Should surround sound "rear" speakers be to the listeners side or to the
rear? I have a large room (22' X 30') and my listening position is in
the center (back 15 feet from the front wall). Right now the rear
speakers are directly to my side - up high. Would it be better to have
them at the back corners of the room? I am not getting much rear
channel effect from SACDs but do seem to get a lot from movies on DVD.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44=B0 15' N - Elevation 1580')

On 9 Feb 2006 00:44:43 GMT, (---MIKE---) wrote:

Should surround sound "rear" speakers be to the listeners side or to the
rear? I have a large room (22' X 30') and my listening position is in
the center (back 15 feet from the front wall). Right now the rear
speakers are directly to my side - up high. Would it be better to have
them at the back corners of the room? I am not getting much rear
channel effect from SACDs but do seem to get a lot from movies on DVD.

For SACD, you want the 'rear' speakers to be about 135deg from the
center front. Slightly behind and to the side.

Kal

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
Should surround sound "rear" speakers be to the listeners side or to the
rear? I have a large room (22' X 30') and my listening position is in
the center (back 15 feet from the front wall). Right now the rear
speakers are directly to my side - up high. Would it be better to have
them at the back corners of the room? I am not getting much rear
channel effect from SACDs but do seem to get a lot from movies on DVD.


Mike, they should be about 20 degrees behind a line drawn side-to-side
through your listening position. Then you have to play a bit with
front-to-back volume...if your disk machine has built-in speaker
calibration, you can use that. Or if you are using direct mode, you might
have to find some other way of trimming the volumes on some channels. In
general, unless it is pop music, you will not hear much from the rear
channels except a very subtle sense of space and ambience. The main effect
will be to make the instruments in front of you have mour dimensionality and
depth within the soundstage. Some (but by all means not all) pop music has
a fair amount of content in the rear channels from time-to-time. Movies of
course try to use the rear channels for spectacular effect, which is why you
are more aware of them. But it is hyped, exagerated sound compared to live
music caught in surround sound.

Hope this helps.

Harry

---MIKE--- wrote:
Should surround sound "rear" speakers be to the listeners side or to the
rear? I have a large room (22' X 30') and my listening position is in
the center (back 15 feet from the front wall). Right now the rear
speakers are directly to my side - up high. Would it be better to have
them at the back corners of the room? I am not getting much rear
channel effect from SACDs but do seem to get a lot from movies on DVD.

I can pretty much guarantee you that the rear speakers would be
inaudible if placed in the back of the room. My room is the same size as
yours, and I have gradually moved the rears to the sides because of this
problem.

Some surround decoders have side AND rear speakers, in which case I
suppose it would be all right, but you should have some at least at the
sides of your listening position. Which should be further back, by the
way. You're wasting a lot of room space there. You shouldn't be so close
to the front speakers.

Gary Eickmeier

why not move them around until you find the sweet spot you prefer? the
answer lies with the dimensions of your room, its acoustics and your
particular taste.

Sherm

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
Should surround sound "rear" speakers be to the listeners side or to the
rear? I have a large room (22' X 30') and my listening position is in
the center (back 15 feet from the front wall). Right now the rear
speakers are directly to my side - up high. Would it be better to have
them at the back corners of the room? I am not getting much rear
channel effect from SACDs but do seem to get a lot from movies on DVD.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

"Kalman Rubinson" wrote in message
...
On 9 Feb 2006 00:44:43 GMT, (---MIKE---) wrote:

Should surround sound "rear" speakers be to the listeners side or to the
rear? I have a large room (22' X 30') and my listening position is in
the center (back 15 feet from the front wall). Right now the rear
speakers are directly to my side - up high. Would it be better to have
them at the back corners of the room? I am not getting much rear
channel effect from SACDs but do seem to get a lot from movies on DVD.

For SACD, you want the 'rear' speakers to be about 135deg from the
center front. Slightly behind and to the side.

Kal


I believe the ITU standard calls for the rear surrounds to be monopole in
nature and 110 degrees from the center channel. My setup is very close to
ITU standard and works very well for a seamless surround (except for
directly behind).