What's the "proper" 6.1 speaker placement?

[kexodusc]

I can't find anything on the internet at all about recommended speaker placement for a 6.1 system, tons of 5.1 and 7.1 but little 6.1. My brother is rearranging his living room and added a rear center channel...the only thing I've found is a one line sentence that says to place the 3 surround speakers opposite the front 3 speakers on the rear wall....

Oddly enough, for my "7.1" system, 2 surrounds go roughly beside the listening area with 2 rears behind. Why wouldn't a 6.1 be the same basically? After all, 7.1 is really just 6.1 with 2 rears outputing the 6th channel signal, isn't it?
Any help appreciated.

[kpzbee]

I have mine on top a cabinet, directly opposite from the front center channel. In my set-up, it's behind the rear surrounds a little. It works pretty good on some movies. Yes, your correct about it just being one speaker short. My RX-V750 has 7.1 but I don't have the space for 2 more speakers so I moved my old front center channel to the rear, where it's not as critical. It hooks to the left rear/rear connection.

[kexodusc]

Thanks for the reply...you haven't seen any documentation from Dolby or the likes that provides reasoning behind 6.1 speaker placement, have you? I can understand both arguments, just not sure which to trust more. We can't try both scenarios first so we've got to be pretty close to perfect the first time, which is too bad unfortunately.

Anyone else with input? Surround/rears opposite front speakers and center channel, or something else?

[wasch_24]

See if this helps
http://dolby.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/do...YWdlPTE*&p_li=

or this
http://www.dolby.com/ht/co_br_0110_L...rsGuideEX.html

[kexodusc]

Ooohh...that's what I'm looking for I think...thanks Wasch_24

[wasch_24]

Hope they help.

[kpzbee]

Thanks wasch for the good links.

I watched "The Wall" by Pink Floyd & with the rear center, the music flows around the back as well it does across the front. Cool movie for the sound. One of my favorite sound tracks.

[depressed]

I tried to find what DTS says on the speaker placement as they are the ones that actually do "true" 6.1 surround. No luck at all. I can only suggest my setup, which is to put the rear center little bit more behind the surrounds, pretty much the reverse setup of the front mains and center.. IMO, the surrounds pans will be optimal when setup that way.