How high up should surrounds be placed? (1 Viewer)

[ScottATL]

I have a 5.1 set of Paradigm monitors, but I'm soon moving everything to the basement. I'm using the Mini's for surrounds right now, but I plan to upgrade to a set of ADP370's for the surrounds, but how high up should they be? Should these be placed on a floor stand or up mounted to the wall?

 

[Arthur S]

Scott

Many recommend that surrounds be placed 6 to 6 and a half feet off the floor. There are some who prefer ear level. Dolby Labs simply says "above ear level".

Artie

 

[Ralph B]

mine are about 6ft and always were pointing at eachother as to bounce off each opposing wall. I got good results.

now I have bipoles and they are mounted the same way and sound great but I think would be best on back wall.


as for ADP-370's ? locally they want $750 for these. wont be buying those for a long time to come.

 

[Brian L]

I would say that if you are only doing film soundtracks, follow Dolby's suggestion.

But, if MC music is in the cards, I would say lower. But even then, it would depend on what type of MC music. I like a lot of stuff that places instruments behind the listener. As such, I prefer my surrounds to be lower (I have the tweeters about at ear height, with the speakers on stands slightly behind and to the sides of the sweet spot.

When I had my surrounds up high, I hated the way MC music sounded.....its phony enough to have band members behind me....no point having them behind me and half way up the side wall

Now, if all your surround music were stuff where the rears were just ambience, then I would say go with a higher placement.

There is a white paper on Dolby's site relating to setting up a MC music mixing suite. I think their placement suggestions work very well for music, and I find that it is also quite good for film sound.

BGL