Rears in a 7.1 setup?

Glowrdr

So I wonder how many people made this mistake:

Guy goes online, buys (2) M70's. Guy needs surround, buys (2) M40's. What's that you say? M40's come in a pair? Hmmmm. Oops.

Not all is lost though, just gave myself a bonus. I've been running 5.1 on my 7.1 HK for years, just never had a feasible way to run true rears.

For those of you running "true" rears in a 7.1 setup, how did you manage? Attic/Floor aren't an option (at least not after I added 18" of insulation this summer)

I guess I could use 350 feet of speaker cable to go over every window, door and dog that is in the way - but that seems a waste. Thought about wireless.... for about 2 seconds. I've seen the flat speaker wire that you just paint over, but that would damn near cost more than the speakers themselves. So what are my options?

P.S. - I love these Polk forums. Remind me a lot of the Acurazine forums I used to frequent before I sold my TL. Lots of helpful people, overly entheusiastic about spending money on stuff that doesn't matter. lol My kind of peeps!

kuntasensei

I ran the wire through the attic and did wall plates... which I guess is no help to you whatsoever.

ken brydson

Tucking under the baseboard molding worked for me...

kuntasensei

My side surrounds are actually run with white wire stapled around the door frames and shoved under the baseboard molding, because there was no way to do runs in the attic for them. No one sees it unless I point it out.

I guess the question we should be asking is: How close would you be mounting rear surrounds to your seating area? Because depending on the layout of your room, it may be better to stick to 5.1. Of course, I'm saying that... but I run rears mounted about 1ft from my couch, hanging upside down from wall mounts so the tweeters aim angled down at the back of the couch.

Glowrdr

My living room is a paltry 10x20. It's a 4-level split, so I've got the long outside wall, all window and a door. Then I have to 2 short walls, no windows. The other long wall is kitchen opening, loveseat, dining room opening.

TV at far end, fronts next to it. My current rears are just to the edge of each couch/LS (probably a foot from your head?)

I'm looking at putting the speakers above some bookshelves that I've purposed for CD/DVD storage (gotta love Ikea for that).

So... to answer the question - The "new" rears would be about 3-4 feet behind the listeners. My current rears would stay in the same position, but basically be called sides instead of rears. Probably not ideal, but I guess I'll be happy I have a house to put them in to begin with. lol :redface:

kuntasensei

As long as you can get 'em 3-4 feet behind you, that ought to give you enough dispersion to work nicely. However, I would try to move the side surrounds so they're directly to the sides if you can.