Rear Surround Placement

[P0RCH]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out the best placement for my rear surrounds. I plan on having a system installed in an open concept room. I have read that the rears should be the same distance apart as the front speakers. With the floor plan I am working with I can not achieve that and still have the speakers at ear level. The front speakers will be 10.4' apart.

1. I can install the rear speakers at ear level, but they would be spaced approximately 6' apart. (Green in the Diagram)
2. I can install the speakers 10.4' apart, but they would be installed high up on the rear wall above doors. So they would be approximately 8' high. (Orange in the Diagram)

Which location would be best?

Thanks

 

[James S.]

I would vote for green, if you plan on an Atmos system in the future. If not, the either will work. Guidelines are just guidelines. Many of us have some compromises in our systems. They still sound great.

 

[ryanosaur]

Where are your Surrounds (L/R) at?

 

[P0RCH]

I do plan on doing Atmos as well. The complete system will be 5.1.2.

ryanosaur, there are no Surrounds (L/R). If you are looking at the 7.1' in the diagram, that's to depict the width of the back wall.

Thanks

 

[Eppie]

Since the rear speakers are a good distance back from the seating area either would work for 5.1, but if you plan to add ATMOS I would agree that ear level is better so as not to have the rears close to the same height as any ATMOS speakers.

Side surrounds might be doable if you go with a compact bookshelf speaker. You have the cabinet with the double sink to run lines through with the speaker on the counter top or on compact stands, assuming the opposite wall on the right is open space as well. I can understand not wanting a speaker on or near the counter though but it does line up nicely with the seating.

 

[ryanosaur]

For proper signal parsing you should consider those Surrounds, not Rears.
In a 5.1 setup, it is acceptable to push the Surrounds further back. In a 7.1, not having Surrounds but having Rears will throw the sound field off, I would expect. It is important to keep in mind that Rears are not necessarily native to all programming. The Surrounds are!
That said, if you can go with the Red placement and connect the as Surrounds L/R you will have a better 5- channel set up.

 

[P0RCH]

Hi,

Thanks for the information. I went back and did a little more research. I never thought about placing a speaker at island. I like that idea. I plan on using in wall speakers. If I were to place the surround in the island, the height of the speaker would be below ear level. The center of the LCR speakers would be 4'. If I placed a left surround in the island, the center would be 3'. Would that be acceptable? For the right surround, ideally the center would be 5' high. Should I make it 5' high or the same height as the left surround?

Thanks

 

[Wardog555]

110-120 degrees is what Dolby specifies for the angles for 5.1.2.
What would this look like in your situation?
Ideally the surrounds to be at the same height. Not too high though above ear level.

Regards.

 

[-Jim-]

Try to get the surrounds at ear level or slightly above when seated. (Typically 43 inches works for me.) A bookshelf on top of the counter sounds about the right height. You could put them on speaker stands right where your blue boxes are.

If you want to compromise, then installing inside the counter at 3 feet is definitely that.