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Surround sound
speaker placement Before doing any surround sound wiring,
you should plan out surround sound speaker placement locations,
as well as where you are going to place the rest of your home
theater surround sound component system. Unless you're lucky and rich enough to be building and installing a custom high-end dedicated home theater room in brand new
construction, there is no such thing as
the perfect room setup for surround sound! The idea is to maximize
what you CAN control within the constraints of your room size, shape,
floor plan, etc.
The starting point
of a home theater surround sound system setup is a big screen
TV or home
theater projector screen. That's because your center channel speaker
(mainly used
for dialog on movies) should be placed at about ear level when seated, as close to the
TV screen as possible, usually directly
below or above it. Front projector users should consider choosing a
perforated projector screen if the center channel speaker will
be located behind the projector screen.
The two front/main
speakers will probably sound best when they are placed equidistant from
the center channel speaker to the left and right of your
television screen at approximately the same height. Floor
standing speakers, in wall speakers,
and bookshelf speakers (either on speaker
stands or wall mounted)
are the most common types of front left and right main speakers. |
In a 5.1 surround sound
speaker system, a rear surround speaker, especially
those with a bi-pole/di-pole design, will sound it's best when located to
the left and right sides (or slightly behind) your home theater seating
area, preferably at or above ear level. Rear surround speakers are
usually designed to be mounted directly on the wall. Bookshelf
speakers (either on speaker stands or wall
mounted) or ceiling speakers are also
commonly used as rear surrounds.
If your surround system
includes 6.1 speakers, it will also
include a rear center
speaker to place behind your seating area, perhaps also mounted
high on the wall at the same height as your rear surround speaker pair.
With 7.1
speakers, you will have the pair of surround speakers to the
left and
right of your seating area PLUS TWO more speakers behind you.
Your subwoofer
will usually sound it's best when it's placed either somewhere near a
corner or next to the front left or right main speaker. Deep bass
tones are omni-directional, so you usually cannot pinpoint exactly where the bass sounds are
actually coming from.
Many home theater experts
today are recommending adding at least one additional subwoofer (7.2
channels) for much better bass response throughout your home theater room. |
