7.1 Side Surrounds with Two Rows of Seating?

What's recommended in a 7.1 setup in terms of side-surround placement when you have two rows of seating? (I plan to buy CBM-340 L/R/C and HTM-200 surrounds...I have a pair of STF-2 subs). My listening space is about 10' x 18' (yes, it's narrow with walls pretty much immediately bounding the sides of the seating).

As I understand it, the sides go directly to the left and right of the "sweet spot."

So what do I do:

(a) Sides placed in line with the 1st row (1st row sweet spot)

(b) Sides placed in line with the 2nd row (2nd row sweet spot)

(c) Sides places in between the rows (shared no-man's land sweet spot)

(d) Two sets of side surrounds, one for each row


(a) and (b) seem like it's always going to be somewhat lousy for someone, though (b) seems to make more sense since it'd be better if someone got stuck with the sides a bit behind them rather than in front!

(c) sounds like it's always going to be lousy for everyone.

(d) sounds overly complex and expensive for my small (and narrow) 10' x 18' listening space (which also makes it temptingly nerdy and eccentric). :eek:

So what do people generally do with this? Mounted high enough, I guess (b) is what you'd generally do, yes? Any other advice on what'll sound good? Thanks!

I'd call Ascend and ask them. My thought is option C with 200s mounted high. But I don't know if the two drivers on the 200 have any better dispersion than the 170 does.

D is likely a bad choice as you'd likely get combing effect. That is the same signal arriving just far enough apart to muddy or smear the sound.

I think I would set up the side surrounds to best accomodate the "primary" sweetspot...the one where you/others tend to sit the most. If you regularly fill up both rows of seating then I would choose "C".

Randy

Well Sami - you're saying 7.1 - which to me means two at the rear as well? If so, I'd go with option B. Yes, the second row would be the 'sweet spot', but I think it would sound better for everyone in both rows, and since you have sound coming from behind anyway, I really don't think the sides being slightly back from the first row would be as bad as it would be for the second row seaters if the speakers were even with row one .

Putting the speakers in the middle (option C) would make little difference to the first row than B would, but would leave row two worse off.

I'm building a new house, and am planning my new and dedicated home theatre myself right now. Still not sure if I'm going with two or three rows (but I have lots of time for that), but already I'm leaning towards having the side speakers high and in line with the last row, angled ever so slightly towards the front of the room (plan on CBM 170's for the sides).

Thanks for all the advice guys! Seems like most are in agreement with my own guess that putting the sides in line with the 2nd row makes the most sense, since "a little behind you" is less non-optimal than "someplace in front of you" in any seating position.

I'll play around with it a bit when I actually get them, but I'll plan for them to wind up in the 2nd row location.

I still wish Ascend would make a side-surround dipole. They'd be more forgiving of my type of positioning problem...and much more suited to my very narrow room. I'm still worried that someone's going to be much too close to a side speaker. Hopefully mounting them high enough, aiming them properly, and balancing their output will disperse the sound sufficiently so as not to be an overly-localizable distraction.