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7.1 setup - surround speakers placement


batchov

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Been awhile since I've posted, but wanted to check in and see if I could pull off this forum's great knowledge. 

I have a friend who is setting up his room with a 7.1 setup and I'm helping him with purchasing/setup etc.  When he first wired up the room, he placed the fronts and the backs about 18" from the 8ft higih ceiling so they are at the same height - all good!

the Surrounds are wired perfectly to the left and right of the seating arrangement.  My original thought is to put the inwall surrounds at the same height as the Fronts and Backs.  But the dilema I'm fighting is that on one side he has a 12" bulkhead - which would leave one side only 6" from the bulkhead.  The other side has the normal 8ft ceiling so it would be 18" away

So I'm fighting with putting the surround speakers at ear level.. or at the same height as the rest of the setup...Any thoughts?

Will the bulkhead effect the sound on the one side? Room is 27ft long by 13 ft wide.  Let me know if there's any other info that would be helpful

Thanks in advance!

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Thanks Sancho,

I did check out the Dolby site - but not the DTS site yet so I'll check that out. 

The problem with the Dolby site is that they show you all the 'perfect' setups, but I didn't see anywhere that shows some 'imperfect' situations ie: a bulkhead in the way, but just one side - haha

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When he first wired up the room, he placed the fronts and the backs about 18" from the 8ft higih ceiling so they are at the same height - all good!

Maybe I'm reading this wrong... But, are the front left/center/right speakers and rear left/right speakers really 6½ feet up in the air? Why? Are they small bookshelf or inwall speakers?

Generally you'd want your front three speakers to be as close as possible to your video screen

the Surrounds are wired perfectly to the left and right of the seating arrangement.

My original thought is to put the inwall surrounds at the same height as the Fronts and Backs.

Are the inwall surrounds bipole/dipole types? Or are they direct radiators?

But the dilema I'm fighting is that on one side he has a 12" bulkhead - which would leave one side only 6" from the bulkhead. The other side has the normal 8ft ceiling so it would be 18" away

So I'm fighting with putting the surround speakers at ear level.. or at the same height as the rest of the setup...Any thoughts?

Will the bulkhead effect the sound on the one side? Room is 27ft long by 13 ft wide. Let me know if there's any other info that would be helpful

Thanks in advance!

It would really help to have some more (clarified) information. Particularly the layout of the room... such as, are the front speakers on the long or short wall, types of speakers, where is this bulkhead and which wall/way does it run.

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Sorry for the delay - I was having some password issues, but all good now. The Speaker types have not been chosen yet, I'm biased with Klipsch obviously, but I'm going to be bringing him to our local Future Shop so that he can listen for himself to see what speakers sounds good to him. All the equipment is still up in the air, but we know that there will be in-walls on the sides and only the sides. Towers in front, with a change to the configuration. Originally we were going to do a 7.1 setup, but he added the wires for the fronts at the edge of the room. Speaking with him we'll have towers at the front and we're going to turn this into a 9.1 and use those for Front Highs :)

Here's a picture (hope the image comes into the Post here) of the room looking at the back wall where the TV will be. My dilemma is the placement of the side (surround)speakers. Considering there's a bulkhead only on the Right side, are they ok to tuck right under the bulkhead or should they be ear height?

 

post-47687-0-20240000-1423252399_thumb.j

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Depending on things, I would most likely do the side surrounds about 2-3 feet higher than my seating area at most. The rear surrounds would either be toed into the listening area or facing the front wall and you should play with the height of them as they will give more depth depending on placement. As there aren't many movies/programs in 7.1 you will have limitations as I do.

 

I personally have my rear surrounds about 5' 4" off the floor and my side surrounds are 4'6" off the floor. My front effects are 7' off the floor and my room measurements are 14x24x8. My seating area is 10' from my projection screen,so my side surrounds are 11' from the front wall and 7' from my seat on either side with my rear surrounds facing my back and against the rear wall which is 13' from my seat with each one 3' from the side walls.I have a closet right up against one of the speakers,but SQ is fine. The 9.2 set up will pick up movies well that are done in 7.1 and you can hear the difference in height and depth only if it's done in 7.1. Anything in 5.1 is minute at best. Your bulkeads shouldn't be much of an issue if the speakers are facing the listening area due to available programming outputs.

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Thanks for the Responses... 

Jim the room dimensions we're dealing with is very similar to yours actually 27' x13' x8'.  With that in mind, I'm pretty sure that I'll go with the placement of the side surrounds at a simliar height as you've mentioned, maybe a little lower as the speakers are right beside the seating position, rather than a ft back of them.

Thanks for the help everyone - saved me once again!

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Been awhile since I've posted, but wanted to check in and see if I could pull off this forum's great knowledge. 

I have a friend who is setting up his room with a 7.1 setup and I'm helping him with purchasing/setup etc.  When he first wired up the room, he placed the fronts and the backs about 18" from the 8ft higih ceiling so they are at the same height - all good!

the Surrounds are wired perfectly to the left and right of the seating arrangement.  My original thought is to put the inwall surrounds at the same height as the Fronts and Backs.  But the dilema I'm fighting is that on one side he has a 12" bulkhead - which would leave one side only 6" from the bulkhead.  The other side has the normal 8ft ceiling so it would be 18" away

So I'm fighting with putting the surround speakers at ear level.. or at the same height as the rest of the setup...Any thoughts?

Will the bulkhead effect the sound on the one side? Room is 27ft long by 13 ft wide.  Let me know if there's any other info that would be helpful

Thanks in advance!

you might want to sound out the surrounds by placing them at various places within the room before mounting them. Also, while your looking in to 7.1 setup, might want to consider Atmos options as a future expansion to current system.

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