Speaker Placement Advice

[borse2008]

(not to scale)

Hi,

Got a few questions please, hoping you guys can help:

1. Is the general 5.1 speaker placement ok? (blue boxes)

2. What kind of distance would I have to move the couch off the back wall in order to put Rear Surrounds there? (minimum speaker to couch gap?)

3. Can I keep the couch where it is and mount Rear Surrounds in the corners pointing towards the MLP?
[*]If Rear Surrounds are no good in this room, should I go for Front High/Wide?If so which?[*]My speakers are all large wall mount, if i went Front High is this ok (and how high?, as high as possible? wall is 2.2m high, 120" screen):

4. If I was to go wide then the speakers can only be mounted horizontally due to the layout of the room, and therefore I would not be able to angle them sufficiently towards the MLP would this be a problem?​
5. Now onto the Atmos questions, are the placement of the ceiling Atmos speakers correct (green circles)? I obviously cannot get the rear ceilings behind the couch, so, is as close to the back wall as possible sufficient?
6. How far should the front ones be from the MLP?

Thank you in advance​

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Question 1 - Yes, more or less. 5.1 surround is more side than rear.

Question 2 - I would say at least 6 feet (2 metres) ideally. And you should move your side surrounds to be level with the couch again.

Question 3 - Rather than do that I would suggest possibly mounting one rear mono surround in the middle of the back wall. If the couch stays where it is you won't be able to distinguish between the side and rear surrounds, but a single rear surround in the middle might work well. Move your side surrounds a metre or two if you can to help increase the distances between speakers.

Question 3a - Yes, but I would go for some smaller units for the front highs, as these are for effect rather than outright sound level. I keep mentioning Klipsch RP-140SA speakers which can be used as Atmos speakers placed on top of regular hifi speakers or hung on the walls where the walls meet the ceiling, either as front highs or as Atmos speakers. They angle the sound down towards the listener. Have a look on the Klipsch website and you'll see what I mean.

Question 4 - No, not really. Front highs or wides are for effect rather than anything else. But consider using smaller units instead.

Question 5 - If you are going to use four Atmos speakers, then the ideal is to have one pair behind the couch, one pair in front, so that they angles from speakers to ears is between 30 and 45 degrees from horizontal. With a 2-ish meter ceining and assuming your ear level is about 0.8 to 1.0 metres above the floor, that means between about 1.2 and 2.0 metres in front of and behind the couch. In your case, if you want to leave the couch where it is, and want to fit rear surrounds, I think you would not be able to tell the diffrence between the side surrounds, rear surrounds and the rear overhead pair. In fact, all those speakers at the back of the room might overpower the front ones! Maybe instead of a 7.1.4 arrangement you should think about 5.1.2, 7.1.2 or 5.1.4 arrangements. For 5.1.2 or 7.1.2 put the .2s in front of the couch not behind it if the couch stays against the wall or directly overhead it you're going to move it forward. If you're set on using four overheads I would move the couch forward 2 metres or so and put one pair 1.2 to 2.0 metres in front of the couch, the other pair the same distance behind it. Of course, that then means you could use rear surrounds as well.....

Question 6 - see above. For two overhead speakers, these should be directly over the couch. For four overhead speakers, the front ones should be beetween 1.2 and 2.0 metres in front of the couch, the rear ones the same distance behind it, if you move the couch forward. If you are not going to move the couch then don't fit the rear ones and put the front ones in front of the couch.