[David Campbell]

Our couch is pretty much up against the back wall and sidewalls of our living room, which is where I want to place some in-wall surrounds for the Dolby Atmos 7.1.2.

We don't have a choice on moving the couch away from the side walls and maybe a foot or so on the rear wall. I'm worried about the close proximity of our surround speaker placement and possible "proximity effect", where the listener is too close to a surround that could distract from the overall listening experience.

Reading the installation guidelines on Dolby Atmos:

"To avoid an unwanted proximity effect, make sure the speakers are at least 3 feet
(0.9 meter) away from listening positions, ideally 5 feet (1.5 meters) or more."

The surrounds would be placed in-wall just above listener level to clear the couch height. The listeners at the end of the couch would be 18 inches from the side surrounds and 2 feet from the rear surrounds. Has the latest receivers with their calibration tools been able to mitigate some of the issues with proximity effect? Are there things I can do to mitigate proximity effect short of moving the speakers farther away?

I'm about to cut sheet-rock on our home theater project and I just want to make sure I'm not making a critical design mistake.

Thanks for any help!

Dave

 

[Molon_Labe]

If they are too close, it will become a distraction. I don't think you have enough separation for 7.1 on the bed channels. I am a minority though because I see a lot of people with side and rear surrounds very close to each other. Just remember, more is not always better. Best wishes on your build. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

Chris

 

[darthray]

If they are too close, it will become a distraction. I don't think you have enough separation for 7.1 on the bed channels. I am a minority though because I see a lot of people with side and rear surrounds very close to each other. Just remember, more is not always better. Best wishes on your build. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

Chris

+1 on more is not always better, I got a 7.2 system but if a movie is recorded 5.1, I leave it at that and do not matrix into 7.1


Ray

 

[darthray]

David Campbell


I could not quote your post, everytime I tried the link went funky, very funky, like something was attach to it


Anyhow, it is not the best situation.
You can try-it and see if you like-it, most modern AVR should take care of the delay and level difference.
It might work, but not to extand it was intended.


Good luck


Ray

 

[vipergts2207]

I'm going to recommend going with the consensus and sticking with 5.1.2 or if you really want some more speakers then 5.1.4. My room is too small for 7.1 as well, so I'll be sticking with 5.1.

 

[dkfan9]

This may be a case where you would benefit from bipole or dipole surrounds, if listening experience on couch edges is important. If center takes a larger priority, you may want to consider raising the side surrounds or moving them slightly rearward of the couch to ensure people sitting at the end of the couch don't block off the sound heading to other listeners. Raising the surrounds slightly may also mitigate issues of them being so close to the listener.

 

[sigpig]

Ditch the 7.1 setup and go 5.1. You have no room behind your couch for any type of rear speakers. As others have said, mount your surrounds at ear-level (while standing) to the sides of your couch. A good 5.1 system always trumps a poor 7.1 system...

 

[pase22]

Ditch the 7.1 setup and go 5.1. You have no room behind your couch for any type of rear speakers. As others have said, mount your surrounds at ear-level (while standing) to the sides of your couch. A good 5.1 system always trumps a poor 7.1 system...

^^^ This! I tried to do a 7.1 in my small room, similar situation to yours, It was as others mentioned, distracting. I cut back to 5.1 and added 2 height channels up front instead. I'm getting a lot more enjoyment out of the set-up this way.

 

[cel4145]

Ditch the 7.1 setup and go 5.1. You have no room behind your couch for any type of rear speakers. As others have said, mount your surrounds at ear-level (while standing) to the sides of your couch. A good 5.1 system always trumps a poor 7.1 system...

^^^ This! I tried to do a 7.1 in my small room, similar situation to yours, It was as others mentioned, distracting. I cut back to 5.1 and added 2 height channels up front instead. I'm getting a lot more enjoyment out of the set-up this way.

Another vote for this!

Also, if building your room, you should run a subwoofer cable hookup to the back in case you want to upgrade to dual subs. Dual subs have the potential benefit of providing a smoother bass response through a wider seating area. Best placement will often be one sub to one side of the front sound stage, and the other near the opposite corner along the side or back wall, which is why you want to place an outlet now.

