? About 6.1 Set Up (1 Viewer)

[jason celaya]

i have my HT room set up where my main seating is against the back wall. My 2 rear speakers are placed above my head along the side walls 6 inches behind me and facing each other to diffuse sound. If i were to add a sixth speaker for 6.1 (yes I have processing capablity)it would be just shy of being the middle of the firing zone of the other two. By adding the additional speaker hurt my soudstage more than help.

 

[jason celaya]

I forgot to put a question mark at the end of the last sentence.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Jason- I think you'd have to try it and see.
But my understanding is that the rear speaker is supposed to go behind you. Not up above you.
But it sounds like that might not work in your set up.

 

[Larry Chanin]

Jason:
Kevin (the previous poster) and I have been participating in an other active thread surround ex sound? that discusses your question.
An other member said that the benefits of Surround EX over a well laid out 5.1 arrangement were minimal. The first paragraph of my response (excerpted below) speaks to your question.

I believe that the improvement in the movie experience via Surround Back effects is more than minimal. However, I agree that a single person sitting in the "sweet spot" in a well configured 5.1 arrangement may experience a phantom rear center speaker that approaches an arrangement with real speakers. For those folks who don't have the space for more speakers, or who wish to limit their expenses this no doubt makes a lot of sense.

Kevin's response recommending that you try 6.1 is of course ideal to answer your question definitively, and I suspect that even in your less than perfect arrangement you will see some improvement over 5.1. However, I don't know whether you are going to have to purchase an additional speaker and amplification to try it out. If so, it is possible that you may feel that the effort and expense was not worth the improvement.
You don't indicate what type of surround speakers you have or the size of your room, but I have read that to get a diffuse sound field with direct radiating speakers they should be mounted high and aimmed to fire over your head. So a direct radiating surround back speaker mounted high over your head might work for your seating situation.
In contrast, in my situation I am able to locate my seating in the middle of my home theater. In this arrangement I have mounted direct firing surround speakers in the corners of the room aimmed down towards the back of the heads of the listeners. I also have a small center channel speaker mounted high in the center of the rear wall. This arrangement has worked well for me. If you already have a speaker lying around and an amp to power it I'd certainly agree with Kevin's advice to give it a try.
Click on my signiture below to get an better idea of my arrangement. Here's a picture of my rear center channel speaker which might work in your case.Back Center Surround
Larry

 

[Andy Brady]

I currently have a 6.1 set up with a DENON 3802. I sit very close to my rear wall with the two rear surrounds facing each other against the back wall behind me. My surround back is against the back wall above me angled down about 30 degrees. The sound from the rear channel is very noticable. The key since it is above is to angle down and place it above the rear surrounds slightly. That way the rear surround single is not bloked and the back surround cuts through. This may not be technically correct but because of my room layout this is the only option I have. This set up for me works impressiveably well. I tried Godzilla the other night in DD 6.1 (matrixed) and it the sound coming from the back surround was outstanding. The rear surrounds and back channel blended very well in this movie.