How high should front height speakers be placed on the wall?

[Oldboy]

Hello all,

I'm in the process of working out where I'm going to place my front height Dali Zensor 1's and know they should be in line with my front left and right speakers but I've found some very different opinions on how high up the wall they should be placed, ranging from at least 3 feet from the fronts to as high up the wall as possible and some saying it doesn't really matter.

Does anyone have any idea how high they should go before I start drilling holes? I'm of the opinion that if I just match the height of my rear surrounds I'm going to be there or there abouts, rears are 5 and a half feet (about 1.68 metres) up the wall...would matching these heights at the front be a good way to go or should they go higher?

I can't find any recommended distances for front height speakers on either the Dolby, THX or DTS websites just a picture or two with no mention of height. The Dolby picture only seems to allude to the speakers going slightly higher than my wall mounted tv, I'm confused so any help would be greatly appreciated before I start drilling the holes for the speaker brackets :wall:

 

[GSB]

I'm not sure there are any hard an fast rules,or measurments,but if your positioning resembles the Dolby ones,and you are happy with the look i can't see you going wrong,this may be of some help

http://www.avforums.com/forums/speakers/1724195-front-centre-speakers-placement.html

 

[abacus]

An interesting question

One would assume that they would be spread out equally so as to give full coverage of the screen.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Oldboy]

Many thanks to both of you for your input, really appreciated.

After getting the tape measure out I think I'm going to go with the same height as my rear surrounds as when I match up the height to the front they are just 2 1/2 iches shy of being 3 feet above the height of my fronts.

It just makes sense to me that keeping the heights equal will give me a better spread of sound, but as I'm going to angle them down slightly part of me thinks place them that few inches higher and make sure they are 3 feet above my fronts as suggested elsewhere and indeed now I'm sitting here looking at it the 3 feet option would place them much nearer the Dolby picture from their website....hmmmm :?

Actually for the sake of 2 1/2 inches I will go with the 3 feet option as it won't look odd in comparison to the rears and is very close to the height of the rears too, more info should be out there for this though as there are no figures available for how high these speakers should be placed.

 

[GSB]

Agreed and no doubt when you post some pix of your system some **sehole will say that the front heights should be placed differently :roll:

I've just read a few articles about manualy calibrating a sub...they all say this should be done by ear and not with a meter for best results and sub volume set about half-way,so trust your hearing oldboy....good luck and have fun

 

[robjcooper]

Oldboy,

Just a suggestion, if you have a set of step ladders, could you try and borrow a second set and put the speakers at different heights on those - g clamp a piece of wood to the steps to act as a small shelf. You can then try them at different heights til you find one you like. (could go to a DIY shed, buy a set of steps and then take them back for a refund as they are 'the wrong height'.......)

Good luck any way and keep us informed - been a good read so far, but you're making a lot of us jealous!

Rob

 

[Son_of_SJ]

Hello Oldboy,

In my parlour and bedroom the bottom of the front height speakers are about 7' 9" high. The kitchen has a false ceiling, so the front speakers there are right up against the false ceiling, with the bottom of the front height (used, like the bedroom pair), in bi-amp arrangement) kitchen speakers about 6' 9" high. The front speakers in all rooms seem to work well enough, so I don't think the exact height is too critical.

However, page 15 of my RX-A2010 manual recommends that the bottom of the front presence speakers, like the rear presence (not the rear surround) speakers be at 1.8m above the floor. The diagram is called "Ideal speaker layout". Can you access such a diagram in your electronic manual at all? If you can't, I'll screen save the diagram and insert it into my next reply in this thread. Now I'm back off to the kitchen to watch the last five minutes of normal time of Bayern Munich against Borussia Dortmund, with the television sound going through my humble, unimproved RX-A2010!