How to best organize my Polks for 7 channel

tlainhart

I'm looking for a recommendation on speaker placement for my Polk System in a home theater context.

My speakers are LS70 fronts, LSiC for center, 505 subwoofer and LSi7 and LSiFX rear - the question is regarding the rears.

My listening room is 26x12x7.5. I'm restricted to put the TV and mains in the middle of a long wall, with the listening position against the opposing long wall (again in the middle).

Because the listening position is against the wall, I'm assuming that I should put the LSiFXs on that wall as rear surrounds, to get the dispersion effect, and the LSi7s on the side walls as the mid surrounds.

Or would you recommend the other way around? I'm concerned that if I put the LSi7s on the back wall overhead, I would get a good diffusion of surround effects.

Of course I'll do some listening, but I thought that there might be an obvious answer here.

-- Todd

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Denon 3806, LS70, LSi7, LSiC, LSiFX, VPI HP19MkIII, Panasonic DVD-92S

Holydoc

My recommendation, for what it is worth, is to place your sound diffusing speakers (the LSiFX) as your primary surround. The back speakers are usually dedicated to a mono sound stage. In other words the two surround speakers will get different audio signals while the rear receive the same signal. The brain has a hard time placing the exact location of sound coming from behind them and thus the dispersion of the soundstage is not as crucial as from the sides. This is why a 6.1 system can sound as good as a 7.1 if the back speaker is placed far enough away from the listener. However since the brain can localize sound coming from the side fairly easily, it is better to have the FX speakers located there to prevent localization and open the soundstage.

Good Luck,