Most family rooms aren't designed with ideal audio in mind. But with some simple, practical workarounds, you can get great sound in pretty much any room.

When audio engineers dreamed up surround sound, they envisioned the speakers being positioned perfectly in a rectangular room. Clearly, none of them has ever been to my apartment.

First, there's the issue of layout. Based on conventional recommendations, the best places for my surround speakers are taken up by a patio door and a bookcase.

There's also the fact that, like most family rooms, ours is multi-purpose. It isn't just our haven on movie nights; it's also where we listen to music, hang out with friends, read, play games, and enjoy mid-afternoon Sunday naps.

Still, we've managed to get everything sounding great, despite audio inconveniences like doors, windows, and furniture. I've taken what we learned, plus tips from other Crutchfield folks, and put together these guidelines for getting good home theater sound in some of the most common real-life rooms.

The basics

In case you need it, here's a quick primer on what home theater is, what pieces are involved, and how they fit together.

Generally speaking, I'd describe home theater as the greatest thing for home entertainment since someone first put butter on popcorn. I'm a movie fan and an enthusiastic gamer, and a good home theater brings both movies and games to life — the big picture and the crisp sound are much better than anything I get at my local movie theater.

More technically speaking, a home theater is a combination of an HDTV and a surround sound speaker system. You can think of a home theater speaker setup in three main parts.

First, there's the front soundstage. This part of your speaker system is arranged around your TV: a center channel speaker (typically placed right below your screen) as well as front left and front right speakers flanking the TV. These speakers produce sounds to accompany action that happens on screen, like dialogue or cars driving by.

Next, there's the rear soundstage. You place between two and four surround speakers behind your listening area to produce surround effects. These can be ambient sounds, like wind in the trees, or directional sounds, like a bullet pinging on a wall over your left shoulder. Since most folks have two surround speakers, we'll focus on that kind of setup.

Finally, you need a subwoofer to play low notes, like the rumble of an explosion. (You also need a home theater receiver to send audio signals and power to each of your speakers.)

So those are the basics. There are lots of detailed traditional speaker placement suggestions that we won't go into here, but you can find out everything you need to know in our article and video about speaker placement.

L-shaped rooms

L-shaped rooms are tough because much of the sound is pulled into the empty space outside your listening area. It's not doing anyone any good there, so this placement is designed to direct the sound away from that vacant space as much as possible. Start by putting your TV where the two axes of the "L" meet, instead of at one end of the "L." Get your sofa or chairs oriented toward the screen as best you can.

Front soundstage: Arrange these speakers around your TV as described in "The basics." Try angling the left and right speakers slightly toward your listening position.

Rear soundstage: Place your surround speakers to the sides of where you're seated, or in the corners if there's not a good spot on both sides.

Subwoofer: Place it along the wall about halfway between your TV and your seating. For better sound, make sure it's not touching the wall, but sitting four to six inches away from it.

The challenge with L-shaped rooms is to keep sound from being pulled into empty space outside your listening area. Careful placement of your couch can really help.

Rooms with the TV in a corner

Sometimes, the combination of windows, doors, built-in bookshelves, and fireplace leaves you without any place for your TV except a corner. It might seem hard to get good home theater sound with this setup, but all is not lost. For this kind of room layout, I talked to Loren Barstow, Crutchfield editor and something of a speaker placement guru. Here are Loren's recommendations:

Front soundstage: "Set up your front soundstage the way you usually would. Once you've got the speakers in place and pointed toward your main listening spot, you can work on the surround speakers." Note: if the corner is tight, you can have your front speakers sitting a little forward of your TV, as in the illustration below.

Rear soundstage: "In this type of room, you can mount surround speakers on the wall directly behind your viewing area, but I think this makes your listening area too narrow. A better option is to mount one surround on the rear wall and one on the side wall. For the best results, you can use adjustable brackets to aim the rear speakers at your main listening position."

Subwoofer: "The sub can be placed in the corner a few inches from the wall."

Sometimes, it's hard to put your TV anywhere but in a corner. Fortunately, you can still get your speakers oriented so as to make the sound match up with the picture on screen in a way that sounds natural.

Open floor plans

As with a room where your TV is placed in a corner, the biggest challenge you'll face with an open floor plan is where to put your surround speakers.

Front soundstage: Just as we discussed before, the center channel should be placed directly above or below the TV, with the front left and right speakers placed to the sides.

Rear soundstage: If you follow ideal home theater guidelines for the surround speakers, you could end up with the speakers placed in another room! Instead, I suggest using adjustable brackets and some creativity. For example, you can mount the speakers to the back wall, or to the ceiling just behind your seat, then use the brackets to pivot the speakers toward your listening area.

Subwoofer: Again, the sub can be placed in the corner, but you should experiment to see what sounds best in your room.

More and more houses are designed with an open floor plan. This layout can give you great sound even when there aren't clear distinctions between the kitchen, dining, and living areas.

Sound bars are great alternatives for rooms where a full surround sound system just won't work. (Polk Audio SurroundBar®50 shown.)

No room for speakers?

Even with creative solutions, some rooms just aren't going to accommodate a traditional surround sound system. You can still get better sound than your TV's tiny speakers offer — for example, with a newer type of speaker called a sound bar. Many sound bars can give you virtual surround sound from just one long, slender, wall-mountable speaker. Learn more about sound bars in our article.