I'm not really sure where is the best placement for these, anyone have any advice? The TV is directly in front of the recliner on the right. I was planning to the put the left speaker just above that plant...but not sure about the other one. Is it better to put it on that wall, leaving one speaker right next to the right recliner? Or would it be better to run the other speaker over to the other side of the doorway?

 

Other side, next to the edge of the counter near the outlet.

 

I vote the other side of the doorway. If your receiver can compensate for rear speaker placement (i.e. volume & delay) then it shouldn't matter.

 

OK, other side of the doorway it is. That does make more sense. and yeah, my receiver can compensate for the placement so no worries there. If I put it up high, near that shelf thing, would that work? I guess if the delay is set it doesn't really matter right?

 

Depends on how sophisticated the receiver is, but yeah it should work just fine.

 

Its a middle of the line 2006 Harman Kardon. I've got the little microphone thing to autoset speaker placement.

Thanks for the advice.

 

Are you planning on hiding the wires or just run them along the floorboard/ceiling/wall area? What type of rear speaker system are they? Did you buy them separate or part of a speaker system set? I think it could also depend on the "look" of speakers as well.

 

I ran the wires under the edge of the carpet along the wall, then up the wall and covered them with some white plastic stuff. They are cheapo JBL speakers, nothing fancy.

Ended up looking like this.

 

My wife would beat my ass within an inch of my life if I ever ran wires on the wall like that.

I would have put them on stands on either sides of the recliners.

 

Haha...well fortunately for both of us, she don't live here. Any chick that ends up over here is usually so drunk she couldn't care less about my wiring

Stands are cool if you have room, I don't. I'd have to put them an inch away from each chair. They would be in the way, and the sound would be all messed up with one rear channel right in your ear.

I had stands at my last place when I had a huge tv room... sold them when I moved to this apt.

 

cool. So how does it sound? That is the most important part. I think it can be tough to try to hide the wires without using the shell that you have and I do not think that you want to drill into the wall to run them through either.

 

Yeah... I was not in the mood for drilling or cutting drywall. Its my home for one year, not really worth it to make messes I'll need to fix later.

It sounds great. Speakers are far enough away that you can't tell where the sound is actually coming from, just that it is behind.

 

That actually looks pretty good. My rear speakers are only 3 feet apart due to the layout of my room.

By the way, I think your pup is an attention whore.

 

In the olden days (Dolby Surround, Dolby Pro Logic), the rears were supposed to be back behind your head. But with 5.1, 6.1 (which I have), they generally want the "left rear" and "right rear" surrounds actually about even with where you're sitting, if not a bit forward. I can't do this in my home, but I can hear the difference between pre-BATMAN RETURNS (the first Dolby Digital movie) and later DD 5.1 sound tracks. (In fact, in "new remixes" of older soundtracks, I often prefer the Dolby 2-track mixes better, since my amp does Dolby PL, Dolby PL II, just fine.)

So looking at your left side, I'd say you could put one up on that shelf thingie ... and the other across from it on your right.

More installation woes, but then if you're trying to get REALLY good home theater sound, worth it.