7.1 with couch against wall (1 Viewer)

[Jermaine J.]

I am considering whether to step-up to 7.1. However, my main listening area is against the back wall. Will I be able to experience the benefits of 7.1 with this arrangemet?

Thanks,
Jermaine

 

[Kevinkall]

I'm currently running a 6.1 setup with my main listening area against the back wall. Since the right side of the room opens up into a dinning room I couldn't mount the surrounds to the right and left of the listening position, so I have all 3 surrounds mounted on the rear wall. It's not the optimal surround position but it does the job and it sounds good. Not sure how well a 7.1 setup would sound.

 

[sean_pecor]

In your environment I would recommend upgrading a different piece of your equipment. Proper 7.1 audio can't be designed into that room without some major guesswork, and in the end, you could very well end up with sub-par 7.1 (read: waste of money). Your money may be better spent upgrading your screen, or your TV, or your seats, etc.

Sean.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Seating against a wall is never a good solution regardless of the number of channels. If you take a look at frequency distribution curves the walls are loaded with peaks and valleys. You can see these curves in many of Russ Herschelman's articles in SGHT or A/V Interiors.

 

[AndyF]

I have a similar situation. What would be a minimum seating distance from the back wall?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

What would be a minimum seating distance from the back wall?

That's a function of the room's dimensions. The modal frequencies are calculated as a fraction of length, width, and height. I can't remember the formula. Do a search on the net for Russ Herschelman and you should find the charts I referenced above. If you have back issues of SGHT and A/V Interiors you'll be able to find them there. SGHT's website also has a spreadsheet you can download that lets you plug in room dimensions and seating positions then shows which frequencies will give you problems. Playing around with seating locations shows how these change - you want to minimize the number of peaks and nulls.

In other words there's no cookie cutter solution.

 

[Robert McClanahan]

Keep it simple.I use some bracket mounted speakers on the wall above my head for rear center channels and just point them down.My couch is also against the wall.It works fine and sounds great.

 

[Frank joe]

i also have a 7.1 setup and my couch i pretty close to the back wall also . i dont always use 7.1 but i am glad i have it. yes point the speakers slightly downward as the 2 left and right fire over your head. i am not sure what kind of speakers you are using (you didn't say) remmeber 7.1 works like prologic it takes information from the left and right speakers. unless you are using discrete 6.1. but i think its worth the investment. the amount of money you will spend on brackets and speakers will be only be a couple of hundred bucks. i got my brackets at crutchfield . they clamp the speaker from the sides and i didn't have to put screws in them(speakers). frankie