FXi A4 Height, Placement and one stupid question

Noc1200GS

I just picked up some FXi A4's to replace my "not so perfect for my setup" Monitor 40's. I have a small HT room with Monitor 70's front's and a CS2 center. The couch is up against the back wall so the large monitor 40's i had for the past 2 years were giving way less that optimal sound imaging. Since they were aiming at the TV and the speakers were almost in front of you, if you put your head back on the couch.

So I picked up some FXi A4's to fix the rear surround issue. But I have a few questions since I now have mounting options that I didn't have before. The room is 12.5' wide ( tv wall) X 11.5' deep and 8' high. The couch is 7' wide, leaving about 2.5' on each side of the couch.

I heard to put them at ear height, but then I hear to put them 2' above ear height? Also how far away from the couch should I put em? Maybe center them in that 2.5 foot area of wall between the couch and the other wall?

And now the dumb question. Intuition would tell me to have the woofer side of the FXi A4 aimed TOWARDS the listen/center, but if i read the speaker labels right, the woofer sides of the A4's aim AWAY from the listener/center. Is that right? Im assuming so, since they are labeled and all, but it seem counter intuitive to me. But that coming from a guy who just bought his first set of dipole/biopole surrounds. :cheesygrin:

Thanks in advance for any help/input. :cool:

ravaneli

I have fx500 and i thought the woofer faces the center. I have go recheck now after i read this
Surrounds are mounted higher than ear level, mine are a full foot higher, but my side walls are also much further than yours
They will be much better than the M40s for surrounds. Just put them on the wall on the same line as the couch and a little higher.

May be experiment with a few locations before attach them permanently

tommyt21

Noc1200GS wrote: »

I just picked up some FXi A4's to replace my "not so perfect for my setup" Monitor 40's. I have a small HT room with Monitor 70's front's and a CS2 center. The couch is up against the back wall so the large monitor 40's i had for the past 2 years were giving way less that optimal sound imaging. Since they were aiming at the TV and the speakers were almost in front of you, if you put your head back on the couch.

So I picked up some FXi A4's to fix the rear surround issue. But I have a few questions since I now have mounting options that I didn't have before. The room is 12.5' wide ( tv wall) X 11.5' deep and 8' high. The couch is 7' wide, leaving about 2.5' on each side of the couch.

I heard to put them at ear height, but then I hear to put them 2' above ear height? Also how far away from the couch should I put em? Maybe center them in that 2.5 foot area of wall between the couch and the other wall?

And now the dumb question. Intuition would tell me to have the woofer side of the FXi A4 aimed TOWARDS the listen/center, but if i read the speaker labels right, the woofer sides of the A4's aim AWAY from the listener/center. Is that right? Im assuming so, since they are labeled and all, but it seem counter intuitive to me. But that coming from a guy who just bought his first set of dipole/biopole surrounds. :cheesygrin:

Thanks in advance for any help/input. :cool:

I'm slightly confused Surrounds in a 5.1 are not in the rear position. They should be to the side that may be part of your issue if I understand your setup correctly.

Please take a look at the Dolby 5.1 diagram those M40's should have been mounted 90-110 degrees to the side of the listening position not to the rear on the back wall. Approx tweeter hieght 2 foot above the ear angled toward the listener. Run calibration for distance and channel level. My M40's work great as surrounds.

Devlon

See http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=66471

zane77

The A4's are marked left and right for positiong but you can try them both ways. I would mount them on the side wall not the back wall.

pdxfj

Umm.. you're in a tough situation. Anyway you can move the couch off the back wall a couple of feet?

Ideally side surrounds should be placed 2-3 feet above your head. If you can move the couch a couple of feet forward so it's off the back wall, place the A4's at the height mentioned and slightly behind you. The side with the tweeter and woofer face the front of the room. Make sure the switch on the back is set at di-pole.

If you are unable to move the couch off the back wall, then try placing them on the back wall at either end of the couch, about 2-3 feet up with the woofers facing each other and put the speakers in bi-pole mode.

The A4's need breathing room when used as side surrounds. When in di-pole mode the rear facing tweeter fires out of phase with all the other speakers. This coupled with them placed slightly behind you creates the wider/open rear sound stage. If the rear facing tweeters are pushed into or are too close to a corner it will really mess with the sound quality.

mdaudioguy

tommyt21 wrote: »

I'm slightly confused Surrounds in a 5.1 are not in the rear position. They should be to the side that may be part of your issue if I understand your setup correctly.

"Surround" is the generic term for any speaker that is not in the front. Front speakers are usually referred to as either Front, or Main, L&R, and of course, there's the Center speaker. With 5 channel setups, some refer to the "other" two speakers as Surrounds. They may be either to the side, slightly behind, or behind the listening position, but not really directly behind. With 7 channel or greater, the terminology gets more confusing. Some refer to Side Surrounds and Back Surrounds, while others refer to the speakers on the sides as just plain Surrounds and those in the back as Backs. Really, the distinction is silly. A stereo pair of speakers is always in front of you - everything else surrounds you. Yes, generally, it's recommended that surrounds should be mounted above the listener's ear level. I prefer about 2 to 3 feet above, depending on the distance they are placed from the listener.

Take a look at the articles in the Polk University - particularly these:
http://www.polkaudio.com/polk-university/articles/home-audio-speaker-placement
http://www.polkaudio.com/polk-university/faq/where-do-i-place-the-surround-speakers-in-my-room-for-the-best-performance

mdaudioguy

Btw, the last link specifically mentions rear wall mounting, but as a less-than-ideal solution. Also, check this out:

http://www.polkaudio.com/polk-university/faq/what-is-dipole-and-bipole-and-how-are-they-different

badchad

Would you guys recommend the use of something like an omnimount bracket, just to get the speaker off of the wall a few inches and offer a bit of flexibility in direction/movement.

tommyt21

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Btw, the last link specifically mentions rear wall mounting, but as a less-than-ideal solution. Also, check this out:

http://www.polkaudio.com/polk-university/faq/what-is-dipole-and-bipole-and-how-are-they-different

I understand all of that, I was just pointing out if I understood his layout correctly rear mounting for a monopole speaker was probably less than ideal in his situation. Thanks for the links though thats great info!

cowtrimmer

I use 40's for surrounds that are facing each other 23' apart and they sound pretty good. I used to have them pointed at the listening position and wasn't happy.