[dunan]

So I'm having a little dilemma - I'm not sure where to place the surrounds I have with the AM-40 mounts I just got. What is optimal for my limited setup?


Couch is on the back wall and cant be moved up, the room is just not made for a couch to be away from the wall. One wall has a sliding glass door on it but does have a partition between the glass door and the back wall while the other side of the couch is completely open to the kitchen so it looks like the only option is to mount them on the back wall that the couch is on, and maybe point them inward toward the LP?


Since that looks to be the case, at what height would I put the surrounds at? I have heard 2-3ft above the head when the person is seated, would that be correct?


This is a pic, you can see the side with no wall and the couch on the wall. The tower by the couch are what the surrounds are resting on at the moment, but they are not in the pic.

 

[Espo77]

Personally I don't like the surrounds pointed directly at the listener position. Much of the ambient sounds on concert discs... for example...audience noise, clapping, yelling as well as reflected sound from the arena walls need to sound like they have been reflected. This sounds more like you are there vs. in a living room. It sounds convincible.


If you can't place the surrounds on the side walls, back near the corners of the room, near the rear wall, where the sofa is, then try simply placing them on end tables on either side of the sofa. This won't go along with the beilef that proper placement should be two to three feet above the listeners ears.

 

[dunan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Espo77  /t/1415097/surround-sound-placement-couch-on-back-wall-one-room-open-to-kitchen#post_22121727


Personally I don't like the surrounds pointed directly at the listener position. Much of the ambient sounds on concert discs... for example...audience noise, clapping, yelling as well as reflected sound from the arena walls need to sound like they have been reflected. This sounds more like you are there vs. in a living room. It sounds convincible.

If you can't place the surrounds on the side walls, back near the corners of the room, near the rear wall, where the sofa is, then try simply placing them on end tables on either side of the sofa. This won't go along with the beilef that proper placement should be two to three feet above the listeners ears.

Hmmm


Unfortunately none of that is an option as there is only a very small area on one side to mount on a wall and the other side there is no wall at all. That is where the pic is taken from, the opening to the kitchen. They *can* be placed on the same wall as the couch, but just need to know how much higher than head height they need to be.

The surrounds are sitting on top of towers that arent in use at the moment because they are bigger than the speakers up front. The only reason I need to mount them is because of my 1 yr old grabbing onto things to lift her up as she is just learning how to walk and I dont want the towers tipping over with the surrounds landing on her head.

 

[Robert Cook]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dunan  /t/1415097/surround-sound-placement-couch-on-back-wall-one-room-open-to-kitchen/0_100#post_22121524


Couch is on the back wall and cant be moved up, the room is just not made for a couch to be away from the wall. One wall has a sliding glass door on it but does have a partition between the glass door and the back wall while the other side of the couch is completely open to the kitchen so it looks like the only option is to mount them on the back wall that the couch is on, and maybe point them inward toward the LP?

I have very similar issues, and what I decided to do, after some experimentation, was mount the surrounds using AM-40s on the back wall, and it seems to work fine. Looks like you've done your homework.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dunan  /t/1415097/surround-sound-placement-couch-on-back-wall-one-room-open-to-kitchen/0_100#post_22121524


Since that looks to be the case, at what height would I put the surrounds at? I have heard 2-3ft above the head when the person is seated, would that be correct?

That's the general rule of thumb, and it's a good one (do it if you can), although it is not hard & fast. I actually mount mine higher out of necessity, and it still works great. The nice thing is that the AM-40 allows you to rotate and tilt the speakers in case that would help (depends on the speaker's dispersion characteristics and your preferences). Mine are tilted down slightly but still aligned with the back wall (i.e. not rotated forward). While I'm not a fan of reflected sound in general, I've found that the reflected sound from the back wall actually improves the "cohesiveness" of the surround sound field, so that sounds that are centered don't seem as though they were inside my head. It's not quite like having a 7.1 system, but I kind of like the effect.