Rear speaker placement (5.1)

[Joe45]

Hello,

I would appreciate any help in placement of mounting my rear speakers. They are JBL S 36 II speakers. The room they are being placed in is not very deep (19 X 14) with the TV on the long end. The couch is along the back wall directly in front of the TV. This will be a 5.1 setup for now, I'm using an older Kenwood receiver that will probably be replaced sometime soon. The front speakers are JBL ND 310's. I would mount them on the side walls facing the couch, but there is a doorway on one side. The speaker could be mounted there, but would need to be very high and mounted horizontally. Would it be better to place them along the back wall. My options there are either directly on each side of the couch, or almost in the corners of the room. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can provide pictures, if I can figure out how to attach them.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[John Garcia]

The first thing I would do is not place the couch against the wall if at all possible, as this basically destroys your sound quality. Just something to consider. Unless your display is HUGE, sitting ~17ft away is kind of far.

What you can try is pulling the couch out a little and placing the speakers behind it either firing out towards the side walls or even up toward the ceiling (a distant second choice). You could also put them on stands and place them in front of you along the side walls, just beyond the door, though you will lose the "rear" directionality of your system for the most part. 19' is not a small room, that is a very good ratio for a proper setup. One of my previous rooms was 25x14 and it worked very well with the speakers placed about 3ft behind the couch.

 

[Joe45]

John,
Thanks for the help. The room is 19' wide, but the TV is on the long wall. The specs say that the room is 14' deep, but when I measured it, it is closer to 12. It's only a 32" Sony, but I'm probabely already about 8' from it when sitting on the couch. It's not a small room, but the way it has to be laid out is just not very deep. I also can't place it on a stand outside of the room, as that is the kitchen. IT would not work and would look completely out of place.


Joe

 

[John Garcia]

Sorry, I misunderstood what you meant when you said the TV was on the long wall. 8ft is about where I sit now too.

So you are saying to one side, the room is open to the kitchen?

Do you have room for the speakers on either side of the couch facing the wall where the TV is?

 

[Joe45]

Yes, the room is open the the kitchen on one side with a large opening. (about half the rom) They will either go where you describe on either side of the couch facing the tv, or slightly farther farther away on the same wall, close to the corners of the room, or on the walls to the left and right of the couch. This woudl mean the left speaker would have to be mounted very high, however. I'll try to get some pics up to make this more clear.