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Where to place rear speakers

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mpullan

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Where to place rear speakers

PostWed Dec 21, 2022 4:38 pm

I'm after some advice about where to position rear speakers in a home environment. I am keen to mount them on the wall at the back of the room somewhere and I've heard conflicting advice. One person has said the speakers should be about or just above ear height, and another has suggested mounting them high up in the corners of the room directed down.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. The two rear speakers are Behringer Truth B2030A (i.e. the smaller version of the B2031A, which are my front two speakers).
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marcus.reeves

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Re: Where to place rear speakers

PostWed Dec 21, 2022 5:03 pm

The facetious answer is, of course, behind you… :lol: I bought a pair of 1030As to add as rear speakers last year. They were mounted on desktop stands on a desk behind the organ so they ended up roughly at head height. However, they weren’t great, maybe the choice of speaker was wrong. I swapped them out for an old pair of floor standing Mission speakers wired up to a NAD amp. These aren’t at head height but do a much better job so I’m not sure how important the position is relative to your ears. For me, it was more about being able to hear the speakers at a decent level given the distance from the listening point versus the front facing monitors. I’ve now moved the 1030As to join a pair of 2031As in a single group facing me (along with the Mission speakers behind me) and I’m very happy with the sound. Just a subwoofer to add now…
Best wishes,
Marcus
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mnailor

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Re: Where to place rear speakers

PostWed Dec 21, 2022 5:16 pm

The head height or just above thing has to be adjusted based on how wide and tall the tweeter's dispersion area is, and how far away the speaker is intended to operate. I have T7Vs behind me about 6 - 7 ft up the wall and 8 - 10 ft distant, and some RP10s behind me on the floor under the grand piano, and both are clear enough to use for front ranks, though I use them as rear mostly. Try positions until you like it!
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josq

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Re: Where to place rear speakers

PostWed Dec 21, 2022 5:57 pm

Common advice for 4-channel surround:

If your listening position is at the center of a clock-face:
* put the front speakers on top of the11 and 1
* put the rear speakers on top of the 8 and 4

So the rear speakers should be almost side speakers. In my experience, this gives a better sense of envelopment.

Front speakers should be at or slightly above ear height. I'm not sure about the effect of vertical positioning of the rear speakers. 6-8 channel surround might be required to cover the height dimension. I have no experience with that.
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mpullan

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Re: Where to place rear speakers

PostTue Jan 03, 2023 4:14 pm

Thanks for the advice everyone!

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