5.1 or 7.1 setup

Ideally they should be further back, on the side of, or slightly to the rear of, the couch (or move the couch but that may not be where you want it No way to do that? Are the wires run at floor level or ceiling? or? At least you have room for a second sub. Not familiar with what's available in europe, here I look mostly at the ID selection on both speakers and subs.

What size surround speakers are you thinking about? How would you place them? Stands? Wall mounts?

Additional information...

• How high is the ceiling in this space?

• The adjacent space - how large is it?

I'd like to get a sense of the volume of your spaces.

Ok - you asked for "speaker recommendations" - not building advice. Please use the following to understand my rationale. Then you can judge if my advice is useful according to your personal preferences.


Should I take it you have planned light barrier treatments for the window to the right of the seating area and most importantly for the sliding door behind it? There may also be undesired acoustic reflections from sliding door as well. Perhaps this treatment could be dual purpose.


My sense is that you'll be happier moving the couch forward to between the surrounds for a number of reasons:

• First, yes - it would be better to sit directly opposite [between] the surrounds.
• Second, light infiltration from the right side window will be behind the couch and out of view.
• I tend to like being closer to the screen - filling my field of view. My preference is for 110 degrees or more side-to-side and the bottom edge of the screen above the 90 degree point of the viewing position. (in other words - placed so I neither have to look up, or down, from the seated position to view the upper and lower extreme of the screen - but fill that field of view.
• Lastly, it's a subtle thing, but try to keep the distance from the screen to the viewing location about the same as other things around the room. The idea is not to have to re-focus your eyes too much if you need to take them off the screen for a moment. Of course this can't be helped for objects in your lap, but it simulates a theater environment if you can do so, and keeps eye fatigue to a minimum.

If you find you must deal with the room as you've pictured, then I would suggest using surrounds that are Dipoles (not just Bipoles). This maximizes dispersion and may be sufficient . Another choice would be to add a second set of surrounds, to the rear of the existing ones so that you're centered between. I don't want to get too technical here, but it may be necessary to have all 4 surrounds specifically chosen for this configuration. Don't simply "bridge" the electrical connections unless told it's ok by a specialist.

You won't be happy relying on the rear speakers to fill the void, especially with true 7.1 content. It might seem to work for 5.1 content with the receiver in an "EX" mode however.