Thread: 7.1 Speaker Placement

Well after all the reading and recommendations of people on moving to a 7.1 speaker configuration I have decided to purchase the two additional speakers that are needed. My question for everybody is about the placement of the rear two speakers. I have a couch that sets right next to the wall with very little room behind it for a speaker. I know that the recommendation is to have the two rear a certain distance behind your sitting position but I do not have enough room for that. If my speakers are only about 6" behind the sitting position will I still notice a huge difference with a 7.1 configuration? If anybody has a good recommendation on how they handled this themselves I would like to hear how you resolved this issue.

Well my 2 Rb's are mounted in wall an thus I am confirming your info on the distance between rear and seating position as a best scenario. (as basically shown in the pic) Try to be at least 1' above ear level on your Rb & Rs but not as high up as the ceiling. L, R & sub can be fine floor resting if large enough and place the center around seated head height (5' or so) or directly behind the center of your screen if you have a perforated screen for FPTV.

I had it the other way first and the additional channels and the separation from the seating position makes a huge difference to me.

Dolby has some good information you can find on their website.


http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_e...oomlayout.html

That is where my attached photo came from.

Thanks for confirming what I thought. I decided to go and buy 2 new front speakers to see how it sounded. I love the way 7.1 sounds. I did not think that it would be that much better than 5.1 but I was wrong. I just finished running all of my new speaker wires today and have it all setup and working great.

Great post Jag72, I may make this a sticky! I'm so happy you love you're 7.1 setup, it is a great leap forward.

I had forgot I had the DTS setup URL. I tend to like them better.


http://www.dts.com/dts-hd/dtshd-speaker-remapping.php

The one piece I find confusing about all the layouts is that none of them show an ideal speaker location for the rear. They show quite a bit of space behind the sitting location. It really makes you think twice before spending the extra money for the setup. I was lucky that I had a couple of old speakers to just try it out prior to making the purchase of the extra speakers.

Ideally IMHO would be at least at the same level as your front center and a minimum of 6' or so behind your seating. But as always the room will dictate (and sometimes the wife) on what you can realistically do. Is this what you were asking?