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How have you set up your 5.1 speakers?

M

mldeveloper

Member
I would like to pick up some 5.1 speakers vs 2.1 but still haven't figured out where to put the rear channels. As you can guess, my computer is currently in a room with my back facing an open space. Should I put them on the ceiling behind me, or the ground behind my chair(I'm not a big fan of wires running across the floor behind me)? What have you done???
 
Surround speakers in a 5.1 setup do not go behind you as many people think. They are actually supposed to be placed directly left and right of you. In a 6.1/7.1 setup the addtional speaker(s) are called rear surrounds, and they are placed behind the listener.
 
good to know, although I still have a dilema since the side walls are still very far away from my desk, would putting them on the ceiling be my only option here?
 
I just know from setting up my living room system, that you can usually control the volume from each speaker zone. While we were renting, I put the surround speakers on the end of the sofa and turned them way down. Put them on the wall and turn them up. Very little sound actually comes out of those speakers anyway, so as longas they're facing you from the right direction, it should give the desired effect.
 
Just get some cheap stands and run the cables on the floor. When not in use you can move them out of the way.
 
Originally posted by: Pariah
Surround speakers in a 5.1 setup do not go behind you as many people think. They are actually supposed to be placed directly left and right of you. In a 6.1/7.1 setup the addtional speaker(s) are called rear surrounds, and they are placed behind the listener.
Click to expand...

This is correct for 5.1 home theater, but it is worth noting that the speakers should not be pointing right at your ears (you want to get the sound indirectly, as they are for 'surround' effects). However, as mounting speakers directly to the left and right of the listener is often difficult in a home theater, they're usually mounted behind them.

6.1 adds a rear center channel, which does go directly behind the listener. 7.1 removes the rear center, but adds two additional rear surrounds.

home theater speaker placement

However, this placement is NOT correct for computer gaming. In these situations, you want the speakers to be placed as evenly around you as possible -- that is, the 'surround' speakers really *are* "rear" speakers (since the game is calculating true 3D sound on the fly), and should be behind you and to the sides, like this:
 
This is correct for 5.1 home theater, but it is worth noting that the speakers should not be pointing right at your ears (you want to get the sound indirectly, as they are for 'surround' effects). However, as mounting speakers directly to the left and right of the listener is often difficult in a home theater, they're usually mounted behind them.
Click to expand...

From my receiver manual:

Surround speakers should be positioned a foot and a half to three feet higher than your ears and titled (I assume they meant "tilted") downwards.

The picture has them directly right and left, which combined with the above description would imply that they do point right at your ears.

For DVD-Audio they recommend moving the surrounds slightly further back. 100-120 degs from front center rather than 90 degs for a standard THX setup.
 
This is from the page I linked, and matches up with what I've always heard:

Side-mounted surround speakers should be placed high enough so that the drivers do not fire directly at your ears when you're sitting down...
Click to expand...

When you watch a Dolby 5.1 movie, they are supposed to be providing diffuse background effects (as opposed to sound coming from a very precise location, like the front channels), so you shouldn't have them pointing right at you. For DVD-Audio or computer gaming (essentially, anything with true 'surround' sound, where there's actual sound coming out of all the speakers all the time), you do want them pointing directly towards you and placed equidistantly, or you'll get timing issues because the sound from the front speakers will reach you before the sound from the rear ones.
 
For any computer setup, exact speaker placement and angling is not that vital, so I don't see the point in debating a few degrees here or there. It's not going to make much of a difference.
 
Originally posted by: Pariah
For any setup, exact speaker placement and angling is not that vital, so I don't see the point in debating a few degrees here or there. It's not going to make much of a difference.
Click to expand...

Fixed that for ya. 😉
 
Originally posted by: Pariah
Surround speakers in a 5.1 setup do not go behind you as many people think. They are actually supposed to be placed directly left and right of you. In a 6.1/7.1 setup the addtional speaker(s) are called rear surrounds, and they are placed behind the listener.
Click to expand...

My Creative 5.1 speakers specifically instuct them to be placed behind the listener.
 
Front (main)

Front (all)

Left and rear

Right and rear

Burnt CD decoration

As you can see the rear speakers are ghetto-rigged to the sides of the closet with 2 strings of 4-pound test fishing line. Yeah I didn't think it would work for too long either, but it's been doing the job for over a year now.

As with the CD, I just thought it looked cool, and with gullible people I tell them that's what happens to CD-RWs when you rewrite them too much. (It was done with a propane torch).
 
Originally posted by: RussianSoldier
Originally posted by: Pariah
Surround speakers in a 5.1 setup do not go behind you as many people think. They are actually supposed to be placed directly left and right of you. In a 6.1/7.1 setup the addtional speaker(s) are called rear surrounds, and they are placed behind the listener.
Click to expand...

My Creative 5.1 speakers specifically instuct them to be placed behind the listener.
Click to expand...

What set do you own? I just looked through a few of their 5.1 manuals online, and every one that had placement diagrams showed the surround channels to the side as the preferred choice.

Only the DTT3500 had written explanations:

"5 meters of cable is provided with the two remaining Satelliets for more flexibility in rear channel placement. The rear Satellites may be placed in any convenient sites alongside the listener, including sites slightly forward of the listening location. The rear Satellites do not have to be at exactly the same height as the front Satellites.

If you have side walls close to your listening position, excellent placement for the rear Satellites is slightly behind your listening position, slightly above ear level (see Diagram G) [Diagram G shows the speakers directly right and left of the listener, by slightly behind they must mean less than a foot]....Any rear Satellite placement to the left and right side of the listening position will also provice strong directional and surround effects."
 
SBS 560

"Desktop area with rear speakers on bookshelf"

"Benefits of rear speakers....."

"Left rear speaker"

"Right rear speaker"

"Two rear speakers with 4m cables"

Some fine audio quality I may add...
 
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