Hi all,

I am relocating my home theatre to the basement as it is a much larger space. The dimensions are 17.5' across and 24' deep with 8' ceilings. I am setting the room up long-ways with a 2 seat couch at about 15' from the screen and a 3 seat couch behind it that will likely get raised on a platform in the future. I am using 2 sets of Energy Veritas 2.0r speaker's for the rear powered by a Denon 3802 receiver, the sides I am planing to put straight inline with the couch at 6' to the top of the speaker. The rears are where I need help. I been reading on the subject and opinion seems to vary on the placement of these speakers. I have read to put them close together, far apart, the same height as the sides, and also up higher pointed down. I use my system for movies and music, including sacd and dvd-a playback. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Anyone? I would really like to get some of this done this weekend, someone out there must be able to give me some info. Thanks

When you say 2 pairs of rears do you mean Sides and Rears or are you actually using 2 pairs for rear speakers???

You wont get many responses on this type of a question because it is nearly impossible to correctly recommend speaker placement without seeing the room first hand. What are the accoustic properties of the room? Carpet? Hardwood? Pad under the carpet? Lots of Furniture? Leather? etc etc etc... How but windows?

The questions go on and on....

And when it comes down to it... Its Your room, and Your system. The Denon/Veritas combo is a great setup, and fact of the matter is that no matter where you place the speakers, then denopn will digitally compensate for the different placement options.



My General opinions..............

Sides should be a Di or Tri-Polar design and placed between ear level and 6' off the floor. Rear should be direct firing and close together center behind the prime seating location. Its a Mono Signal and getting them them too far apart can cloud the steering of the system.

We normally stick with a single rear channel surround speaker unless we are using THX Ultra 7.1 processing (or similar true 7.1 channel mode like 7 Logic). The reason is that if you have two speakers playing the exact same signal, you get frequency responce problems, i.e. notch filtering.

I would put the side speakers 6' high and slightly behind the main row of seats (good for DVD-A & SACD) and a single rear speaker 6' high and in the center of the rear wall. The rear center would not be active for DVD-A and SACD.

I would prewire for 7.1 in case you upgrade to a THX Ultra processor. If your surround speakers have smoother frequence responce on axis then you could angle them down a bit.

Good Luck!

Impaqt:

Sorry I do mean sides and rears. Just for the record the room is carpeted with pad, leather seating and 2 small windows mounted on the rear wall very high up. I have found a picture [Link: dolby.com] Figure 2 A. Would you go by this? Would you match the height of the rears to the same as the sides?

DDeca,

I would have to think a reciever upgrade is bound to happen sometime in the future. I would prefer to set up for this now, I already have the speakers anyway so I don't plan to do 6.1

One other thing I forgot to ask is on the actual speaker mounting. The mounting for these speakers take 4 screws in a square format. You place the speakers over the screws then slide it down into place. The speakers are heavy so I was thinking to cut 4" x 5" square out of the sheetrock over a stud, then screw in a nice piece of plywood to fill the hole. This would give me a sturdy mount for all 4 screws, plus easy access for wire fishing. Do you guys have any thoughts of this or other idea's?

I understand this is tough not being here. Thanks

Straddling one stud/joist with a 4x5 plywood piece sounds wobbly to me. If I was worried about the speakers hitting the ground I would cut enough sheetrock for the plywood to reach another stud. Install plywood the thickness of the sheetrock, mud, texture and paint.

I still think it's a little strange to have more back speakers than front, but I too would put in both rear speakers.