[mikespopworld]

I am setting up a Home Theater in my 15x20 foot living room. Vandersteen 3A's will be used in front and 2ce's sig's in the rear. Will the floor standing 2's in the rear be high enough to present the proper sound image, stage, effects or whatever they are ideally supposed to do in the 5.1 system? They are only about 4' high and if you are sitting in a chair in front of them that is almost as high won't it block some of the sound and throw off those 5.1 effects (imaging, staging or whatever)?

 

[tonygeno]

Yes. You need to get the ears above the chairs for the proper effect. What center are you using?

 

[mikespopworld]

vcc-5 center

 

[Bondmanp]

I have a pair of 1Cs in front and for the L/R surrounds, and a VCC-1 center.


Since I have high-back chairs, I placed the surrounds on two rows of cinderblocks, ~12" off the floor. My reasoning is that the soundstage and imaging issues that Vandys are so sensitive to do not really apply in surround modes, where your processor/decoder is directing the signals. Also, my surrounds are pretty close to my chair. You want at least 5' of linear distance between your ears and the nearest speaker. Hieght can increase that distance, improving the surrounds' ability to create a more diffuse sound field.


My admitedly more modest setup than yours works pretty well. I can't localize the speakers on surround material, and the timbre-matching front-to-back is spot on.

 

[programmergeek]

You will probably have imaging issues in that room with the vandies in the back they will be to close to you, and the wall, also vandies need to be out from the wall a bit to disappear into the room, I found this out the hard way. I would highly sugest using there wall mounts for the back and sides that is what I did mount them 7 or8 feet off the ground and wow best wall speakes I have herd you can't tell where they are.