[bclasen]

Hi,

Got some good advice earlier on the height of surrounds, now onto where the Emeralds should be placed front to back to get the most out of them.

My 1st row seating is about 12'6" from fronts, there's another row of seating behind the main one. I'd say that at least 75% of the time, only the front row will be used. So I'm wondering what the best placement of the speakers should be.

I know I want the surrounds behind the front row - but how far? I'll have 2 rear speakers as well on the back, so my current thinking is to have the surrounds a couple of feet in back of the main seating area. Any feedback?

Ideally, I'd play with them & move them around, however I'm in the middle of a HT build & want to build in braces for the speakers before the drywall goes up and I even test the unit.

Thanks!
Bob

[thedeskE]

Sounds like you should split the difference between the 2 rows. What's the distance to the back wall, and the width of the RS?

You might want to think about the relationship of the sides and rears to the rear corners.

E

[bclasen]

Thanks for the response. Given this is all on paper & things might change - the distance from the front row listening area to the rear of the HT is around 6'6". Rear seating width will be around 65", enough for 2 people.

Actually, if you care to explain the relationship that should exsit between the surrounds & the rears I'd appreciate it. For background, my room is pretty narrow, 11'2" x 18'6" long. There is a door at the left rear of the HT that goes into my workshop, therefore things are not centered in the room. If I'm facing the rear, there will be an aisle that leads to the workshop on the left and the seating is tight to the right wall. So I was thinking of putting rears on the back wall, centered to the seating area but somewhat offset because of the door.

If there's some issues with surround & rear placement/optimization, I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks,
Bob

[bubba966]

Here's a diagram on how a DD/THX Surround EX system should be positioned (taken from an insert in the Star Wars Ep. 1 LaserDisc)



Where the rears are located in the pic (SL/SR labeld in the pic) would be approximately where you'd want your rears to go.

As you don't have rear centers (the SB labeled speaks in the diagram), you can move the rears slightly farther back and a little closer in. But I'd try them in the loation the diagram is showing as applied to your rear row of seating. That would give you the slightly farther back and closer in mounting that I described while you're sitting in the front row, and still be fine for tthe occasions when the rear row is in use.

[thedeskE]

bclasen

The diagram is about the same as we've seem in many places. I have a narrow room as well (12ft) but plenty of depth (20+) and I use direct type speakers. For my room a 36 to 42 in width between the rear surround tweeters works best. I position my side surrounds about 25 deg behind me and point very close to my head. This might change when I move back in the room after some treatment that's been going in lately.

My rear surrounds are 8 feet away from the seating and 6+ feet away from either side surround. It's easy to hear a clean separation when I play EX/ES titles.

Your on wall speakers are different. I imagine they are much more forgiving unless they are close to a corner. In that case you'd locate(hear) them coming from a specific place (ie the corner).

If your rear right and surround right were very close to the same corner, you  would perceive them coming from the same place, and that might not be as good as having them a little further away from each other.

If I were you, I'd find a way to under plate a wider section of the `on wall' areas so you could test a few positions after your room is done. Sounds like you have the heights together.

I don't think any of us could really give you the perfect position without being there and testing in place. Every room is different.
Then again, you might prefer to commit, and make up for it with levels.

Good Luck
The EOWs will sound great.
E