Help with surround options; sofa up against rear wall

[michollock]

Hi All,

I am moving at the end of the month and will be setting up my first Ascend system in my new living room. The room is 13 feet by 12 feet so my sofa is going to have be all the up against the rear wall. I am going to run a front sound stage consisting of three Sierras. I need help choosing which speaker to use for surround and where to place them. In my current system I have a similar room set up and have dipoles on the back wall that seem to perform very well. Since Ascend does not offer dipoles I am going to be new to using monopole speakers in a surround application. I know ideal is to mount on the side wall behind the listener about three feet above ear level. Since this is not an option what is the next best solution?

Thank you all in advance! I am very excited to be a member of the community!

Michael

[bdfin]

First off welcome. I'm in a room of similar size with a Sierra LCR front stage now, but have other bookshelfs for surround in the back corners. The room is somewhat small already, but if you had a bookself or wall shelves at least a foot out from the wall ,before the couch , to move it just off the wall some, and mounted your surrounds as much in the corners as possible, a little higher than normal with a downward tilt, that may have to do it. If you haven't listened to the sierras yet you will enjoy that enough to just mess around with the back until it gives you the best sound to your ears, in the space you have to work with. You'll be able to make it sound good, might not be perfect but.......good.

[michollock]

Yes I am very excited to hear the Sierras for the first time! I wonder if I am better off keeping my dipoles for surround duty vs another ascend monopole due to the room layout? The surrounds I have now are the Definitive Tech BP1.2X Bipolar Surround Speaker. Does anyone know how well these will match up with the Sierras?

[curtis]

Yes I am very excited to hear the Sierras for the first time! I wonder if I am better off keeping my dipoles for surround duty vs another ascend monopole due to the room layout? The surrounds I have now are the Definitive Tech BP1.2X Bipolar Surround Speaker. Does anyone know how well these will match up with the Sierras?
Just try them out first...if the DT's are to your liking, then keep them, otherwise, get the HTM-200SE's.

Or...compare.

[Mike^S]

I would highly recommend moving the couch away from the wall. Bass will sound to strong and boomy when you're that close to the wall. If you can move the couch away from the wall even just 1 foot, it will make a big difference.

[michollock]

Thanks for advice everyone. The room is just too small to move the sofa off the wall. The wife is not going for it. So if I go with the 200s where should I mount them? On the side wall as far back pointing down? A couple feet off the side walls pointing back? On the back walls pointing down? Maybe in the corners?

Thank you again for all the help!!

[davef]

Thanks for advice everyone. The room is just too small to move the sofa off the wall. The wife is not going for it. So if I go with the 200s where should I mount them? On the side wall as far back pointing down? A couple feet off the side walls pointing back? On the back walls pointing down? Maybe in the corners?

Thank you again for all the help!!

Happy to offer assistance!

Generally speaking, in this situation placing the speakers directly to the sides of the couch, about 1 to 2 feet higher than ear-level and aiming them directly at the listener is recommended.

Would it be possible to post a picture or layout of the rear or the room? This would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance :)