I am renovating my house and want set up a moderate home theather in my great room/family room.

My problem is I have a long narrow room (about 12' by 30') and because I have a 6' sliding door on one of the 12' walls an a fireplace on the other) I really need to put the tv and the couch accross the short demision about 12' apart(room being 12 feet wide).

My question is in regards to the rear speakers. Because I dont have that much width the rear speakers would end up right behind the couch. Am I going to get blasted by the rear speakers if they are directly behind the couch? Does this layout even benefit from 7.1? To me it seems a little cramped. Does it make sense to mount either of the rear speakers in the ceiling or does that throw off direction?


Layout of room attached..
In that drawing I am putting the TV on the wall to the right of where it says 'CAP OFF AND PATCH...', backing up to closet for bedroom 1. As a change to the draying I closed in the window on the left wall that is basicly accross from the tv. I did this to give me as much wall space for seating as possible.

I was checking out the dobly site and they kinda confirmed what I was thinking. Or at least the picture does.

Is there a spacing requirement for the Left Back and Right Back speakers? I assume you dont want that right up against your head?

What do you do if your couch backs up against a wall?


http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/prologic_IIx.html

How about just mounting them high and wide to get them as far away from the couch as possible. Or maybe some in-ceiling speakers? You can always crank down the volume of the surrounds so they aren't distracting.

Well that was my question.. Realizing that everything is a compromise, will putting the right and left back speakers as ceiling mounts cause me to feel like things are above me rather then behind me?

Part two of that question would be about the surround speakers. It appears these are would want to point back toward the couch. I assume that means I shoudlnt be using using in-ceiling speakers for this? I assume I would I want something that mounts on the back wall to the side of he couches and then points back toward the couch?

Are there any good FAQS for speaker placement? I dont want to keep reasking the same questions that others have already asked.

Let's clear up some possible terminology confusion. (At least on my part;))The surround speakers off the left and right are the side surround speakers, even if placed somewhat to the rear of the listening position.

If a DD 5.1 setup there are side surrounds but no back (rear) surrounds.

In a DD 7.1 setup there are two side and two back surrounds.

If you are going to do a 7.1 setup take a look athere (http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout2.html) you will see both 5.1 and 7.1 layouts. The views default to an overhead view showing the angles recommend for each speaker. So a little trig lets you calculate the separation of the rear speakers at any distance behind the listener.

However as your setup will have only a few inches perhaps between the listener's ears and the wall. So if you imagine moving the back speakers on the diagram forward they will be almost side by side if just behind the center listener. That actually can work. You will have effectively a THX spacing.

But I think if you experiment you might like moving them farther apart, say just beyond the ends of the couch, so as to enclose more listeners between them.

Dolby recommends that surround speakers be located above seated ear level. High mounted surrounds can sound odd at first (some sounds will climb as they go by you when they should be on the level), but you will quickly get used to it, just as you do to a center speaker that is higher or lower than the talking head. If you are high mounting your surrounds ceiling speakers will work--some allow you to adjust the direction in which drivers are tited. But for my taste a wall mounted speakers tilted down toward the seats tend to sound a bit better.

If you do a 7.1 setup you gain a bit of flexibility on the fore and aft location of the side surrounds. You can actually push them forward of the listening position--you get an enveloping sound field but the fronts are still plainly distinguished.

trekguy... that was exactly the diagram I was looking at before posting this question. Yes the surround speakes out to the side and the others being 'back' speakers I as they have Rb and Lb.

My thougnt was that I would make the back speakers ceiling mounted over the edges of the couch and then set the surrounds out to the side further. However those 4 speakers would end up on the same plain/line.

If I go with that route how do I figure out how much fat to the sides the surrounds should be placed from the couch.