My setup and location of rear speakers. (1 Viewer)

I have a fairly small living room. (dont have dementions) I have jbl setup all the way around and a yamaha 2400 powering everything. It sounds very good! The only thing that I dont like is that I cant hear my surround speakers very well. Seems like my old crapy setup with $30 surround speakers would be more loud during movies. My current JBL e10's are on my back wall kind of high. (7 or 8 feet) my listening position is usually in a back corner directly under on of the speakers. I know because of my setup it will be hard to set it up correctly, but I would just like to hear the surround. I was thinking of lowering them and facing them in. (maybe 2 feet above head when sitting)
Any thoughts?

Nick

You might also want to pick up an SPL meter from RadioShack. You can calibrate your system from your preferred seating and make sure that all your speakers are delivering equal sound levels etc.

One of the best suggestions I've heard for mounting surrounds when the sofa is up against the back wall is behind the couch facing up. Just put one speaker on each side and align the front baffle with the top of the couch. Buy or borrow an SPL meter to match the SS output with your front 3 speakers. Otherwise they will play too loud given their close proximity.

Jason, do you mean have the speaker on its back but raised so it's even with the couch?

Yes. You'll have to put something temporary underneath the speakers to prop them up to the right height.

Does that impact the sonic quality from the speakers?

BTW... sorry nick for hijacking your thread, i'm in the same boat as you RE: a couch on the back wall, so that's why i'm so interested.

With DD or DTS movies there really isn't all that much sound that's sent back there. I believe only 400 Hz and above is sent to the rear channels. Nonetheless, experimentation is key.

Nick, let us know how it works out.

Well I don't even have much room to put the speaker behind my couch. My couch is against the side and back wall in the corner. I am doing to try and put them on the sides and maybe angle them down a little. I will play with it and report what I find works best.

Nick

As always, personal preference rules. But unless they are bipoles or dipoles you want to avoid 'aiming' the rears at the listening position. For HT, you want the rear channels to produce diffuse sound. In other words, you don't want to be able to easily localize the surround effects. Otherwise they can become more distracting than enveloping.

Make sure you match the output of the rear channels with the front mains. Even a few dB's below the mains is desirable to a few dB's above.

As I said before, don't expect much from the rear channels with DD or DTS recordings.

If you don't have the room between the couch and the back wall perhaps you can try putting them on the floor, along the back wall on each side of your couch?