How about this room?

Silly Rabbit

Attached is a crude sketch of my room. I am looking for the best place to put a set of fxi3's. The main viewing area is pretty much against the wall, with enough room for the curtains to open and close. The back wall is about 13' of windows with light blocking curtains. Angled off the couch is a love seat and a recliner. The main door is in the right hand corner of the room, which makes placement of the right surround difficult. The left wall has a fireplace with tile, so it isn't much better. I've been using two tower speakers about even with the couch pointed towards the center of the room, but the sound is very directional. Thus the reason for changing to the fxi3s. Since my wall placement isn't giving me much to work with, I have also ordered a pair of adjustable speaker stands. My thought is to place the speakers in the spot as where the towers were and adjust to ear level. Which direction should these point? Will I loose the effect of the dipole/bipole with them not against a wall? If so, would it be bad to have them against the back wall sitting on the stands? This doesn't seem favorable do to the curtains. It would seem that they would absorb most of the sound firing towards the inside.
For reference the mains are RT1000p and center is a cs245, TV is 65" Mitsubishi WS. Currenlty no sub, well, I use the powered towers for sub. Any suggestions appreciated.

aaharvel

each speaker is labeled "L" and "R" for "LEFT" and "RIGHT"

From the couch's point of view, place the "L" fx speaker behind your chair and the "R" fx speaker behind the loveseat (on the side walls and where your other speakers were). The 1 woofer from each speaker should face forward towards the front, with the sides that have just 1 tweeter aiming at the rear wall. Consequently this will have the 'null area' of each speaker facing your ears as you sit on the couch.

IF you can hang them- I recommend doing that. If not, don't worry- i don't think it will really make any difference. Just try to get them AT LEAST to ear level- preferably 1-3 feet higher than ear level.

imo surround speakers don't belong on the rear wall unless they're a part of a 7.1 speaker setup.

I recommend the dipole setting in a side surround/5.1 setup and bipole settings for the sides and rear surrounds in a 7.1 setup.

good luck.

mldennison

^ +1

Definately use the side walls and try to get them up above your ear level. You dont necessarily want the rear speakers to "point" at anything, they are more there for diffuse sound so dont worry about trying to angle them at all, just set the back of the speaker against the wall.