Right surround speakers for your setup

Just a few words on the surround speaker height:

I previously placed my side surround speakers on a shelf, about 2m above the floor at the side of my seat. This proved to be highly unsatisfactory, as the sound traveled across the room and not to my ears. Audssey tried to compensate by turning up the level on my left side much higher but the surround effect was not enveloping.

So I got rid of the shelf and instead replaced my PSB bipole with the MA RXFX, and used screws which were on the wall directly to place the speakers on the side wall, with some dampener behind it. The speaker was now about 1.8m above my floor, and I used it in dipole mode, since I was in the null area of the speaker.

The other thing was that this speaker had two tweeters facing outwards, which helped the transfer of the sound from the front to rear and vice versa, which made the sound transitions from back to front and vice versa far more convincing.

This doesn't mean you should rush out to buy this, and I know Edward dislikes such surrounds, preferring a direct radiating speaker like the Radius series, but I felt that the RXFX did an excellent job in my HT setup.

YMMV.

PS: the ideal height is about 1.5-1.8m high but many place their surrounds near the ceiling, and also in the ceiling itself. This may be an aesthetic compromise, but see where your fronts and rear backs are, and you can imagine how well they will integrate if all the three sets of speakers are at such different heights.

Also I found that the Front Height speakers in a 11 channel Audyssey setup help in this transition of sound and elevate the sound from the fronts as the sound goes backwards and forwards.



I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.