2. home-theater
  3. 187832-150037

Locating speakers behind where you sit versus positioning them on the side?

I was in a smaller room before I relocated my system to a larger room and the rear speakers were placed on the sides of room because they couldn’t go behind me.

Now they are behind me and I thought this might be better.

When they were on my side they were literally sending soundwaves directly to my ear and I think that may have been better.

If you had your choice which position would you use for these speakers. Not really feasible to do both rear and side

 

emergingsoul
erik_squires
16,057 posts
 

The home theater spec is to the side, BUT! that ignores toe-in. A lot of speakers are not designed to be listened on dead straight, but get smoother if you are 15-20 degrees off axis. 

So, they should be to the side, but you might find better sound turning them so they point towards your fronts a little.

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dbphd
1,628 posts
 

I'm using a Sony HT A9 setup, and it's impressive.  But I've wondered if the backs of our Stressless chairs reduce the effectiveness of the rear speakers, and have been planning to raise the rear speakers.  But after reading this thread, I'll try placing them to the side, and rerun the DSP.

deep_333
1,374 posts
 

Place it where you can maximize physical distance of surrounds from your ears (closest you can match with distance of front mains to ears) Ignore Dolby’s lil layout pictures for side surtounds/back surrounds....On the same note, Sony’s 360 reality SSM beats Dolby to a pulp if you want to optimize for music listening as well, i.e, Dolby’s not the only game in town (Auro’s there too)..

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