Any issues w/rear speakers beside the couch? (1 Viewer)

[Ted Lee]

hi all -

my rear's are direct radiating bookshelf type - pinnacle's.

my new setup forces my couch against the wall. because of this i'll have to place my speakers directly beside my couch within close proximity. basically, they'll be right next to the arm-rest.

i don't want to wall-mount them in any way.

i haven't had time to test yet and i know my ears will be the final judge, but i was wondering if you had any ideas on this?

how to angle the speakers? how high (if at all) to elevate them?

tia

 

[Mike LS]

My surrounds are directly to the side of my second row couch and I think the imaging is pretty good.

I'd put them as far back as possible....if you can get them even a couple of inches behind where your head will be it'll be better.

As far as height goes....usually a couple of feet above the head is good.

 

[MarkPayton]

Ted, I also used to have small bookshelf surrounds that sat right next to me - one on a shelf and the other on a table right next to the couch. It sounds from your note that wall mounting is not an option, although if it is I highly recommend it. If not, then you should at least try to prop the speakers on something to raise their height so they are approaching the height of your head (or higher).

There are a couple of challenges with this that you need to be aware of. The biggest is that by having the speakers down so low you are likely to have the sound blocked or absorbed by the sofa itself, or more certainly by anyone who might be sitting next to you on the sofa. At times, when watching movies I would miss the entire right surround effect because my wife was sitting next to the speaker blocking the sound to my ears (and I would block the left effect for her)! Now that the speakers are mounted above our heads, we get far better clarity.

 

[Marty M]

I had a very similar situation. I wanted to get my surrounds above ear level, but couldn't find any speaker stands that yould go that high. I ended up making stands out of 6 foot threaded rods. I made shelves four 14 X 16" for each stand and put the speakers on the top shelves at about 5 foot off the ground. The other shelves are used for storage and nick-nacks.

You could make the shelves even smaller if necessary. Since I have Mini-Monitors I wanted to make sure the shelves were big enough to hold the speakers with clearance on all four sides.

 

[KeithH]

Ted, my couch isn't right against the wall, but it's only about 3 feet away. As a result, I have the rear speakers on stands just behind the couch. For my set-up, the dealer I bought Sanus Natural Foundations speaker stands from recommended 36" stands, as opposed to 30" stands from the same product line. Sometimes, I wonder if higher stands would be even better since my front and center speakers are higher than 36", but the 36" stands do work well. The Natural Foundations stands are made very well, and I worry about the stability of some of the taller stands I have seen around. Unfortunately, the Natural Foundation stands I have don't come taller than 36". In your set-up, you may find that 36" stands put the speakers right in your ear, so maybe 48" would be better.

 

[Ted Lee]

thanks all...it definitely sounds like height is a consideration to keep in mind.
any type of wall-mounting will have to be negated (it's a new apartment and i don't want to lose my deposit...so i'm trying really hard not to put big ol' holes in the wall).
good point about how one person can block the rear channel...i'll have to consider that too i guess.
thanks again!

 

[BryanZ]

I do. However, they are mounted up on 7' high bookshelves and about 8' away from the couch.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I tend to favor putting the tweeters at ear-height myself.

The problem with side-placement is that anyone to the side of the central listening position is going to be blasted by the near speaker. Some solutions are to angle the rear speaker to fire off the back wall for indirect sound, fire to the sides to reflect off of the side-walls, or even fire upwards from below ear height from the sides.

Just be sure to use a SPL meter to re-adjust the levels with every angle change or you may reject a superior position simply because it's quieter than the previous one.

Another suggestion would be to disable the front 3 speakers when playing with rear-speaker positions. This will help you focus on just the rear sounds. You might even plug the wires for the rears into the Front L/R jacks to give you more signal for your tests.

Good Luck.