Where to put side/rear speakers?

In general, sit in your favorite spot. Look over each shoulder at the side walls, that is the best placement. In other words, just slightly back from 90°. Wall mount v.s. stands and height depends on the speaker.

If you put the back speakers right in the corners you will have the same bass issues that you would have with putting front speakers in the corners. In my room, I put them out from the back and side walls the same as the fronts to start with. Then moved them about a foot wider.

Something else to keep in mind - If you listen to multi-channel music, or want to at some point, sometimes people use di/bipole speakers on the sides, then put direct radiating (traditional type) speakers in the rear. These rear speakers should be used for the multi-channel music.

Also, it may be advantageous to have the rears equidistant to your primary listening spot. Since the 5900 has time alignment for both SACD and DVD-A, perhaps this is of no concern.

For further advice, I think the THX and/or Dolby Digital websites have information on speaker placements.

Bgordon,

The answer for a single row of seating is pretty straightforward. Dolby has a diagram for speaker placement at:
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html
You need to click on "Dolby Pro Logic IIx" to get the 7.1 layout.

I have seen a lot of discussion but no definitive answer for side speaker placement for multiple rows of seating. Some say to optimize side speaker placement for your primary listening position; e.g., directly to the sides of row 1, while others say to locate the side speakers part way between rows 1 and 2. Only thing I can suggest is experiment with the side speaker placement.

Having multiple versus one row of seating should not affect placement of the rear speakers. I would follow the intent of the Dolby diagram: not place the rear speakers in the rear corners; not place them close together.

FWIW, my side and rear speakers are mounted 8.5' - 9' above the listening position, due to limitations of room layout, with each angled down and toward the primary listening position. My front three speakers, L,C, R, are at normal height. All seems to work fine.

I assume you have DPLIIx and/or Logic 7 to drive the 7.1 speaker array.

Good luck,
Bruce

thanks guys- bruce - is their a minimum distance that the rear speakers should be apart( room limitations) another words how close or apart(in feet) can they be to work properly-yes I have DPLIIx- thanks,bill

Bgordon,

The Dolby diagram suggests measuring by angle and seeing where the angles intersect the back wall.

As an example, if you place the rear speakers at +- 135 deg, and your back wall is 5' behind your listening area, then you would place the left rear speaker 5' to the left of the centerline of the back wall, and place the right rear 5' to the right, both along the back wall. In this example, that would put the rears 10' apart, but the guideline is by angle, not by distance.

The Dolby diagram is a guideline. You may want to do some experimentation before finalizing the mounting. In my own case, the room layout of my home theater provides no flexibility in speaker placement. My rears ended up more like +- 160 deg, but I still get a good spread of rear surround information across the back of the room.

Thanks
Bruce