How high should my surround speakers be?

HTguru1982

I have used floorstanders or large bookshelf speakers as my surrounds for a while now. Recently I decided to go with something smaller that I could mount on the wall. With a hyperactive 6 year old running around, it only makes sense. So I purchased some RT25i's off Ebay. I had them mounted on the wall 6 feet behind the listening position, about 3.5 feet above ear level and 8 feet apart. But I had a hard time hearing anything from them. I'm not sure if they're too high or too far apart or what. I took them off the wall and back on stands. The tweeters are now about half a foot below the listening position. But they sound better in this position than they did on the wall but that's defeating the purpose of why I bought them. Should I maybe mount them lower and closer together? Room is about 16ft in length and 12 ft wide.

Thanks

rpf65

I have mine mounted with the tweeter about 6 feet above the floor, and angled downward about 5 degrees. I have 2 recliners about 6 feet from the wall, so the tweeters are firing over them. The are about 3 feet apart, which centers them on each recliner. Seems to work pretty well

mantis

6 feet or 72 inches to the tweeter of a surround speaker is an ideal height. I use this measurement in all my surround and theater spec's. Higher and I find the effect gets slightly lost. Lower feels like the surrounds are in your face or not completing the surround effect correctly. I have experimented in many different rooms over the years and 72 inches works in every single room.

Surround speakers are supposed to be to the sides of you to maybe slightly behind you off to the sides. When you have to place the surrounds anywhere else , it's a compromise.
I also prefer direct firing over any dipolar or bipolar design unless you need them in a place where direct firing simply don't work out. Then the Dipolar or bipolar designs really helps with some bad placement.
Just so you know dipolar and bipolar speakers where never designed for dolby digital and newer surround formats. They where designed for Dolby pro logic.

HTguru1982

Thanks guys. I now have them mounted 5 feet up and about 5 feet apart. Because there's a walkway that leads to a lower level in the back of the room, this is about the best I can do. I really wish I could mount them on side walls but unfortunately the right side of the room opens up into the kitchen so that's out. Maybe I'm just really used to larger surround speakers which would explain why I'm not getting the envelopment that I'm accustomed to. I'll keep playing around with these but I'm thinking I may need something larger.

SDA1C

I would get them as High as I could but in the Midwest it is getting more difficult to accomplish that task.

BlueFox

SDA1C wrote: »

I would get them as High as I could but in the Midwest it is getting more difficult to accomplish that task.

Move them a little further west into Colorado. That should help.