What's new

Surround location help needed (5.1 to 7.1) (1 Viewer)

Antony

Agent
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
29
Hello all, this is a re-post from the DIY section since I didn't receive any responses.

I'm a bit confused about my current surround set-up. I'm running the M&K 750THX fronts (L/C/R), and am using some cheap (Nutone?) in-walls (6" mid/1" tweet) mounted in the ceiling. These were already mounted in the ceiling when we moved into the house, and I just haven't had time to update them. I get pretty decent 5.1 reproduction.

The rears are mounted in such a way that they fire straight down (fixed tweets), and are located about 1 foot behind the main couch and about 7' apart (more or less in-line with my L and R fronts - I basically have a "square" of speakers). This was probably done in the Prologic days. Unfortunately, there is roughly 6" of ceiling between the current surrounds and the rear wall/opening to foyer.

I would like to incorporate the rear center channels of my Pioneer Elite 45TX (and no, no problems with shut downs running my 4Ohm M&Ks!!). WAF and structural layout dicate in-walls in the ceiling for both side surrounds and rear centers.

My living room/HT is the typical very open "L" shape floorplan, sharing space with our dining room. Thus, there is no left wall in which to mount a side surround. Further, on the right wall, there is an incredibly large window that leaves only 6" of wall between it and the ceiling. So I'm stuck with in-ceilings.

I need help.

Should I:
(1) leave the current rears where they are, and use them as rear centers, then cut in new side surrounds to the sides and a bit forward of the listening position? In this case, the rear surrounds (my current side surrounds) would seem to be rather far away from eachother.

(2) Or should I mount the rear centers in between the current ones? (effectively giving me 4 speakers in a straight line - ???).

(3) Or, the most drastic would be to remove the current surrounds, patch the drywall, and start over by mounting rear surrounds between the two current openings, and mounting the sides forward of the listening position, and more spaced apart. I'm not afraid of drywall/DIY construction!

I'd appreciate any help/suggestions.

Antony
 

Michael Langdon

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 29, 1998
Messages
110
Antony,

My opinion is for option 3. I think the current surrounds to be used as surround back or rear surround speakers are probably spaced to far apart. I would think more along the lines of 4' spacing. See if you can find anything on THX Ultra2 specifications for rear surrounds. My processor allows me to specify the distance between my rear surrounds as less than 12 inches, 12 inches to 48 inches, or greater than 48 inches. Those selections imply your current 7' would be OK, but as you mentioned this does seem rather far apart.

However, I would not mount the new side surrounds forward of the listening position. Normally I would mount them in line with the listening position or slightly behind. Since your rear surrounds would be 1 foot behind the main couch (you said you only had an additional six inches on the ceiling before the rear wall/foyer opening), I would have to lean towards mounting the side surrounds in line with the listening position.

Hope this helps,

Mike
 

Kevin C Brown

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2000
Messages
5,723
#3, but the surrounds should be right over your listening position, displaced a little to each side. But if your listening position is back up against the wall, then slightly forward will do.
 

Antony

Agent
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
29
Thanks for the suggestions. I guess it's time to do some drywall patching. That was actually my first impulse, but was looking for an easier way out. I know the wife is not going to like it when she gets home to see me doing all of that drywall stuff ;) Oh well.

So my side surrounds (am going to try to get in-wall dipoles-or is it bipoles?). However, if they end up being direct radiating, is it OK to have them about a foot further apart from eachother than my fronts are?

Thanks again,
Antony
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,832
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top