[ihmeyers]

Need to buy some surround speakers and have a dilemma. Looking for any and all suggestions...

The HT is in our family room. I moved up the couch a little so it is now 12' ft from the TV (a 65" Sony). The couch has a very high back, about 35.5". There is approx 3 feet between the back of the couch and the end of the area rug that divides the room.

In a world without constraints (i.e. no wife) I would put floorstanders behind the couch. Wife HATES that idea, in fact prefers no speakers at all. She can live with monitors on stands. My concern is we have two cats one of which I am 100% certain will jump up on the speaker. Obviously the higher the stand the more likely a flying leap from her onto the speaker could knock it over. I don't worry so much about 24" stands but monitors on 36" stands with a crazy cat scare the crap out of me. Of course, anything less than 36" doesn't clear the back of the couch. I think it's unlikely she knocks over a sand filled stand but I just don't think a monitor will be stable enough to remain upright when she lands on it, especially if she lands on one edge or the other. Not to mention the fact that there are some amazing deals on really good floor standing speakers on Audiogon right now relative to Monitors (which tend to hold more of their retail value probably because of low wife acceptance factor).

I would love to hear from anyone else that has been in the same position.

Ian

 

[tezster]

Do you have side walls where surround speakers can be mounted?

 

[dchalfont]

Need to buy some surround speakers and have a dilemma. Looking for any and all suggestions...

The HT is in our family room. I moved up the couch a little so it is now 12' ft from the TV (a 65" Sony). The couch has a very high back, about 35.5". There is approx 3 feet between the back of the couch and the end of the area rug that divides the room.

In a world without constraints (i.e. no wife) I would put floorstanders behind the couch. Wife HATES that idea, in fact prefers no speakers at all. She can live with monitors on stands. My concern is we have two cats one of which I am 100% certain will jump up on the speaker. Obviously the higher the stand the more likely a flying leap from her onto the speaker could knock it over. I don't worry so much about 24" stands but monitors on 36" stands with a crazy cat scare the crap out of me. Of course, anything less than 36" doesn't clear the back of the couch. I think it's unlikely she knocks over a sand filled stand but I just don't think a monitor will be stable enough to remain upright when she lands on it, especially if she lands on one edge or the other. Not to mention the fact that there are some amazing deals on really good floor standing speakers on Audiogon right now relative to Monitors (which tend to hold more of their retail value probably because of low wife acceptance factor).

I would love to hear from anyone else that has been in the same position.

Ian

I have 2 cattle dogs, 25kg each, and a crazy cat.

My loungeroom is 3.5m wide and with the lounge and speaker stands there is a tight squeeze beside the louge...if the 2 dogs try to push past at the same time they brush against the stands, but I built them myself and they have never budged.

The ones you buy for $300-500 a pair are shiny garbage, totally unstable.

My stands are about 800mm tall, The base is 30x30cm 19mm thick pine, top is 25x25cm and a column of 70mmx70mm pine. Current speakers ate 5.5kg.

I am about to upgrade to Monitor Audio Gold 100s which are 9.9kg each and I will be building new stands, 40x40cm base, 90x90mm column and the top platform will be the same dimensions as the speaker, 21cm wide, 30cm deep. Top and bottom plates 19mm thick.

With stands like that animals don't matter.

I don't even cut the wood myself, I just go to the hardware store, get the wood cut to the sides I want ( eg 40cm deep, 2.4/1.8/1.2metres long ) and cut it cut into 40cm sections for the base, same with the stop, and I but a long section of 90mmx90mm pine and cut it to whatever you want, 600, 700, 800mm, then a packet of screws and a can of spray paint is all you need.

Costs $50 for a pair of speaker stands, they do the cutting, takes 10 minutes to do the screws at home and 5 minutes for the paint. 1 hours work for something that could withstand a nuclear blast and is 20x more stable than 'official' speaker stands.

 

[ihmeyers]

Do you have side walls where surround speakers can be mounted?

Unfortunately no. Wall on one side of the room isn't too bad though it would be a ***** to run the cables. Opposite side is 14 feet of sliding glass doors leading to the patio...

 

[ihmeyers]

I have 2 cattle dogs, 25kg each, and a crazy cat.

My loungeroom is 3.5m wide and with the lounge and speaker stands there is a tight squeeze beside the louge...if the 2 dogs try to push past at the same time they brush against the stands, but I built them myself and they have never budged.

The ones you buy for $300-500 a pair are shiny garbage, totally unstable.

