# new home theater speaker placement help needed



## Mattyshum (Feb 26, 2017)

I am in the planning stages for some home theater goodness in my currently unfinished basement. I need to get this baby pre-wired and am struggling a bit with some speaker placement. The room is not really ideal.

In the diagram below I have it layout out for 7.1.4 (sub location isn't on here yet). That thing in the upper left corner is a fireplace.

The main problem is the two rear speakers. The wall behind is a bit far away, with a door where you might want to add one of the rears, so it's not really much of an option. Only other options are speakers on stands, which would be quite annoying, or speakers mounted on the ceiling. 

From what I understand you really want all surrounds closer to ear level, maybe 2 feet above, so ceiling mounted would be a bit high. Also, I had planned on adding some Atmos speakers in the ceiling anyway, so those rears might end up being a wash.

Perhaps it would be better to go with 5.1.4? In that situation, the sides would have to slide back a few feet, then angle in a bit. The problem here is that along that left wall, under the air duct, is a walkway. I would not be able to mount a speaker right on the wall along there since it would stick out too much. I would need some sort of in-wall speaker (which I had planned on using on the sides anyway in a 7.1 configuration), but then angled a bit. This would mean they would HAVE to stick out a bit, but perhaps not enough it would matter. That left wall is killing me! :hissyfit:

Suggestions would be very appreciated!


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Hi welcome. That's a little bit of a tough room, but not impossible. I hate to say it but I think I'd skip the rear surrounds and go 5.1.4 Considering the distance from the LP, and added effort, I don't think they'll add a level of experience that would be worth it.


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## Mattyshum (Feb 26, 2017)

willis7469 said:


> Hi welcome. That's a little bit of a tough room, but not impossible. I hate to say it but I think I'd skip the rear surrounds and go 5.1.4 Considering the distance from the LP, and added effort, I don't think they'll add a level of experience that would be worth it.


Ya I have been leaning that direction as well. Would save me some money too. The challenge will be figuring out where and how to add that rear surround on the left wall. Depending on the size of the speaker, I could build a shelf right into the wall and set it there. That would push it back the depth of the 2x4 anyway. It cannot really be on wall unless the footprint is pretty small because of that walkway. I suppose if I wanted to mount it up higher, at about 7 feet, it could stick out more (7 feet is as high as that wall under the air duct is). Nobody is going to be bonking their head on that. But, they are supposed to be only a few feet above listening position so I dunno.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

If it wasn't going to be an atmos install you could probably go to 7', and angle it down/forward but you're right. They should be much lower, otherwise the differential from surrounds to heights is not accurate and basically just wouldn't work very well. I would also normally not recommend in walls either, but you have an interesting consideration there. I'm looking at your other pics btw trying to get my brain going the right way.


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## Mattyshum (Feb 26, 2017)

Thank you for the help Willis.
I was just downstairs with a 12"x8" cutout representing the dimensions of one of the larger surround speakers I have seen. if I put it at the angle I need, and push it between the studs, I can almost see adding a shelf there even at the right height that would not interfere too much with walking by it. Since that was sort of on the large side (some I see are only 4"-6" deep, not 12"), I am sort of thinking I might be able to get away with a shelf about 4'-5' up on the wall. It's hard to know for sure though.
Not sure this will help but here are some photos of that wall.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

It's definitely helpful having pics. Although not has much as actually being there, of course. 
Is there any way you can put a circle or mark your photos in a way to show more precisely where you're thinking? If I understand correctly, the back of the location would be into the space under the stairs.


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## Mattyshum (Feb 26, 2017)

Here are a few more photos. The roll of tape is about where I was thinking for the speaker, although up about a foot or so. That doorway next to it goes under the stairs and into a bathroom. So there will be a door right there. 

The line of tape on the floor is about the back of where a couch would be. I have a blanket hanging at the front where a screen would go. That's about 100 inch diag. although I might be able to go bigger.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Ok. A couple questions. What is the height to the bottom of the hvac soffit? What will the distance be to the LP if the back of the couch is at that tape line. 
I think a speaker where the tape roll is, is too far behind the LP. Surround speakers should be just behind the LP, but IMO not more then a couple feet. Factors that might change that are room width, and speaker type. Ideally from the top it would look like this. 








The reason is modern soundtracks especially, have much more than ambiance going on, and the rears need to work like the fronts in creating a believable sound field. I'm guessing that placement is because of an adjacent window?


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## Mattyshum (Feb 26, 2017)

Just over 7 feet up to the bottom of the soffit. You are right it was too far back. Easy enough to move it forward, but as you mention, on the right wall is a window, right in that spot. However, the right wall is further away from the LP than the left wall, so if I keep that same angle, I would actually be back a bit more on the right wall. 
It's either keep the angle and just miss the window, or keep the distance and be right in the window. I assume a good receiver can compensate for distance ok though.


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## UreiCollector (Oct 29, 2009)

I'd strongly recommend that whatever you choose for those rear channels, keep it the same between the sides.....if near the ceiling angled down, do that on both sides, if wall mounted do that on both sides. You don't want a sound to pan across the room and have it appear to shift from high/low or low/high.


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## Mattyshum (Feb 26, 2017)

UreiCollector said:


> I'd strongly recommend that whatever you choose for those rear channels, keep it the same between the sides.....if near the ceiling angled down, do that on both sides, if wall mounted do that on both sides. You don't want a sound to pan across the room and have it appear to shift from high/low or low/high.


Good point thank you! 

So, looking at this guide from Dolby:
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1.4-overhead-speaker-setup-guide.html
it shows those rears should be slightly below ear level. I 'ear from others (chuckle) that about 1-2 feet above that is better. Ear level would actually work best though, because that right side speaker I could just put on the window seal if I needed to.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Rofl. I think the proofreader miss that rear speaker pic. That's ridiculous!!! My surround tweeters are at 72" iirc, but I'm not running atmos. If I were, I'd probably go 18" above ear level. I believe surrounds have to work correctly when no atmos information is in play.


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