Home Theater Surround Sound Speaker PLacement

Hello -

Santa's bringing me a surround sound system to hook up to my 65" HDTV in the
room shown below.  Adjust width on your screen until the room looks like a
giant cross.

This is the bonus room over my garage, and is 30x22 at the longest and
widest.  The diagram gets the shape and relative dimensions fairly well.

Most of the TV watching is from the two chairs, with overflow seating on the
sofa.

i'm planning on 5.1 surround sound (that is Santa is planning on 5.1
surround sound).  WHere should the two back speakers go?

Thanks for your advice

El Penguini - Patron Saint of Penguins


                             xxxxxxDDOOOORRxxxxxx
                             x                                         x
                             x                               TV     x
                             x      S                                x
                             x      O                                x
                             x      F                                 x
                             x      A                                x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                                        XXXXXXXXXXXXX
x
x
x   CHair
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x    Chair
x
x                                           Pool
x
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                 Table                 x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                             x                                         x
                            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

El Penguini wrote:


I don't understand your diagrams, but the key to surround speaker
placement is to place the rear speakers to the sides, not to the rear of
your listening position. Place the front speakers about 1/4 of the room
width in from the side walls.

I think one of the most effective rear speaker placements is in the
ceiling over your listening position, but I have as yet to do this in my
own setup.

Gary Eickmeier

The problem with ceiling surrounds is that you can tell they are above you,
and the surround doesn't "wrap" as well.  The idea behind surround speakers
is to create a diffuse sound field, actually two of them, Ls and Rs, but
that it shouldn't be a point source for film surround.  That's what's behind
dipole surround speakers.  In the practical home system, you have two or
four surround speakers that are so close to the listener that he will
localize them.  Ceiling speakers tend to be highly directional, that's why
manufacturers are trying to do directable tweeters,etc.  We've done ceiling
surrounds, but only with wide dispersion speakers, like some of the
SpeakerCraft models.  Typical is a 30 degree angle, we need more like 80 or
90.

That said, if you have two small surrounds, like you'd get with a one-box
system, get them to the side of you and slightly above ear height, and
perhaps slightly to the rear.  In some cases where there's just no space to
get the surround away from the listener, we've faced them to a wall or
corner to bounce the sound around an diffuse it, which has its own problems,
but does work.