Surround speaker distances… help needed please….

[Bahtman]

I know the recommended placement is 90-120 degrees, but what about the optimum distance between them?

I’ve looked and looked and all I could find was…”They should be raised to a height of approximately six feet and should ideally have a minimum space of six feet between them, as well.”

I have two options available to me and would like some opinions.

1.I can locate the left surround at only about 80 degrees and 15 ft. from the mlp and the right side at the recommended 90-120 at about 13 ft. from the mlp.

2.I can increase the size of the area rug and get both at the 90-120 degree mark but then they’d only be about 6.5 ft. each from the mlp.

Getting a rug that big would allow me to run the wires from the AVR under it and to their locations L and R of the mlp but at an added cost of about $1000.00. (Rugs are costly here in Thailand and I’d be combining three to get the size I need.)

Additionally, given these parameters, would monopole or bi-pole work the best given your recommendation of 1 or 2? (Thai's are recommending bi-pole but from what I've read, direct radiating works best in large rooms. And it’s a large room, 22’ front to back and 35 ft. left to right.

I’ve got either Focal 926’s or KEF Q 900’s in mind using a Denon X4100W and Martin Logan Dynamo 1500 sub using a 5.1 setup.

Surrounds to be determined based on opinions.

I know the Audyssey MultEQ XT32 calibration will help in whatever location I select, but what would be your choice?

Thanks in advance

 

[Duke]

I would go with the 80 degree location and count myself a thousand dollars richer. I'd go with monopoles, positioned as close to the ceiling as you reasonably can, each one aimed at the farthest listening position on the opposite side of the room. The idea is to best serve listeners who are well off the centerline (listeners near the centerline will be just fine) by a) keeping the nearest surround speaker from being too close/too loud and drawing attention to itself; and b) making sure the farthest surround speaker is still easy to hear. Along these lines, you want to make sure you have enough time delay cranked in for the surrounds so that, even for the listener in the worst location, the first-arrival sound will be from the mains.

According to Toole, for multi-channel music, 60 degrees is arguably just about ideal for the surrounds, so I think you're safe with 80 degrees.