Placement of rear speakers (1 Viewer)

[judyT]

Hi all,

My husband and I are building a new home with a home theatre room. I received a call yesterday from the electrician who wanted to know where to place the wiring for the rear speakers...I haven't even thought about it.

The room is 20x13.5. we will have a 61 inch plasma at the front and three home theatre seats close to the TV. In the back part of the room there will be a bar. So obviously there will be no use putting the rear speakers on the back all as they will be too far away from where we are sitting.

I am now thinking that the wiring should be through the floor about half way so the rear speakers will be just behind the home theatre seats, but as I am no expert I would appreciate any advice anyone can give.

Judy

 

[douglas-b]

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_e...oomlayout.html

 

[Cees Alons]

Hello Judy,

Welcome to the forum!

The page Douglas linked to gives a rather classic layout for the various speakers in a 5.1 system. It may be varied, according to the following: your taste, specific peculiarities of the room, the speakers.

To start with the last one: if the rear speakers are di-poles (most aren't), the advised placement might be slightly different, but I assume you're going to use "normal" speakers, so I just leave it at that for now.

If furniture/windows/holes in walls prevent the "ideal" placement, you should try to place them at an equal "mirrored" position still.

The best placement, according to many listeners, is just behind the seating row (or the last row), slightly above the heads of the listeners when they are seating, and pointing either towards the listeners, or just behind them (parallel to the wall, facing each other, is a common choice!).

If you want to take the third parameter into account: taste, you could test some locations beforehand, using a loose running (but connected ) wire. However, very often you get the same results as described above.

The wiring could either be through the floor, or, if that's still possible, (partly) through the wall. Of course, slight alterations in the originally chosen position are always possible, even when the wires are fixed. Just take some extra slack into account.


Good luck!


Cees

 

[SethH]

I realize this comment is off topic, but I feel that your original question has been answered -- have them to the sides, a little back, and a couple feet above the listeners' heads.

So, with that out of the way, I was curious about your choice of plasma. If this is a dedicated theater (not for casual tv watching) have you considered front projection? You could probably spend the same money and have a 102" screen instead of a 61" screen and they be about the same quality (each technology has its trade-offs though)

 

[judyT]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

I guess if I get them to put the wiring in the floor about half way along the room, that should do it.

As for the choice of TV Seth..this is my husbands baby and as long as he is paying for it he can have whatever his little heart desires..and the plasma was it. When he saw it, it was a case of love at first sight and he was having it come hell or high water

Judy

 

[todbnla]

Keep in mind too, you'll need to know weather to tell him to wire for 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 surround sound formats. 5.1 and 7.1 seem to be the most popular with 5.1 being the most mainstream. I prewired for all three all at the same time avoid problems downstream.

Good Luck!