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Question

How can I best position my 5.1 Surround speakers?

by May 17, 2015 7:16PM PDT

I have a subwoofer (built in amp), center speaker, two rear speakers and, two front speakers. The monitor is about four feet away from me and the farthest I could get the right front speaker was 3.7 ft, left front 4.5 ft, center 3, and both of the rear speakers are at 7.5 ft away that's as good as I could get. How good Is that for a surround sound setup? If they are way closer than they should be I could make major modifications. It's a very cramped room and these speakers are not designed for a computer. I also don't know how to use the Realtek HD 'Room Coorection' option. I would appreciate any help on that matter as well.

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2 Posts
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Answer
You basically make do with the space you have
by May 18, 2015 2:05AM PDT

If the room is smallish, there's obviously not much in the way of superior separation that you could enjoy between front right/left/center speakers. Ditto for the rears/sub. It's going to vary wildly, and require a lot of patience/experimentation on your part. Set if up, fire up some music/movies and tear it down again multiple times until you like what you hear.

I would start by using the Dolby Labs 5.1 rough guide to optimize room setups for 5.1, and modify for your small space. Since you don't bother mention a lick of hardware info either (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), the realtek HD room correction option is a moot point.

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Answer
Get Away....
by May 24, 2015 3:07PM PDT

In my experience the best thing you can do for sound quality is get your speakers as much distance from the walls as they need to breath. You will instantly notice how far.
For separation? Sure there are a lot of controls on higher end components but there's nothing better than trial and error as every environment will have a different acoustic resonance. Just twisting the speaker 5-10 degrees can improve or kill separation.
And every room will have a sweet spot where the sound will be best.

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