Surround speakers: bipole, dipole or direct radiating?

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I read a fair bit of material on surround sound setup when I was placing my speakers. I ended up putting them at six feet high to the bottom edge. This places them so that most people will not bump into them when walking by. I think it also helps keep direct radiators firing well above the heads of listeners. I also had front presence channels located on the front wall over my 61” DLP. Six feet cleared the TV by a foot or so. I get a good soundfield with placement a six feet high and I would recommend it. It also looks visually balanced in the room

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

6 feet to the bottom edge huh?

That sounds alright, but I have one small problem... the builders of this house decided to put an odd run of HVAC duct length ways down the center of the ceiling, under the ceiling joists... which do not run parallel with the ducting, so tucking the duct up in between the joists was not an option. To make things worse, at the far end of the room it forks into a "Y" which the two runs travel along the ceiling for about 5 more feet then taking a 90 degree turn upstairs to two different ducts.

I looked into having the whole run moved or rearranged but I couldn't find an alternate solution due to a few other existing factors inside the room preventing any real gains from being made... so I said screw it and framed the ceiling at a uniform height just under the duct. Unfortunately the finished height of the ceiling will be about 6' 7"

This is the only thing I don't like about my dedicated room, it kinda ruins it a little in my opinion but I did the best I could.

So, will the fairly low ceiling height have any effect of room interactions with sound or any other negative effects?

I measured my couch height and the back of the couch stands at 40 inches which coincidentally is just about seated ear height as well.

Would placing the bottom edge of the surrounds at 64" be too low, or when they say 2 feet higher do they mean 2 feet above ear height measured to the center of the driver?

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

My bad, thought you had in-walls. You shouldn't have any problem then. Though, depending on how you plan to mound the speakers on the wall, you may want to take advantage of the opportunity to reinforce that area now while it's easy.

I would recommend visiting the THX site, the Dolby site and even your speaker mfg's site and make a decision based on the info. I don't remember the DTS site having speaker placement recommendations.

No problem man, it's all good. I know it's hard across a forum to always get an accurate depiction of what the other person is seeing.

As for the reinforcement for the mounting brackets I am definitely going to beef up a good section behind the drywall for potential speaker mounting area. That combined with a generous excess of wire should allow me a little flexibility to move the speaker somewhat if the 2 feet back / 2 feet higher idea doesn't work out... although it would be nice if it did.

Thanks for the ideas, any help is much appreciated.

 

[Warpdrv]

Did you mention what brand/model speakers your going to be mounting....

That might help where you should place them....

For example, Paradigms ADP models are suggested that the listener sits in the null spot of the speaker, which is directly on the side of the LP.

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

My towers are Mission M74i

My center is Mission M7C2

My side surrounds are Mission M31i

My rear surrounds are Mission M30.

I have looked in the manual in regards to height / surround placement but the only thing it refers to that is even close to what we're talking about is: "Height is important: a stand should place the top of a speaker at ear level to a seated lister. Shelf or bracket mounting is second best."

I'm not using stands, and I don't think that you would want your surrounds at seated ear height.

 

[Warpdrv]

Agreed, go by what other have suggested for height....

When setting up my system before I got my Wall mounts, I had them on stands, and it didn't sound nearly as good as when I finally put them up on the wall... I had to put mine (direct radiating) up 8ft and then angle them downward firing just above my head, and they work great, and sound spectacular... but as I stated before I have a huge room and I could get away with that.

In my smaller room, with the Dipoles, they are about 1.5 to 2 ft above my head, and that works fantastic... but obviously the room will dictate placement.

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

Thanks Warpdrv, I appreciate your input.

Cheers.