Speaker Placement: Am I An Idiot?

[William Cladley]

I moved into a new place a while back and my TV is basically connected to a dinette area and a hallway, giving me no mounting points behind me for my surround speakers. I have placed them under my fronts (see pic) and I am wondering how badly I am destroying my sound stage. Would it make more sense to just remove them and simply go with an LCR and a sub?

The sound is ok to my beginner ears, but I am not sure how to best maximize a set-up where I can only place speakers in the front of the room.

 

[shadyJ]

If you can't place them anywhere close to the recommended placement:

then just disconnect them. Yes, you are ruining your sound stage. The surrounds aren't that big of a deal, contrary to popular opinion. You won't be missing a whole lot without them.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Could you wall mount the surrounds?

 

[William Cladley]

Could you wall mount the surrounds?

Sadly, there are no walls directly behind the seating position. On the right side, there is a potential mounting point mid-room, but the left-hand side of the room is basically floor-to-sealing glass doors leading to a patio, with next potential mounting point essentially in another room. Very bad layout for a home theater, but it is what I am stuck with.

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Sadly, there are no walls directly behind the seating position. On the right side, there is a potential mounting point mid-room, but the left-hand side of the room is basically floor-to-sealing glass doors leading to a patio, with next potential mounting point essentially in another room. Very bad layout for a home theater, but it is what I am stuck with.

How about ceiling mounts?

 

[Pogre]

lol. you're not an idiot at all. the fact that you're here asking the right questions proves that. everyone has to start the learning process somewhere.

I'm gonna mirror the other replies and say just disconnect the extra 2 if you can't mount them in a surround configuration, though haarpa's suggestion to ceiling mount is a very viable option if possible.

 

[herbu]

lol. you're not an idiot at all.

Well... we don't know that. You may be, BUT you're doing the right thing to seek advice.

In my opinion, your current setup is not good. Simply disconnecting the surrounds would be better. However, you may want to try something else first. It looks like your TV & L/C/R are a fair distance out from the wall. Can you move them all back closer to the wall? Then put your surrounds as far out as possible. Maybe you can put them a little closer to your seat than where they are now.

Shady's diagram is right, but it's not set in stone. I have towers for my surrounds and there is also not a place beside or behind our seats for them. I have them on the side and just a bit in front of our seats. Not optimum, but as good as my room geometry allows.

I would experiment with as much separation as possible from the fronts to the surrounds before I gave up.

 

[Diesel57]

How dare you call yourself a idiot, you're seeking a solution, there's not a better place to get knowledge and support than here...as stated, I would experiment with the feed back given and not throw the towel in

 

[j_garcia]

I have mine on stands right behind the couch and that's about in the center of the room. Works just fine. Initially I had it setup as 3.1 and that was OK too since I listen to more music, but it is nice to have the surrounds for movies.

 

[afterlife2]

How about a pic of the seating area?