Height of fronts as opposed to rears

[GotToyota?]

I plan on getting some new speaker stands for all of my speakers soon, and was planning to get 16" stands for the front bookshelf speakers, and 24" stands for the rear bookshelves. Now, is it better to have the speakers all level, or would having the rears slightly higher be okay?

-Matt

[dialog_gvf]

I like to position the fronts such that the sonic mix (with the center) is the middle of the screen, and it seems the common recommendation is that rears should be 2 feet or more above your seated position.

Dolby's recommendations

For 7.1 it is still in a bit of flux, but the actual mixes on the movies will tend to be designed for the common 5.1/6.1/7.1 setups.

Gary

[sokrman14]

Ideally for fronts you want to have them around ear level, and just above ear level for rears. You also want to position the fronts in an equilateral triangle from your main seating position.

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by sokrman14

Ideally for fronts you want to have them around ear level, and just above ear level for rears. You also want to position the fronts in an equilateral triangle from your main seating position.

Actually this is better advice for stereo listening, not multichannel. You would be far to close to the surrounds in this position.

Better positioning would entail sitting in the middle of a circle, and placing your L/R speakers at 30 degrees, center at 0 degrees, and L/R surrounds at 110 degrees for a 5.1 system. Fronts should be at identical height or as close to that as possible, and the surrounds should be 2-3ft above your head at a sitting position.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Sir Terrence

Actually this is better advice for stereo listening, not multichannel. You would be far to close to the surrounds in this position.

Better positioning would entail sitting in the middle of a circle, and placing your L/R speakers at 30 degrees, center at 0 degrees, and L/R surrounds at 110 degrees for a 5.1 system. Fronts should be at identical height or as close to that as possible, and the surrounds should be 2-3ft above your head at a sitting position.

Agreed. The recommendation for rears (7.1) seems to be 165 degrees or so, and at the same height as the sides but tilted slighty down toward the seating position. And in the 7.1 case the sides are moved closer to 90 degrees (which is why I compromise for 5.1/7.1 at 100).

Gary

[Johk]

Originally Posted by Sir Terrence

Actually this is better advice for stereo listening, not multichannel. You would be far to close to the surrounds in this position.

Better positioning would entail sitting in the middle of a circle, and placing your L/R speakers at 30 degrees, center at 0 degrees, and L/R surrounds at 110 degrees for a 5.1 system. Fronts should be at identical height or as close to that as possible, and the surrounds should be 2-3ft above your head at a sitting position.

+1

Yes, that's the way I want my new set up... A circle of speakers around me with 6 tower speakers and a central channel.

Like the WSR Holosonic Reference system or the Dolby 7.1 layout:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_e...omlayout2.html

The difficult part is to convince you're a guy is to convince your girlfriend that it's the best way to set it up!