Surround Placement problem

[drpiranha]

I need to decide wiring placement for my HT in the next couple of days.
The position for the projector, screen, front and rear speakers have been decided with no problem. The surrounds do present a problem.

The room will be 19' 8" long by 12' wide.
There will be 2 rows of seats: the 1st is 12' from the front and the 2nd is 16.5' from the front and will sit on a 12" riser. The ceiling is 9' from the floor or 8' above the riser.

I will be using Rocket RS300's, which is a dipole speaker, for the surrounds. Because of a lack of room on the side, I decided that I had to mount the speakers high and angle them down, so people wouldn't hit their heads on them. I decided to place the center of speaker 14" from the ceiling, so that the bottom of the speaker is 6' 2" above the riser.

I wanted to place the center of the speaker between the 2 rows, but closer to the front, so about 13.5' from the front.

However, after doing measurements in the model home, I saw that there was a window on one wall that was 4' wide and went from 10' 10" to 14' 10" from the front wall and the top of the window is 14" from the ceiling. The other side is straight wall and therefore not a problem.

That means the closest that I can put the surrounds is about 15' 9" from the front.

Does this seem like acceptable positioning for surrounds or do I need to come up with a different idea?

Thanks

 

[jostenmeat]

Maybe 15'9" will sound fine to you. However, the thing about dipoles is that you want to sit in the null.

Also, does 16" of vertical space between ceiling and window truly prohibit mounting there? Is the speaker more that 16" tall?

For things like this, its nice to "plan" it all out. But, man, if I could have a dollar for every time it didn't quite work as planned . . .

What I am implying is to experiment. Get a couple of tall ladders. Place the speaker on top. Spend a week. Actually, spend even longer, and just tell yourself that the temporary ugliness will pay off in surety and peace of mind.

cheers.

 

[drpiranha]

Jostenmeat and others,

The height of these speakers is 15.5". The clearance from the top of the window to the ceiling is 14". I don't mind covering up the window by a couple of inches, but this idea would also cause me to the mount the speakers 6" higher than I intended and make it pretty difficult to get blackout drapes on the window.

As I was dropping off to sleep last night, I thought of another solution.

Would I be better off using a ceiling mount and positioning it so that the speakers are 13.5' from the front and maybe 3" or 4" from the side wall to allow the room for the blackout drapes?

If this idea is better, is 13.5' from the front and 3-4" from the side wall a best guesstimate for what would work?

If 90% of the time, there will only be people in the front row, should the surround dipoles be closer than the 1.5' behind the front row that I suggested?

I realize that it's hard to predict the exact best location, but I'm trying to come close enough, so that I can have the conduit run close to the endpoint.

Thanks