Left and Right Channel Placement for Home Theater

[dapercy]

I'm stuck putting my rears on either side of the couch facing the TV. The center sits on top of the TV, but what is optimal placement for the left and right front channels? The TV is centered against the wall.

Should I push the left and right channels all the way to the edges of wall or should I put them half way between the center and edge of wall? Or is there some other optimal placement.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[paul_pci]

I'm stuck putting my rears on either side of the couch facing the TV. The center sits on top of the TV, but what is optimal placement for the left and right front channels? The TV is centered against the wall.

Should I push the left and right channels all the way to the edges of wall or should I put them half way between the center and edge of wall? Or is there some other optimal placement.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

It might help to tell us a little more about your speakers: floor standing or bookshelf, for instance. Ideally, you'd want an equidistance from the left and right relative to the center, but that can't always happen, nor might that always produce the best sound. What you should do is experiment. Start with the mains close to the center, then steadily place them farther apart until you find the best soundstaging for the room. Another way to go about it is placing them in an equilateral triangle to the listening position, wherein the distance between the two main speakers equals the distance from the mains to the listening position, but that ignores the placement of the center. The bottom line is that all speakers and rooms are different and you're going to have to play around and figure out which placement is optimal, so grab a tape measure and have at it.