what to use for surrounds

[jslinger]

I am planning on a 7.1 system and only have room for 4" tall rear surround speakers. I currently have a pair of orb mod1's I was going to use and add another pair for the side surround speakers.
However, my side speakers will be placed around 7.5' high but the walls they will be on are only around 2 ft away from the listeners ears. My thinking is that I should buy something like some nanosats that don't fire as directly since they are so close. But if I do this, should I buy some mirage mx satellites as rear surrounds, or can I still use the orbs?
Sorry if this is confusing. Any help would be appreciated.
The room is 10'W x 21'L x 7.5'H. 1st couch will be 10' from front speakers.

[Dark Ranger]

Hi jslinger,

I have no experience with "multi-pole" and reflection-based speaker systems, but I'll toss in my two cents anyway.

The majority of films today are mixed and mastered using discrete channels for effects, music, and dialog. Along with that, the mixing engineer typically will use direct-radiating speakers allowing him or her to place an effect precisely where intended. When we play back the movie on a home system, traditional direct-radiating speakers will offer us the same soundstage crafted by the engineer in the mixing room. With diffused/reflecting speakers, the soundstage will always be "blurry" and lose the precision and clarity intended for that specific film.

While you may not have the optimal surround configuration, I still think you'll be better off using the orbs. If I were in your shoes, here's what I'd do:

Mount the orbs on the side walls, aiming downward towards the couch. Movie theaters typically mount the surrounds high above the seating area, so it's not like you're into uncharted territory here. Place your back surrounds (Orbs or whatever) behind the couch as best you can. If you can create a bit of distance between the surround back channels and the couch, even better.

After the mounting is done, run your receiver's room correction software (if applicable). Even though the side surround channels are so close, you can reduce the level so that it's a more natural soundstage. If your receiver does not have room correction, you can manually reduce the level for those side surrounds.

Actually, I did a similar thing at my parent's house. I could not mount the side surrounds in an optimal location, due to furniture arrangement and "WAF", so the side surrounds are only like a foot away from the far left/right seats on the couch. However, turning down the volume on those channels made everything blend much better without blowing their ears off. They are very happy with the results.

[jslinger]

That is what I figured. Thanks for the input. I am new here, and so far this place is great.