Rear surround placement

[chas]

I have a fairly large room (about 40 X 14) but I only use about a 14 X 16 area for the TV/sound system. The room has 8 foot ceilings. If I ceiling-mount rear surrounds (using Omni 20 ceiling mounts), how far back should they be from the seating area...and should they be angled down? Use for these would be mainly TV and movies as I usually listen to music in 2 channel.

Here's a link to a sketch of the layout:
http://swbg1.tripod.com/1355_famrm_300_half.jpg

And a photo looking forward from where the rear surrounds will go:


Thanks.

[cinema mad]

I would Say you would want the rear surround speakers no closer than 2' to 3' from the rear seat...

If you have A look on the DTS or Dolby web sites they have all the info there...

Cheers....

[tonyvdb]

Are you doing a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setup?

If 5.1 the rear speakers can be placed on either the side walls or the rear walls (your choice) if placing on the side walls you want them to be directly beside where you sit on either side of the room.
If you place them on the rear walls then they need to be at least 4' apart and like Jason said at least 2' behind where you sit.

[chas]

Sorry...this is for the rear surrounds in a 7.1 (already have been running 5.1).

Since they will be ceiling mounted and there is plenty of space behind the seating going 2-3 feet back is no problem. Wasn't sure if I should go any further back than that...or if they should angle down towards the seating. It seems that letting them fire straight ahead would cause reflections off the front wall.

[tonyvdb]

chas wrote:

Since they will be ceiling mounted and there is plenty of space behind the seating going 2-3 feet back is no problem. Wasn't sure if I should go any further back than that...or if they should angle down towards the seating. It seems that letting them fire straight ahead would cause reflections off the front wall.

You want them to fire somewhat at the listening area but not directly at your ears.

[eugovector]

I shoot mine just over my head, and criss-crossed (left rear firing towards the right of the seating position, right rear, firing towards the left). I find this helps to produce the most diffused sound from my monopoles.

In the end, I'd say mount them where they look good and make the most sense (2-3' is good) and then play around with the angles. Jim from Platinum Audio says there's nothing wrong with "splashing them around a little"

(We recorded a session on placement not too long ago. I'll have that episode of the Podcast out this weekend).

[JimP]

May I suggest that you position your rear surrounds so that they're 4' apart and the same distance to the primary listening position as the side surrounds are. This should give you better phantom speaker positions. As far as aim is concerned, this is going to depend on the characteristics of your particular speakers. I've seen some that do better aimed at the primary listening position and others that did better aimed forward in terms of having a broader sounds stage.

You're sub position caught my attention. Which sub is that??

[chas]

JimP wrote:

May I suggest that you position your rear surrounds so that they're 4' apart and the same distance to the primary listening position as the side surrounds are. This should give you better phantom speaker positions. As far as aim is concerned, this is going to depend on the characteristics of your particular speakers. I've seen some that do better aimed at the primary listening position and others that did better aimed forward in terms of having a broader sounds stage.

You're sub position caught my attention. Which sub is that??

Thanks for the suggestions Jim. The sub is an SVS PB12-NSD/2.

[chas]

JimP wrote:

May I suggest that you position your rear surrounds so that they're 4' apart and the same distance to the primary listening position as the side surrounds are.

This sounds logical to me....thanks again.