[dholmes54]

What was the ratio for how far apart you place your rear spks? It had something to do with the width of the room. THANKS

 

[DMF]

Each roughly 30 degrees off the viewing axis. So 60 degrees between speakers. But the angle isn't critical.

 

[krabapple]

Ideally (for surround music at least) all the speakers are positioned along an imaginary circle with you at the center (i.e., all speakers equidistant from the listener). Most diagrams I've seen show the surrounds between 100 and 120 degrees off the 'north' radius of that circle (the imaginary line from your nose to your center speaker ;>)

Which ends up meaning, the surrounds are positioned not exactly to each side of you (90 degrees from 'north'), but rather, 10-30 degrees further back, so that they end up a bit behind you.


For surround movies most diagrams show surround speakers elevated a few feet above the listener (but no closer than a foot or two to the ceiling) . But for surround music (SACD/DVD-A multichannel), ear-level placement is recommended for all speakers (subwoofer excepted). None of this is set in stone, you have to go with what sounds acceptable given what your room can accomodate.


Because many times one can't place speakers equidistantly, modern systems provide a 'speaker delay' ('speaker distance') function ' to compensate. The best ones have independent adjustment of distances for each speaker.