Hear wall-mounted speakers through wall?

Overkill

Greetings,
My first post here. I did try to search for this topic, but didn't have any luck. If you know of a thread that covers it, please point me in the right direction

I'm trying to figure out what speakers to get for a 5.1 HT system that will be about 85% TV/movies, 14% music, 1% gaming. For space reasons, I'm tempted to get wall mount front speakers, but the wall is shared with my next door neighbor (condos) and they're not particularly well insulated when it comes to sound. Should I avoid wall-mounted speakers so as to avoid annoying them? I can't make a ton of noise here due to the neighbors, but I want a decent sounding system.

thanks!
Dennis

SEH

I would put the speakers where they sound best, which is probably not on the wall. I don't think it will effect your neighbors one way or the other though.

If you're worried about your neighbors, go 5.0. The sub is definitely going to annoy them a lot more than where you mount small speakers. It doesn't matter how careful you are with the volume, the lows go right through walls like they're not even there. Nothing you can do about it, except not play low frequencies.

Overkill

Yeah, I'm very familiar with the bass issue, having problems with 3 different neighbors' subs... I already have a sub but I keep it relatively low and have asked my nearest neighbors to let me know if it ever bothers them. I just didn't know if mounting a mid-tweet combo directly to a wall would cause trouble in any different way.

I'm curious, though: everything I've read about floor-standing speakers says to avoid setting them near walls because it reduces the sound quality. Do wall-mounted speakers sound poorer by default because of this?

manman

I think for most people, unless money is not so much an object and you can afford a house with huge rooms, then you just gotta work with what you have. Most pictures of home theater set-ups I've seen (and mine as well) have front towers near a wall. It's probably doesn't give you the most ideal sound stage, but I would guess it sounds better than smaller wall mounted mains. It's probably best to set the backs of them away from the wall as much as you can without making it look weird or making the wife/gf andgry though

Also, I would think that kind of thing is probably more of an issue for people who are trying to get that perfect music listening experience, not so much with watching movies and TV. I'm definitely no expert on the subject, but I have my rti a5 mains near a wall (not right up against it though), and my movie watching experience is still great. My listening habits are pretty much the same as yours 85% movies/tv, the rest music.