Help with surround/rear speaker selection - Chorus mains

[dougdrake]

Hi all - Looking to the brain trust for some ideas on how to best address surround/rear speakers for the HT room. I am using Chorus mains. I have a Forte I could use as a center, but am using an Academy right now (to me, movie dialog is more clear through the Academy).

My challenge is with the surrounds and (if I get them, rear surrounds). My room is layed out with two rows of theater seats extending from the right sidewall, and the rightmost seat in each row is up tight against the wall (this is to allow enough room for an aisle on the left side of the room to get from the front to the back of the room). There is about 5 feet between the second row of seats and the rear wall.

The question is what type of speaker should I use, and where do I put them, to handle the side surround (which as I understand it is where the primary surrounds should go). And, if I end up doing 7.1, I'd need to take that into account as well.

I have in my speaker inventory 4 unused Academys which I've contemplated using for the surround work - but since they are direct radiating I'm not sure they would give the best results, especially for people seated closer to the right wall.

I also have a pair of SS-1 surrounds (an older discontinued dipolar design - WDST).

I'm am open to buying any speaker which would resolve this.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Doug

[dougdrake]

Bueller?

[papashawn]

Unfortunately, it sounds like your seating arrangement is going to cause some real problems with side surround placement. Here are some placement diagrams for 5.1 and 7.1 setups:

5.1

7.1

I struggled with surround placement in my 5.1 system, becaues I was trying to mount my surrounds on side walls, but I don't have any good side walls to use. I ended up building some nice stands, a la the TNT Stubby and my particular problem was solved. As you see in the diagrams, the side surrounds really do need to be to the side or just behind the head. You may want to look into in wall speakers since your seats are up against the wall. Your A/V processor should have options to adjust the seated distance and levels of each speaker, so you can compensate for having one right next to your right most seat.

As far as sound matching for the choruses goes, I would imagine that using your spare academies (I can't believe you have 4!!) would work great as surrounds. They were made to fit in with that group of speakers (quartets, fortes and choruses), so that's a good match. I use KG2.5's and I'm very happy with them as surrounds. Not much happens in them, and even when listening to multichannel music, they still work great. The Academy is slightly larger and about twice as heavy as the KG2.5. This B Tech stand looks like it would be a good mount for the academy, it fits that size (vertically) and will support its weight. It would be your call if it would stick out from the wall too much by that seat. 11" deep plus a little for the mount is not exactly streamline, but it will sound good![Y]

[dougdrake]

Thanks very much - those are good ideas. I hadn't thought about floor stands - was thinking just of wall mounting whatever I ended up with, but I'd probably have more placement flexibility using stands (e.g. toe-in, experimentation, etc...).

[dougdrake]

Looking for any qualified input on this question -- would it make sense to use something out of the RS surround series instead of direct radiating speakers, given the close proximity to the listeners that the speaker would have on the right side wall, since the right-hand seat is right up against the side wall? I'd be able to mount it just behind the seating position on the wall...at ear level.

Thanks in advance.

[wuzzzer]

Post some pics of your room so we can see the places you're considering. [Y]