Rear Surround Questions.

[nadeaux]

So my family room has limited space which requires me to have my sofa against the wall and this will not be changed per the wife. Also with being open to the kitchen i have no wall on the left side of the room to do surround on the side walls. So that leaves me with in wall behind the sofa. A few questions.

1. How important is it that the rear surrounds match the fronts, if same brands isn't that important what about size should i try and keep them the same general speaker size as the fronts?

2. Height and width of placement, so 3 feet above the seated position is what i've read but how wide out equal to the front left and right or is wider better?

3. Dipole, bipole, regular speakers, i'm lost with this what will work best for my limited placement?

4. Would in ceiling work better than in wall, much harder to install for me but if it would be alot better i would figure out a way to make it happen.

Thanks for the help..

 

[just-some-guy]

if i were you. i would hang 8" 2or3 way mono-poles from the ceiling. to the left and right on the main seating. and about 1 1/2' from the back wall. and aim them right at the main seating.

 

[just-some-guy]

but, ya know what. i have been watching in 2.0 the last few movies. and i am seated right close to the back wall. and i am getting rear surround effects. so surrounds are not "mandatory" in some applications.

 

[nadeaux]

but, ya know what. i have been watching in 2.0 the last few movies. and i am seated right close to the back wall. and i am getting rear surround effects. so surrounds are not "mandatory" in some applications.

With my 3.0 now i get some effects like this but usually only on DVD's not on 5.1 stuff from cable. So if i have to go with in wall would do i want dipole bipole somthing else or just any speaker that i can angle down to the listen area?

 

[LAB3]

if i were you. i would hang 8" 2or3 way mono-poles from the ceiling. to the left and right on the main seating. and about 1 1/2' from the back wall. and aim them right at the main seating.

I agree, good idea for mounting rear speakers..... trust me on some Blurays you are missing some cool seperation from the rear surrounds. I have about the same problem and mounted a pair of Klipsch RS3-II on the wall behind the sofa at the ceiling with the same space apart as my fronts and tilted them down as to aim them at the sofa and not just straight at fronts. How ever you mount or place the rear speakers ...DO.. complete for 5.1 on HD audio
or even DVD 5.1 has some good front to rear seperation you are missing.

 

[AVRat]

Surrounds don't need to match the fronts. Simple 2-way in-walls will work fine spaced about 9-10' apart and 3' above LP as mentioned.

 

[nadeaux]

Ok so i found a deal on a pair of Niles HDFX's and since i have Niles PHD42 for my LCR's I went ahead and ordered them.

My fronts L and R only have 6 feet between them due to windows on each side. However no windows in the back so I can go further apart. So with the rear placement of these inwalls do i need to consider how close they are to the side wall on the one side of the room and is it ok to space them 8-10 apart when my fronts are only 6ft apart.

 

[AVRat]

http://www.nilesaudio.com/docs/manuals/HDFX_manual1.pdf

Look at pg. 7 for a good layout. Yes, the surrounds are ok wider than the fronts. That's usually the case more often than not.

 

[bikdav]

Agreed

Surrounds don't need to match the fronts. Simple 2-way in-walls will work fine spaced about 9-10' apart and 3' above LP as mentioned.

That is what I found out also. On my one system, I have a pair of restored/modified Large Advents up front and a pair of Realistic Minimus 7s in the rear. To my ears, that is working just fine.