Back Surround height off the ground.. dolby vs klipsch discrepancy

[mrogge]

Have the Klipsch THX Ultra II speakers. The side suround are dipoles. They are all horn driven.

The klipsch manual and most of what I read online says to put the side surrounds about 6' off the ground. Well above the ears of the seated listeners. But the Dolby page says to place "just above ear level" and shows the side and rear speakers on floor stands that would put them inches at most above seated ear level.

So.. i know its been asked before.. and YES.. i did read through all those old posts...

I have read enough on the side surrounds to say that they should be 6' off the ground

But what about the rear sorrounds????

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/setup/speaker-setup-guide/index.html

[v3spitfire]

Dolby's advice is in contrast to almost any movie theatre i've ever been to - those surrounds are above hear level. Maybe that's because in a theatre it's impossible. But, if that's what we're trying to compare too....

[nezff]

i put mine at 5 feet off the floor, They were still a tad high when seated

[Xki]

I have both the surrounds and rears 5 feet off the floor. Since I have little kids, I had to hang them from the ceiling. I'm satisfied but tempted to try them lower.....

[v3spitfire]

I have them about 7 feet from the floor, but they are angled so the drivers face the audience (about 30 degrees).

[WMcD]

IIRC, there is a reason for putting surrounds high and not directed toward the listeners' ear plane.

It arises from the matter that we wish to avoid the problem of people who are situated closer to one side wall than the other. Normally, the closer to the speaker you get, the louder the sound. Therefore if someone is sitting toward the left wall, the left surrounds are louder and the rights are softer.

Speakers have a directional pattern once you get above the bass freqs and we can use this to solve the problem. Let's assume the speakers are high and just facing the opposite wall.

Consider that if a listener is just at the left wall and the speaker is high above him on the wall, then the listener is 90 degrees off axis from the speaker's front (vertically). Therefore even though the listener is close to the left speaker, he is not getting very much signal from it. Also, he has moved into a position which is closer to the stronger on-axis output of the right speaker.

As you can imagine, we are using the beaming of the speaker to somewhat assure that someone who is closer to one side wall or the other is still receiving equal level from the respective speakers. The same might be said of rear speakers.

Of course this is a theory and you have to experiment with your set-up.

Addition by edit. I did fool with a primitive Dynaco passive surround matrix and the Telarc Symphonic Star Trek (which has surround) in a garage. It didn't work well until I positioned myself under a surround horn. Then the track with Tribbles was astonishing. The little critters were well placed on the floor --front to back and right to left.

Wm McD

[EM3]

My Klipsch rear speakers are about 1ft above my seated position. These are lower from what they were in the previous house and they sound better in the new place. My speakers are the RS-42's.

[v3spitfire]

Just returned from a Rave Movie theatre. Speakers seemed to be about 8-10 feet above ear level at all seets (stadium seeding) and angled down. My estimate is that a straight line would end up in the center of the audience. The movie theatre is maybe 5 years old.

[IndyKlipschFan]

Whatever your side height... Make sure your rears are the same... I don't care what anyone else sais..

Above your seating postion sides and backs..it will give you depth!