Advice for Wall mounting speakers - Rear ported

[tanya2ky]

Hi Guys,

Over the weekend i did my speaker shopping and bought

PSB Alpha C1 as Center channel.
PSB Alpha B1 for Front and rear.

PSB dealer also gave me a bracket that will keep these speakers approx 5-6 inches away from wall and i will be using these brackets to wallmount these speakers.

Before i start wall mounting these speakers, i have few questions:

Q1 Is 5-6 inch space sufficient for Rear porting speakers to work fine. I also read in some other threads where people has advised to stuff the rear port with cloth, do you recommend that.

Q2. I have bought Alpha B1 for both Front and Rear, though i am not sure if i should i have bought smaller (less powerful) speakers for rear. I think because they both are same(front and rear) sound from my front might get distorted or less audible. I have Radio shack meter for calibration but in past with my old speakers i have experienced that i was hearing around 50-60% of audio from rear speakers and at times i was not able to listen to dialogues delivered by Center channel. And yes my last system was calibrated. I still have 30 days to return (if you advice) my rear Alpha B1 and can get smaller speakers for rear. Please advice.

Q3. I have wall mounted my TV and was planning to wall mount Center and L&R speakers around it. I was lucky to find Stud on the side of TV, so i can easily wall mount my L&R speakers. Problem is with Center speaker installation.
I have Studs running near the ends of my TV and was not able to find any stud near the center of TV. The bracket i have is http://www.electronicsforless.ca/stands-mounts-40/speaker-stands-brackets-49/everik-em-102b-universal-speaker-ball-joint-wall-mount-black-601.html

Till now i have below ideas but will appreciate if you can throw some more based on your experience. Speaker is around 17 pounds.
A) Install a piece of wood (approx 5 inches thick) on the two corner studs. After that install the speaker bracket in the middle of the wood and the screw will run through it and go inside the wall. I hope 5 inches wood will be sufficient to hold 17 pounds of weight with all those vibrations and thumps.

B) Install the bracket at the center of the wall without using Studs (coz they are not there) and hope that it will be able to support 17 pounds weight.
I know its risky and can damage both my wall and speaker but installation will look clean. My question is that can this work or is it not worth it.

C) Buy a Shelf from Home depot and install that on wall and place speaker on it. I think it might not look good though it should work.

Please share any other ideas/tips for doing that.

 

[lsiberian]

To answers Q1.

yes it is sufficient for ported speakers. Your main concern will be dealing with baffle step(bass boost essentially) If a speaker is recommended 2 ft away it's baffle step circuit likely compensates for that. This would mean at 6 inches you will get a jump in bass.

Q2:

You always should calibrate your speakers. However rears are only in 7.1 setups and are rarely used. Surrounds should be placed too the sides of you. Not behind you. Preferrably a little behind you to the side.

Reference dolby.com for proper placement of speakers.

 

[tanya2ky]

Thanks Lsiberian, i think i can live with baffle step....

Any tips advise on wall mounting center speaker.

 

[AVRat]

For the center, I'd prefer the shelf. I'm sure you can find some nice, decorative brackets/korbels to support it. What's the distance between the studs? Here in the States they're usually 16" center to center.

 

[Highbar]

I'd go with the shelf for the center speaker.

As for the surrounds. I can't imagine why the rears/surround speakers would be that loud if they were calibrated. I've never had that problem and my surrounds aren't even 5' from my head while my mains are 12-13'. That was with matching speakers all around. The only time your surrounds should be that loud if there's serious action on the screen, next to that I can't see why a calibrated system would have that problem. I'd stick with all for B1's and work with the setup, what receiver are you using for power?