5.1.4 surround speaker height

[Grymlot]

Hey everyone,

I'm planning a 5.1.4 setup in a medium size room. I have seen mixed answers or lack of answers on exact placement of my left & right surround speakers. I think the official recommendations I've seen are that with 7 speakers they would go directly to the sides of the listener but for a 5 speaker setup they should go slightly behind the listener. So that makes me wonder about the vertical positioning of those same speakers. I've seen recommendations of putting them slightly above ear level. Does the fact that I have 4 ceiling speakers mean that I shouldn't raise the left & right surrounds above ear level? Even Dolby's recommendation sheets don't seem to address vertical positioning here.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

These are from Dolby’s sheets. It says that H2(surround speakers) shouldn’t be higher than H1(mains)x1.25. So if the tweeter of your mains is at 40”, then the surrounds can be as high as 50”. You can go a bit higher to clear heads but I wouldn’t push it. Especially if the ceiling height is lower.