chanel anymore.

Side channel (2x JBL 305P) are at 60degree from my listening position and are set at -3.5dB relative to my L+R channel. L+C+R are JBL 306P set at -30, 0 and 30 Degrees.

As you can see, ITU is very vague in the recommended placements it provide, observe that the rears and side channel, as long as they are in the grey zone it is good. No surgeon precision here.

I use the center channel as a 3rd woofer for my L+R channel and it does only play from 55hz to 78hz... Not exactly as planned but that what work out to be the best compromise.

Result is that I have a row of 5 active JBL speakers in front of me, and 2 more not shown on picture as rear channels.

the 2 bookshelf speakers (generic big box store model) that support the 55'' TV aren't connected and only act as TV stand.

I ended up reversing the center channel and use the center as a phantom one (aka using stereo signal)

The small band the center chanel plays does add weight to the tone and it does benefit to the overall sound, even if it is slightly, you can tell if it's on or off on certain type of music, therefore, it remains in the system.

I end my new job probation period in late March 2021, I likely will be keeping the system as is till I buy my house and start building an ambitious system again. Montreal market is pricey, hope to find a good home with a a audio room to be of the dimension I search.

-

UPDATE APRIL 2021:

I just became homeowner again! Move-in date scheduled in late June 2021

That will mark the end of the small 7.1 apartment system.

Update January 2021

​

New job is going terrific and I can't wait to have my position secured and buy a new home.

Despite not particularly enjoying my transition appartement, I've set few addition with my 7.1 full surround journey.

​

I've learnt a lot by experimenting attenuation and surround speaker placement and what I prefer the most for the rendering of the soundstage. Great advantage of moving bookshelf around is that it takes less than 2 minutes and you can test again. Not so much the case with my horn system...

​

Pic on left: I've attached 2 JBL LSR305 (predecessor of the JBL 305P) on the wall to act as my rear channel.

From my listening position, they are 110degree from my center line (exactly as dolby 7.1 recommend)

​

As per my page on the 305p and 306p, I've added internal bracing to stiffen the enclosure and changed a few capacitors to improve subjective dynamics

​

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below: you can see the living room with the 7.1 final speaker position (inspired by Sony SDDS placement).

​

Note: The center channel only play from 52hz to 78hz, acting as a low frequency reinforcement for the L+R channel before the subwoofer kick in at 52hz and below. I don't use the center channel as a real center chanel anymore.

​

Side channel (2x JBL 305P) are at 60degree from my listening position and are set at -3.5dB relative to my L+R channel. L+C+R are JBL 306P set at -30, 0 and 30 Degrees.

As you can see, ITU is very vague in the recommended placements it provide, observe that the rears and side channel, as long as they are in the grey zone it is good. No surgeon precision here.

​

I use the center channel as a 3rd woofer for my L+R channel and it does only play from 55hz to 78hz... Not exactly as planned but that what work out to be the best compromise.

​

Result is that I have a row of 5 active JBL speakers in front of me, and 2 more not shown on picture as rear channels.

​

the 2 bookshelf speakers (generic big box store model) that support the 55'' TV aren't connected and only act as TV stand.

​

​

I ended up reversing the center channel and use the center as a phantom one (aka using stereo signal)

The small band the center chanel plays does add weight to the tone and it does benefit to the overall sound, even if it is slightly, you can tell if it's on or off on certain type of music, therefore, it remains in the system.

​

I end my new job probation period in late March 2021, I likely will be keeping the system as is till I buy my house and start building an ambitious system again. Montreal market is pricey, hope to find a good home with a a audio room to be of the dimension I search.

​

-​

UPDATE APRIL 2021:

I just became homeowner again! Move-in date scheduled in late June 2021

That will mark the end of the small 7.1 apartment system.

​

-