HT 5.1 speaker placement ?

[badger]

I am wondering about speaker placement. I will build front corner basstraps and put the center channel under the screen. What would be good placement for the rears? On the rear wall or directly behind the couch. Im curious b/c will be putting drywall up today/tomorrow and am running in wall speaker cable with plates in the wall. thx for any input

[Anthony]

For 5.1, I would put dipole surrounds on the side walls, just behind the couch. If you are stuck (or prefer) monopole speakers, on the back wall will be fine, but just know that you'll have to dial in the delays (distance on some receivers) and play them louder to make the soundfield seamless.

For 7.1, you can do both the dipoles and monopoles and get a really nice soundfield.

good luck

[tonyvdb]

Have a look here at the Dolby website. They have a diagram showing where the speakers should be placed for 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setups.

[glaufman]

And here's THX recommendations:
http://www.thx.com/home/setup/speakers/51.html

If you do have direct monopoles for the surrounds, a THX alternative I use myself is having them above and behind the couch, but facing each other. This keeps them from being too localizable (distracting).

[badger]

thx for the info guys, i really appreciate it. Is 7.1 going to give me better sound, I know its for bigger rooms but it is worth getting the extra speakers now while I can just in case b/c I'll def be moving in the 3 years and no clue what my ht room will be then. thx

[tonyvdb]

If you use BluRay alot for movie watching there are more and more movies that have discrete 7.1 mixes there is a difference, however 5.1 is still the norem for all standard DVDs and that really makes little difference in a small to medium sized room.