7.1 Speaker Placement

[chuckaroo]

Hey Guy's
Just about have my room finished for my PJ. Getting a little excited.
My receiver is a Sony STRDE 995 with 7.1 speaker connections.
My question is , whats the best location for the 4 rear surrounds?
Sure hope you can help as you always have.
Oh yes, my room size is 11'X14'. Also I am aware that the 3 front speakers should be as straight across from each other as possible, however do youthink the center could be about 3 feet back from the fronts as this receiver lets you adjust the volume independently?
Thanks, you guys are great.

[David Meek]

Hi ya Chuck, welcome to The Guide! :later:

I just bet you're getting exited. Congratulations on the PJ!

Here's a suggestion to help your soundfield. You really don't want your front speakers in a straight line. Imagine drawing a big circle around your listening position and placing the faces of the mains and the center on the circle. That will cause the sound from each to reach your chair at the same time. Setting the center further back (or forward) can be compensated for by changing the speaker delay setting for the center channel. With a little calculating, this'll cause the sound from all three to still reach your chair at the same time. After setting the delay, THEN adjust the volume if necessary.

Generally, you have the L/R surrounds to the sides of the listening position, or in the rear corners. The other two channels are for the center-rear speakers. They should ideally go behind your listening position and should be closer to each other than they are to the L/R surrounds.

I hope this helps.

Just FYI, Yamaha has a 7.1 setup that has two small "front effects" speakers that go outside and above the L/R mains. It makes for a much larger front soundstage. Actually, they're up to a 9.1 with the "front effects" and now the center-rears. Denon had a setup where you had the L/R surrounds set up about half-way along the side walls and the other two channels went into the rear corners of the room. You then picked which pair of surround speakers you liked, one for music, and one for movies. I'm not sure if they still have that setup available.

[Jariten]

you could aslo check on Dolby Labs. Home Page for speaker positioning?
Might also be something on DTS and THX home pages.

just a suggestion...

=)


I'm planning on a 7.1 setup once I will have moved into a basement...*grin*
Will probably ask the speaker manufacturer for some guidelines (M&K)


Happy listening...and Happy viewing!

[George Bellefontaine]

I use dipoles on the rear side walls with the null a little ahead of the seating, and my two back wall speakers are direct firing and are centered with about a 6 foot space seaparting them. This arrangement is basically for movies and works great in my room. Tex's suggestion is probably a good one for both movies and music listening. But really, it is difficult to offer suggestions on speaker placement because everyone's room is different and what works for me may not work for you.

[chuckaroo]

Speaker Placement

Thanks aheap guy's.
I can always depend on great answers from you folks.
I'll let you know how it all works out.
I have this square room at the present with hard drywall. Thought about putting 3 wall vertical columes on each side and the in between, ceiling tiles ( 2 X 4 ) covered with burlap and liquid nail the to the wall to keep the sound from bouncing around. What do you think?
Thanks again for the help.
What would we do without the forum

Chuckster

[Bam!]

Chuckaroo!

What is the projector that you finally chose?

[chuckaroo]

Type Projector

Hey Bam,
Was going to go for the Z2 but room is so small, does it justify haveing a mean machine like that?
I know you have the X1 and I'm leaning that way. What do you thing?

[Bam!]

Chuckaroo!

:yesnod:

While I know the Z2 is a great machine and by no means am I saying the X1 is better.....but.....for the price you`d never think you were watching a FP at that price. Plus in 720p :E

:T