[David-Du]

I’ve just purchased a Denon-3803 and will be adding a pair of rear surrounds.

My current 5.1 setup sounds awesome with the side surrounds wall mounted at ~ 6’ 6” (2.5 – 3’ above ear level) at each end of my couch. The ceiling in my HT room is 18’ high with the “rear wall” roughly 5’ behind the couch. The “rear wall” actually doesn’t start till the 9’ high mark as the bottom is open to another room (if you can picture that).

From a room design and wife acceptance perspective, I think my best approach would be to use a couple of in-wall speakers that would be 5’ behind the main listening position, but 9’ 6” off the ground (5.5’ – 6’ above ear level).

I know many in-walls have tweeters or horns that pivot. I was considering perhaps mounting a pair horizontally and pivoting the highs toward the listening area. What are some opinions on mounting in-walls this high? Would I be better off doing something else. Is there such-a-thing as an in-wall where the whole internal chassis would pivot? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Neil Joseph]

I can't comment on inwalls that pivot but you either have to go with an inwall setup or you will have to wall mount a couple of regular speakers, considering your 18' (??) ceiling height. Is it possible to mount the rear speakers at the same height as the side surrounds?

[David-Du]

Thanks Neil . . the side surrounds are at 6' 6". The rear surrounds will have to be at roughly 9'6 as the wall surface doesn't start till about 9' high.

Are there any thoughts as to mounting rear surrounds at that height? Would I need to angle them down toward the listening area, or should I be okay with them firing straight out?

[TimForman]

Definitely angle them down or find a way to have the tweeters pointing at the listening area as much as possible. Perhaps you could use ceiling mounts on some extension pipes to get them down to 7 1/2 feet or so in height. The ceiling mounts could then pivot enough to point them at the listening area. Are you getting my visual? It might not be practical. Just thought I'd try offering an option.

[sean_pecor]

Here is a useful Dolby diagram:

http://dolby.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/do...p_sid=bZ5Vm*Hg

If the link doesn't work, visit http://www.dolby.com, select Dolby Knowledgebase and it should be the #1 subject.

An excerpt from an article on Home Theater Mag's web site (http://www.hometheatermag.com/showarchives.cgi?116:5):

"THX has developed what they feel is a single approach that allows for simpler system operation and better performance in all cases. For one, THX recommends a 7.1 speaker layout that still includes two dipole speakers to the sides of the listener but recommends two closely spaced, direct-radiating speakers in the back. THX prefers two monopole back speakers in order to preserve the discrete surrounds of multichannel music and EX/ES soundtracks. The close proximity of the two speakers also preserves a stable central image for both on- and off-axis listeners, while the THX processor applies new spacializing effects (called ASA, for Advanced Speaker Array) to create a wider soundstage than the placement would suggest. "


So the key is keeping the rear surrounds closer than your current surrounds, within 60-90 degrees from the listening position.

As for the mains, do you have dipole surrounds now? I have a pair of bipole/dipole CSW S200 surrounds that I like very very much:
http://www.hifi.com/store/category.c...xxx&type=store

For your rear surrounds, I'd think mounting them 9'6" high is not a problem. I've not seen whole enclosure pivoting speakers, only in-wall speakers with pivoting tweeters, such as:

http://www.hifi.com/store/category.c...2wh&type=store

You can paint those in-walls to match.

Sean.