CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Its been a while since I went looking up standards and specifications, but I remember something along the lines that the Left/Right Surround channels were supposed to be directly left/right of the ears of the sweet-spot listener. Something in the back of head tells me these were also supposed to be at ear-level. Figuring that not everyone is an audiophile (I'm not), I wondered about how high everyone has their surrounds.

Using the primary viewing position as a reference and noting about how high your ears are off the floor elevation you seat is sitting on, how much higher, or lower, are your surrounds above/below your ears' elevation? Also, this seems even more tricky in that not everyone is using the same style of surround speakers.

Monopoles, dipoles, tripoles, yadda, yadda, yadda can all add/subtract from this conversation. The point of my inquiry is that haven moved to a CinemaScope screen that is ten feet wide and being comfortable at 13' from the screen, the first row seating makes it difficult to install the surrounds at that location unless it is at an extreme elevation (well above ear level).

My Left/Right Surrounds are from the same set of Paradigm Studio Reference (ADP-???), but the actual speakers do not have a model number on them. These are dipole speakers firing opposingly.

So, how high are your L/R Surrounds in reference to your ear level?

dturco · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:01 pm Post subject:

Now this is a clear concise post.

My rears are on the wall 7 feet behind me at 6 feet to the top of the cabinet from the floor. My seated position for listening puts my ears at 40 inches above the ground. While this isn't optimum it's fairly decent. I wish I had angled them down towards my ears which might have helped some but probably not.

I made a terrible mistake when I bought the theater recliners the backs are to high and block my ears if I don't sit perfectly upright Shocked

Well, not really a mistake, I bought them for a different room that had them against a wall and the speakers where directly on each side of the listening position 7 feet above the floor.

So If you haven't bought the furniture look out for that bit which is far more important then speaker placement. As far as the speakers go put them on some nice fancy shmancy factory mounts that are adjustable on all the axis'.

akajester · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 934 Location: Wisconsin

When I placed my in-wall surrounds I measured my ear level at seating and centered the speakers vertically and horizontally to the exact seating position for myself. I figured that was as good as I could get. The rear surrounds are the same vertical height.

I could measure if you want.

Dale

ecrabb · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 3:01 pm Post subject:

Surrounds should ideally go at least a couple feet over the head of the main listening position. It provides a better surround field for a larger listening area. Mine are almost at the ceiling - tweeters are probably at about 7'-6", in fact.

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/speaker-setup-guidelines/home-theater-speaker-layout-an-essential-guide

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

It is interesting that these examples seem to be not relevant to the type of surround that is used.

ecrabb · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 4:20 pm Post subject:

How so?

SC

Tedd · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 156 Location: Ontario

Those dipole ADP should be 18-24" above seated ear level. They should be positioned at the end of the primary viewing row if you have more then one row of seating.

erikjohn · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 636 Location: Florida

Mine hang from the ceiling next to rear corners wall angled down slightly and and in towards middle of the room with a single back speaker in the center. I have no complaints on the surround imaging using the back wall locations however my rear surrounds are Cornwalls and my rear center(single back) is a LaScala.

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

ChrisWiggles · Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:11 am Post subject:

It depends.

I am not a fan of surround music, but if you are then I would go more with the ITU placement, which places the surrounds (in a 5.1 system) farther back at a large degree, and you should have all identical speakers (direct-radiating) and all at exactly ear height.

I'm a movie guy, so I have always gone with Dolby placement, and with superior results for film.

The surrounds in a 5.1 array go beside the listener, and only slightly behind the head, at 90-110 degrees. They also should go at or, better, slightly (1-2feet) above ear level.

If you have a 7.1 system, the rear backs should go behind the listener.

You should not place the surrounds in a 5.1 system back behind the listener, you need to think of them more as SIDE speakers, not "rear" speakers. If they go much farther back than 110 degrees they don't image with the fronts anymore along the side, and you get a big hole. With this proper placement, strong rearward behind-the-head imaging is weak, which is why you should use a proper 7.1 array and the advantages that yields.

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

ChrisWiggles · Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:55 am Post subject:

Right, I agree with the Dolby/THX recommendations for placement.