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Rear Speaker Placement? (1 Viewer)

JeremyFr

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Ok right now I'm running as seen in my page below a Yamaha RX-V730 and Energy Take 5+1's, now I'm trying to figure out what the best way to setup my rears would be right now they're horrible placed one sits about 4 feet off the ground on top of my corner computer desk and the other about 2 feet off the ground on a bookshelf. I Plan on mounting them on the walls but have this question should I place them on my back wall or try to set them up on my side walls? I've read both ways, also to take into consideration is that I've got a 6.1 setup (be it matrix do to my F*** up) and plan on eventually adding another take center channel in the rear will this also affect how I should place my rear speakers. I've been doing alot of research on this and most of the stuff I've found is at Dolby's website. My other thing is most my software is DTS since I prefer that format so is there different standards for how you should place for DTS vs DD? any help would be appreciated on this.
 

MarkHastings

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Jan 27, 2003
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Jeremy,

I think it would help if you posted a layout of your room (i.e. Where will you be sitting -or laying - when you watch movies). Rear Speakers should really be behind you, but since most of us don't have the room to pull our couch away from the wall, we're stuck with mounting them on the wall (over our heads) or to the sides.

Why not try a sound test. Have a few friends hold the speakers in different positions and see where they sound the best. Also, most receivers can be set to indicate the position of the rears. Mine (SONY) has a choice of - Behind/Side - and it also has a height choice (High/Low), which will help keep the surround sounding fairly similar wherever you place the speakers.

I have shelves over my couch, and I keep my surrounds on them...I'd rather have them directly behind me than over my head, but my apartment doesn't allow for it. :frowning:
 

JeremyFr

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Jan 28, 2003
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794
ok let me try here to give a general idea of the layout if this doesnt work I'll throw a chart together tonight with the basic layout


wwwwwwsssssssswwwwww
w dddw
wR dw
 

JeremyFr

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794
ok well I can see that didnt turn out so I'll draw an image tonight when I get home and can host it.
 

MarkHastings

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The image held up in the email I got.

I would suggest mount on the walls above your couch. I'm no expert, but it seems like your left rear speaker would be too far away (due to the hallway) if you mounted them on the sides of the room and you might lose on any stereo effect. Hopefully someone else can chime in and suggest something.
 

JeremyFr

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794
well I tried to do to scale so to speak the hallway is rougly 3 feet wide and the Right Rear sits bout 3 feet in from its corner so they'd be about equal distance still I think if I moved them to the walls but then I've got the how do I run wire without it looking horrible in an apartment dilemma as well.
 

MarkHastings

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how do I run wire without it looking horrible in an apartment dilemma as well.
A friend of mine bought that flat speaker wire (available at Circuit City) that runs along the base of the wall and looks like molding so it's really not an 'eye-sore'. You can even paint over it too.
 

JeremyFr

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yeah at one Point I tried the Acoustic Research superflat that runs up the walls etc it was the worst experience I ever went through it was a pain to get connectors onto it especially my bannana plugs, it didnt match my walls at all and didnt stick right or anything I was so mad I wasted the 20 bux its cost me to get it.
 

MarkHastings

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OUCH! That sucks. I assume you're not allowed to do too much hole drilling? I have a basement under my living room (in my aprtment) and I drilled holes in the floor by my rear speakers and by my entertainment center, then I just ran all the speaker wire under the floor (tacking them to the basement ceiling). So I don't have any visible wires running through my living room. It's great!
 

JeremyFr

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Jan 28, 2003
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794
yeah unforunately I dont think my downstairs neighbor would much appreciate my speaker wire running accross her ceiling:) hehe right now I've got 2 pair 18 guage wire running all the way around zip tied and hidden behind stuff most of the way my catv also comes in to the corner where the desk is opposite my entertainment center so I've got the RG-6 and speaker wire ziptied accross the slider and corner leading to the entertainment center and then black duck tape over it holding it to the trim it doesnt look as bad as it sounds, my father is going to get me this above wall cable trench thats really nice that snaps open and close so it will look a little cleaner and I dont have to have everythign zip tied to keep it tidy:) hehe. but yes unfortunately my options are somewhat limited in how I set stuff up.
 

MarkHastings

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My company used that cable trench when we needed to set up a temporary conference room. It worked pretty well for what it was.
 

Ted Lee

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how flexible are your speaker adjustments?

you should calibrate with a spl to ensure that the same "amount of sound" is coming from each rear speaker. since it sounds like one is a lot farther then the other - by pumping up the volume to that speaker it'll help compensate for the distance factor.

some receivers also let you adjust the distance for each speaker too.

generally speaking, most direct-radiating speakers are placed behind the listener, while dipole speakers are placed to the side.
 

MarkHastings

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Jeremy,

What's behind the couch? Your rears seem like they'd be fine mounted on the wall, but if you're going with a 6.1 (center rear) setup, then (as I just found out) you'd be better off with the rear speakers on the sides.
 

JeremyFr

Supporting Actor
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Jan 28, 2003
Messages
794
fish tank behind the couch on a bookshelf the same size as the one that the LR speaker is on. stands are out of the question unless I want to do some major rearranging. and I dont think I'm gonna go full 6.1 until I get a new place so I'll prolly just keep it 5.1 right now.
 

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