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

"To avoid an unwanted proximity effect, make sure the speakers are at least 3 feet (0.9 meter) away from listening positions, ideally 5 feet (1.5 meters) or more."

Placing them about six inches below the ceiling, aimed at the ceiling, accomplishes that. Surround content doesn't benefit from precise imaging, so there's no downside to doing this.

 

[David Campbell]

Thanks for the responses. After reading the posts and the Atmos setup guide, I'm going to change it to a 5.1.2 configuration. I'll even get a few more inches of speaker distance for the surrounds now that they can be placed in a more diagonal angle to the listener.

 

[mikecoscia]

Thanks for the responses. After reading the posts and the Atmos setup guide, I'm going to change it to a 5.1.2 configuration. I'll even get a few more inches of speaker distance for the surrounds now that they can be placed in a more diagonal angle to the listener.

Hey Dave, I know it's been awhile, but I am in the same situation as you. I currently have a 5.1.4 setup in my basement. The room is narrow though and my side channels are only 18" from the end listeners on a three person sofa. What did you end up doing? Did you move your side surrounds to the rear corners of the room and angle them towards the center listening position? How are you enjoying your setup?

 

[LittleLarry]

The room is narrow though and my side channels are only 18" from the end listeners on a three person sofa.

Old thread, but I just wanted to comment that 18" from the end listener seems too close as far as tinnitus is concerned.

 

[mikecoscia]

Old indeed...lol. Unfortunately, I had no choice. Luckily, I am really the only one that uses the theater and I just sit in the middle.

 

[orac 7]

Old indeed...lol. Unfortunately, I had no choice. Luckily, I am really the only one that uses the theater and I just sit in the middle.

yeh I too have this issue, keep going back and fourth 5.1.2- 7.1.2, .my room is not big at all, seating back to wall, could move forward bit, oh and yes I sit in the middle, best seat.

 

[nunyerbiznes]

I'm facing the same issue, with my rear surrounds above us on a wall directly behind the couch. I totally understand the logic behind sticking with a good 5.1 or 5.2 setup if the speakers are too close. However, I'm considering replacing these (2) 2-way 6.5" Paradigm speakers with diy coaxial bi-poles. (The side surrounds are diy's also, that I just rewired from di-pole to bi-pole, because the lack of any bottom end was driving me crazy. Thanks to the pandemic, I have time for such trivial pursuits). This is a small room where there's little space for the spound to generate, and is far too localized. Are there any other ways to artificially increase the dispersion of a speaker? I'm not above doing something patently anti-hifi to accomplish this: they're just surrounds. Thanks.

 

[Chirosamsung]

I too am wondering this-thinking of getting a pair of Monitor Audio Silver or Gold FX which are Bipole and hope that them being only 20-24 inches to my ear from rear surrounds position isn't too close

 

[cat5_h7e]

Old indeed...lol. Unfortunately, I had no choice. Luckily, I am really the only one that uses the theater and I just sit in the middle.

I’m going to be in a similar boat. I’m doing a 7.x.6 setup. My rear row of seating won’t be able to get more than 2’ clearance from back wall, to allow for space when full reclined b/t rear and front row and to avoid front row being too close to the screen. My front row will have to center on TV viewing wall, which due to where I have to put my entry, is more like 10’ wide than the 12’ width of the rest of the room. So my proximity to left side surround and to rear surrounds isn’t optimal. but I’m thinking if I go with 110° on side surrounds, that helps some. Ditto on using middle chair mostly in front row. For rear row, 2’ ain’t great, but with cushion on my seating, except if reclined, that adds a little more.

Did you experience any big issues w/ this or did it pan out well enough?

 

[smithsabom]

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[Captorofsin]

My main listening position where my ears are is about 18 in to 2 ft from the back wall.

I have a pair of "slanted" Wharfedale (please see link) that I would very much like to mount on the back wall (about 8 Ft up). Like stated above, they're slanted a little bit.

I'm just hoping I would be able to get the full effect of the surround speakers.
I just don't want it to equate to having the speakers in front of me instead of behind me.

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