Speaker placement: missing surround speakers, have rear and height

[Malcolm73]

I have a question about the best way to connect up my speakers if I'm missing two.

Due to the room configuration and previous wiring (and WAF prohibiting trailing speaker cable in the middle of the floor), I have speakers positioned right at the rear of the room, but none beside the seating position. I also have in-ceiling speakers positioned left and right of the seating position. In other words, I would have a classic 7.0.2 speaker setup with top-middle speakers except that I'm missing the surround-left and surround-right speakers. ie. it's not really 5.0.2 because I have rear channels instead of properly positioned surrounds.

My question is, how should I connect and configure this? Should I connect the in-ceiling speakers as surround-left and surround-right? They are well-positioned to the surround-left and surround-right except for the fact they are in the ceiling. Can I rely on room-correction to solve this? Or should I connect the in-ceiling speakers to the height channel, and leave the surround-LR socket unconnected, and hope the AMP notices that I'm missing those speakers and can correct for it? Or should I use the rear speakers as surround speakers, even though they're 4m to the rear, when the front speakers are less than 2m in front of the seating position?

My old receiver has just broken, and I'm about to buy a replacement (probably a Onkyo TX-RZ30 unless you talk me out of it), so if there's a room connection option I should be looking for in a purchase, please let me know.

 

[abacus]

So long as you buy a receiver that has at least 7 channels (With support for height channels) then you will be good to go, as you can then experiment to see which setup gives you the best performance.

Bill

 

[Malcolm73]

Sure, but any advice on what is likely to give me the best outcome?

 

[abacus]

Not possible, as everybody's perceptions and hearing are totally different. (Its like asking what is the best amp and speakers for your room, only you can decide that)

Bill

 

[Messiah]

Should I connect the in-ceiling speakers as surround-left and surround-right? They are well-positioned to the surround-left and surround-right except for the fact they are in the ceiling. Can I rely on room-correction to solve this? Or should I connect the in-ceiling speakers to the height channel, and leave the surround-LR socket unconnected, and hope the AMP notices that I'm missing those speakers and can correct for it? Or should I use the rear speakers as surround speakers, even though they're 4m to the rear, when the front speakers are less than 2m in front of the seating position?

Personally, given the speakers are in the ceiling, I would certainly utilise them as height speakers and not rear side speakers. (If you want to give it the time, you could try it both ways and see what you prefer).

I would use the rear speakers as exactly that, rear speakers.

When you go through the set-up process you should be able to tell the amp what speakers are connected and/or the calibration will pick this up automatically.