7.1- surround sides ok slightly infront? (1 Viewer)

[Eric D Wong]

...new to 7.1, setting up my system. Right now I only am using 5 speakers- surrounds are to the rear of me. After going to the movies last night, I realized I *must* put the surround sides on the sides cause I'm missing alot and although I'm using B&W dipoles their reflection off the side walls still isnt enough to fill the gap.

Due to room/window/fireplace constraints, I can't place the side surrounds directly to the sides of me. I plan to get Magneplanar MMG-W's for the surrounds, they are hinged so I can "aim the null" to my listening area. Is this acceptable to have the side surrounds slightly infront of the listening area?

For the rears, I plan to try to suspend them from the celing and aim down, since Maggies are dipolars and they need breathing room behind them.

 

[JustinG]

i have a similar setup now with 7.1. I have klipch quintets for my side surrounds and some dipole/bipoles for the rear that are straight side fires. I aim the klipsch towards me and they work great especially after tuning.

They are probably 4 feet forward of my sweet spot and 9 feet off the floor to give you an idea of position. The backs are about 1 foot behind, 9 feet up and i can still tell they are doing their job.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

OK to put the surrounds slightly forward of the listening area. In fact, a lot of people find that if you place the surrounds directly to the sides, they are way too localizeable.

 

[Eric D Wong]

I changed my setup to this- the dipolar B&W speakers are on the sides of the room. They are now right about ear level. Only thing is that the left surround side 1/2 of it fires thru an open doorway to the kitchen and the other has a wall behind it so the right is louder then the left.

I dug out a pair of old Optimus LX5's and put a single one in the rear right above my head. Calibrated the levels and set the distances and had a listen.

Definately quite a mismatched system but this was just for kicks and giggles and experimental.

I *definately* like the surround back center. I can't wait to do the real 7.1 when I get the appropriate matching speakers. Seems much more of a full, surrounding effect.

ALso, side note, on music I like DTS NEO6 music rather then Pro Logic 2x music. The PL2x puts out too much material thru the rear center it seems.

Next experiment is height of the surround speaker as well as the front/back position. Then I'll try the full 7.1

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Yes, 7.1 is where it's at.

You don't have to give up on DPL IIx music so quickly. If it's anything like DPL II, there are a lot of adjustable parameters including how aggressively material is steered towards the rear.