Struggling with placement for SVS Prime Elevation in small room

[Revec]

Hello everyone, my landlord has given me the okay to wall mount some small speakers. I picked up a 2 pairs of SVS Prime Elevations to go with my Prime Ultra LCR speakers. I want to use them in either a 7.1 or 5.1.2 Atmos setup and am looking for advice on placement as my options are somewhat limited. I can place them on any wall in the room, but with the caveat that they will likely need to be right at the top of each wall at the ceiling. Lx W x H of room is 12 x 11 x 8. Stands aren’t an option for side surrounds. (See photos.)

I have two (possibly 3) options for the side surrounds:

1. On the side walls about three feet from the corner in the downfiring position slightly behind or in line with where I sit.

2. Near the rear corner wall, but turned sideways so that they fire towards the front of the room.

3. 1 - 2 feet above listening level if I put them at the corners. They would be turned sideways like in #2.

None of these are optimal. However, my thinking is option 1 would be the best?

For the other two speakers, placement seems much more straightforward: on the rear wall 3 feet from each corner in the downward firing position.

Would that work for an 5.1.2 / 7.1 setup? Is that the best placement for those speakers given my room constraints? Thanks.

Attachments

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I would choose option one, except that I would try and get them in front of the LP. Directly to the sides at 90° could work too. But a couple feet forward would be best. If you can mount at the front wall/ceiling, that is another option but IMO, the side height location is better. Also, I would not try for 7ch in there. 5.1.2 will be better anyways.

 

[Revec]

I would choose option one, except that I would try and get them in front of the LP. Directly to the sides at 90° could work too. But a couple feet forward would be best. If you can mount at the front wall/ceiling, that is another option but IMO, the side height location is better. Also, I would not try for 7ch in there. 5.1.2 will be better anyways.

Thanks for the the reply William. I didn’t even think of moving the side surrounds in front of my MLP. I always thought side surrounds needed to be in line with or slightly behind the MLP when using them in 5.1? Or are those going to be the Atmos speakers in the 5.1.2 setup and I would be using the other pair of Elevations I’m planning to put on the rear wall as side surrounds?

 

[Eppie]

One thing to consider is surround setups supported by your AVR. Most manuals will have pictures of the supported surround options so make sure your AVR can be configured to use whatever placement you plan.

Surrounds can be side surrounds or rear surrounds with the side surrounds slightly ahead of your seating position as mentioned by William, yielding 7.1. You can also go with just 2 surrounds and 2 effects channels for 5.1.2, with .2 typically being front/rear height speakers. Check with manual whether the surrounds need to be rears or sides and whether the height / elevation speakers need to be front or rear. If you quote the receiver make and model we can look up the supported setups to see what fits the room.

Dolby ATMOS requires either speakers in the ceiling or speakers that fire upward to reflect off of the ceiling.

 

[snakeeyes]

I would try William’s suggestion on sides as high as possible but a bit in front of the listening position.

If you can put them up high on ladders to test it before you screw them in, you could experiment.

I recommend the movie Ready Player One which is Atmos both on the regular Blu-ray and on the UHD for testing out the placement and the adjusting the dB levels for the Height speakers in your AVR menu.

Also you should list what AVR model you have to get more specific information from members that have the same one.

 

[Revec]

I have a Marantz SR 6011. I believe it supports both options. Of the two options I am more interested in Atmos than 7.1. The only instance I can think of where I could see myself using 7.1 would be if Atmos isn’t a supported format for the movie I was watching.

 

[snakeeyes]

I don’t have a Marantz but the manual should be online. There are a lot of Marantz and Denon owners here though that know all the height speaker settings.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Thanks for the the reply William. I didn’t even think of moving the side surrounds in front of my MLP. I always thought side surrounds needed to be in line with or slightly behind the MLP when using them in 5.1? Or are those going to be the Atmos speakers in the 5.1.2 setup and I would be using the other pair of Elevations I’m planning to put on the rear wall as side surrounds?

Yes I meant for them as height speakers. It has been recommended in some 7.1 or even 7.x.x to have the side surrounds at about 80°(so just in front of the LP. This adds separation between sides and rears.
I have a 6012 and my system is 7.3.4. I believe yours will support 5.1.2 with front height.
If you can I’d recommend surrounds in the normal spot. 90-110°