Best speaker positioning? - photos attached

Where is the best position to install my rear bookshelf speakers?

  • Side walls

  • Rear walls


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BN1980

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I just purchased my first home. The TV position is limited to a small corner of the home. I have 2 floor standing speakers which unfortunately have to go right next to the tv. (Centre speaker as well).

The couch (and rear wall) is long and being in the centre of the couch is not directly in front of the TV. My favourite seat on the couch is actually the far left side.

I have 2 bookshelf speakers to install for rear surrounds.

My question is - where would be the best position to install the rear bookshelf speakers.

Up high on each side wall? (There is a small wall that comes out on the left hand side of couch).

Low on each side wall?

Or

On the rear wall close to the corners/side walls?

A basic floorplan with my TV marked is below



Screenshot_20220515-212335.png
the rear wall
PXL_20220515_132443349.jpg
the front wall
 

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  • PXL_20220515_132430598.jpg
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I would put them 1.8m high in the rear corners (where the side walls meet the rear walls) on adjustable corner brackets. This will create diffuse indirect sound off the rear walls, side walls and the ceiling. To maximise width, the plate of the bracket would be screwed to the side wall.
 
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Great response thank you.
I can't find corner wall mounts, but I assume mounting them on the rear wall as close as I can to the side wall will suffice.
 
Sure, I would angle them at 45 degrees across the room but on a horizontal plane i.e. not aimed down to the listeners. This will create more indirect sound which is what you want from nearfield surrounds to reduce localisation.
 
I just noticed your centre speaker is in a very bad position for sound. Much better to mount the TV higher up on the wall and get the centre speaker on a short stand (or wall bracket) so it’s closer to ear level and the height of the L/R speakers’ drivers. You would be truly staggered by how much dialogue clarity will improve if you do this. It will also cause the trim level to need to be reduced which will pull less power from the AVR and give you more dynamic headroom.
 
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You're right. I do plan to mount the TV and raise the centre speaker to be just under the TV.

Would it be better above the TV?
 
I would put it below. The ideal height for the speaker is ear level but that would probably put your TV higher up than you’d like. In my living room system my compromise was to mount the TV so that my eyes are just above the bottom edge of the screen and the centre speaker is just below it.
 
If you have the option to experiment before you settle on final positions that would be good.

Front LR or LCR - try with and without the Centre Speaker, no Centre can work very well when you are sat straight on to the front LR speakers and is better than a badly placed Centre..

The drawback with wall mounting the Centre (below the TV is better than above) is you would then be tempted to push the Front LR back into the 'alcove' to keep the three speakers in a line and pushing them into the alcove is never going to be a great option.

Front LR or LCR - ensure the left hand speaker is slightly out from the corner of the wall and try 'tilting' the Front LR and TV slightly across the corner and try and give the right hand speaker some space from the right hand wall, keep in mind Loudspeakers radiate sound in all directions and you are mostly listening to reflected sound so having the right hand speaker up against the wall is going to produce all sorts of unwanted reflections.

If you have a Sub you could also try using the 'surrounds' as the Front LR speakers, with it being such a tight space you may find that combination works better than the Floor standing speakers (with Sub?).

Surrounds - if you do decide to go with surrounds one less conventional option is to point them at your wall or ceiling and ensure you cannot localise the sound.

Joe
 

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