HT speaker placement question

[ETEX]

Hi everyone.

I have a question about the speaker placement for the surrounds in the Home Theater that I am getting together.

Due to the arrangement of the room, I will have to mount the surrounds on the wall directly above the seating area. Would it be best to put them on the back wall pointing out into the room, or on the side walls opposing each other?

If it matters, here is the stuff that I am using:

Marantz SR-670 Receiver
Polk Audio R50 Main Speakers
Optimus Pro CS-5 Center Channel
Polk Audio R15 Surrounds

As an aside, Fry's has been giving some great deals on these Polk Speakers. I got the R50's a couple of weeks ago for $79 each, after I started having trouble with the tweeters on my old speakers. I picked up the R15's a couple of days ago for $68/pair. This will be first rear speakers that I've ever installed in my system. I've never cared about HT a whole lot and have used the system mainly for two channel stereo. I realize that these Polks are probably not the greatest stuff in the world, but they work well for what I am doing and I think they represent a great value at the prices that I got. With a teenage girl in the house, I don't have a lot of extra money to be spending on stereo equipment.

Thanks for your time,
Mark

[toenail]

Assuming your sofa is up against a wall, I would highly recommend mounting on the side walls ( 90 degrees to left and right of primary listening position ) a few feet above ear level.

[Woochifer]

Dolby's placement recommendations specify that the surrounds should be off to the side and pointed directly at one another. You raise the surrounds above ear level and keep them slightly behind the listening position. Only with dipolar surround speakers should you put the surrounds directly to the side of the listening position.

[ETEX]

More info: The room has a 10 foot ceiling. The couch/chairs sit under the spot where the 10 foot ceilings transition to 8 foot, so they (the couch and chairs) really aren't under a back wall, but there is two feet of wall above them, if that makes any sense. I'll have to be mounting these speakers at the top of the walls, about 9.5 feet high. It sounds like my best info so far is to put them on the side walls.

Thanks for the tips. Feel free to interject more.

Mark

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

More info: The room has a 10 foot ceiling. The couch/chairs sit under the spot where the 10 foot ceilings transition to 8 foot, so they (the couch and chairs) really aren't under a back wall, but there is two feet of wall above them, if that makes any sense. I'll have to be mounting these speakers at the top of the walls, about 9.5 feet high. It sounds like my best info so far is to put them on the side walls.

Thanks for the tips. Feel free to interject more.

Mark

I think 9.5ft is too high. The surrounds should be no more than 2-3ft over your head from the seated position. Any higher than this, and you will get some serious disconnect from the front soundstaging. As sound effects move from front to rear(and visa versa) you will notice a jump in the soundstage. To the ears this jump will be heard as a different "event", and the front and rear soundstage will not be heard as a continual event. Also putting the speakers that high puts it way to close to the wall/ceiling junction. The speakers will "see" to boundaries. Each boundary will artificially(through speaker/wall interactions) boost mid bass performance by several decibals, throwing off the speakers balance at the listening position. Surround speakers should be at least 1ft from the ceiling to minimize this. Side wall are best for mounting the surrounds, as our sense of spaciousness comes from side wall reflections, not the rear wall.

[toenail]

See the link below for info from the Dolby website.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html

They show surrounds at anywhere from 90* to 110* and pointed directly at the listening position, not directly at each other. Also give the nod to "above ear level" placement.