My stands are about 800mm tall, The base is 30x30cm 19mm thick pine, top is 25x25cm and a column of 70mmx70mm pine. Current speakers ate 5.5kg.

I am about to upgrade to Monitor Audio Gold 100s which are 9.9kg each and I will be building new stands, 40x40cm base, 90x90mm column and the top platform will be the same dimensions as the speaker, 21cm wide, 30cm deep. Top and bottom plates 19mm thick.

With stands like that animals don't matter.

I don't even cut the wood myself, I just go to the hardware store, get the wood cut to the sides I want ( eg 40cm deep, 2.4/1.8/1.2metres long ) and cut it cut into 40cm sections for the base, same with the stop, and I but a long section of 90mmx90mm pine and cut it to whatever you want, 600, 700, 800mm, then a packet of screws and a can of spray paint is all you need.

Costs $50 for a pair of speaker stands, they do the cutting, takes 10 minutes to do the screws at home and 5 minutes for the paint. 1 hours work for something that could withstand a nuclear blast and is 20x more stable than 'official' speaker stands.

Thanks for the reply. I'd prefer to buy something pre-made though because the room has really nice furniture and I wouldn't be able to build anything really nice myself. I guess I really do have to clear the back of the couch, right? Speakers on even 30" stands where the woofer is below the top of the couch probably won't sound very good I'm guessing.

Wish I had a wife more into HT / audio. Considering she'd played instruments all her life she doesn't give a rip what anything sounds like, only that it's aesthetically pleasing. She does most of her listening using the built in speaker of her iPad...

 

[Shadowed]

My rear speakers are hanging from the ceiling so I don't have to deal with stands.

 

[ihmeyers]

My rear speakers are hanging from the ceiling so I don't have to deal with stands.

It would be a big job to get ceiling speakers installed. Thought long and hard about it as it is a clean look. Magnolia (Geek Squad) priced install at ~ $400. Since we'll only be in this house another 18 months (moving when the youngin goes off to college) it's not worth it and that doesn't include the price of the speakers.

This is a tough set-up for surround. Unfortunately, our primary concern was finding a suitable house in the school district so my son could finish high school, not finding one that would necessarily work for 5.1.

These are an option for stands that probably won't fall over but it kills me to spend that much on a stand when I could by a really nice floor standing speaker for $300 more...

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/st...stands-2015-03-01-accessories-66762-radley-ks

 

[Shadowed]

These are an option for stands that probably won't fall over but it kills me to spend that much on a stand when I could by a really nice floor standing speaker for $300 more...

Good point... wow, I see why I never bothered with speaker stands

 

[ihmeyers]

Good point... wow, I see why I never bothered with speaker stands

Those are beautiful stands and very solid but $600? ($800 new). There are some really nice $2k-$3k speakers on Audiogon for $900-$1500 now. A guy on eBay is looking to sell $8k Revels for $2k. Makes it hard to justify spending $600 on stands...

Getting back to a question I asked earlier in the thread...I am guessing the speaker has to clear the back of the couch. Do both drivers or just the tweeter? Only helps a little but 30" stands would be more stable than 36" stands and gives me so lower priced options.

 

[Shadowed]

Those are beautiful stands and very solid but $600? ($800 new). There are some really nice $2k-$3k speakers on Audiogon for $900-$1500 now. A guy on eBay is looking to sell $8k Revels for $2k. Makes it hard to justify spending $600 on stands...

Getting back to a question I asked earlier in the thread...I am guessing the speaker has to clear the back of the couch. Do both drivers or just the tweeter? Only helps a little but 30" stands would be more stable than 36" stands and gives me so lower priced options.

blocking one of the drivers is definitely not ideal. Just do a quick test and block the bottom driver to see how much it changes the sound. You should easily be able to hear a difference.

 

[John Sully]

I've been using ceiling mounts for about 20 years, placed as per the original Dolby recommendations (slightly behind and well above the listening position). This has always worked well for me.

 

[ihmeyers]

blocking one of the drivers is definitely not ideal. Just do a quick test and block the bottom driver to see how much it changes the sound. You should easily be able to hear a difference.

That's what I figured but thank you for the confirmation. If that's the case even floor standing speakers could be a problem because very few will have all the drivers above 36" in height. I've got a a pair of Audio Physics 2-way (for fronts) with the woofer and tweeter mounted near the top of the 42" enclosure and the woofer doesn't clear the back of the couch. I do have to agree with the wife that floor standing speakers did look kind of crappy directly behind the couch.