Surround sound without waking the neighbors?

[Juardis]

outstanding. I never would have thought to spend money on a sound meter, but that sounds prudent.

when I say short axis, I do not mean in a corner, I mean in a rectangular room with the TV in the center of a wall with the viewing distance being the shortest. In a 16x22 room, the surrounds would be 22 feet apart while the center speaker would be about 14 feet in front of you if you sit right in front of the TV.

Thanks for the advice on height of speakers. I knew to keep them at the same height, but not to what degree of separation I could cheat on. 2-3 feet is entirely realistic in my setup.

So I gather just about any HT system ~$1000 US can give excellent clarity at low volumes but I would need bigger speakers for a 2 story room to fill the room with sound and would have to calibrate them with a sound meter.

[Jim Clark]

outstanding.
when I say short axis, I do not mean in a corner,

Sorry 'bout that. I had off axis on my brain and was going to read off axis no matter what words were actually there.

Glad to hear you're moving towards a meter. I believe that the folks that say you can do it by ear are mistaken, except for maybe a few lucky accidents.

jc