5.1 speakers placement question.?

Question

Is it better i place the front speakers and center speaker at ear level and the surround speakers at high position ?

Answer 1

A lot has to do with your seating positions and how many people usually watch a movie, if you only have one or two seating positions then ear level would be fine but to acomodate more people a higher position for the rear speakers would seem to be prefered, Dolby actually recommends "just above ear level" on there site for a 5 speaker set up... someone on this site or another some time ago was saying that the Dolby site was inacuate and had recommendations that were a carry over from older pro logic write ups and needs to be updated by Dolby...I think those issues have been addressed though by now...I've also heard that if your using only 5 speakers the surrounds should be higher up but if its a 7 speaker set up then the surrounds should be at ear level and the two rears should be higher up... THX recommends 2 feet or more above ear level for the rears... for all rear speakers...Most people agree that the front three should be at ear level...

Answer 2

Generally, The ideal set up would be to keep everything at ear level and at equal distances from you. For example, if the front right speaker is 5 feet in front of you then the rear speaker should be 5 feet behind you. This doesn't always happen because of room layouts and speaker power/size. but assuming all 5 speakers are the same this is the ideal situation.



This is also why some higher end receivers have speaker delay menus where you can adjust the delay of each speaker to give the illusion that one is farther or closer than another to achieve this equal distance ideal.

Answer 3

THE THREE FRONT SPEAKERS SHOULD ALWAYS BE KEPT AT EAR LEVEL FOR OPTIMUM SOUND QUALITY.

THE REAR SURROUND SPEAKERS SHOULD BE MOUNTED ON THE SIDE WALLS ,ABOUT EIGHT FEET FROM THE FLOOR. IF YOU ARE USING A 6.1 SYSTEM THEN THE REAR CENTRE SPEAKER SHOULD BE FACING DOWN AT THE SAME HEIGHT AS THOSE OF THE REAR .





--- ADRIAN, MUMBAI

Answer 4

It's recommended to keep them all at ear level, but if you have adjustable brackets, you can aim them downward. I have my surround speakers mounted on the ceiling and face them downward. It works just fine, but you will get a little better sound if you keep them lower.