Symmetry in Surround Speakers

[Mathemagician]

Hello! I recently got a 5.1 system, and I've been doing some looking around. According to Dolby, it says that the right surround speaker should be placed 90-120 degrees clockwise (if 0 degrees is the center channel). My question is, "is it important that the right and left surround speakers be placed symmetrically?" That is, can I have the right surround speaker at 90 degrees, and the left surround at 120 degrees (counter/anti-clockwise from 0), and still have appropriate sound?

 

[the grunt]

Symmetrical placement is IMO the best choice but if not possible I don’t think it would be quite as noticeable as unsymmetrical front speaker placement. Many people have the same issue you are having. If you haven’t already bought your speakers I feel that multi-polar (di/bipole or quadrapolar) are more forgiving of placement. Another option is putting them a little farther back if you can. I had excellent luck putting mine back as far as 135 degrees. This sounded perfect to me but likely that was due the symmetrical shape of the back of my listening area.

 

[GregS351]

If the speakers location varies in distance from the listen position you will have a lag on the side with the longer distance. A quality receiver can correct this, but even placement is best.