Please vote for 1 of the following surround placements

[Hunter69]

Ok, I am building a HT/MP in a surround speaker challenged room. I am almost to the point having to wire for surround placement. I am going to provide 3 diagrams. In all drawings the the seating area should be 4' from the right wall. The challenges I have is a big bay window in the middle of the right wall. A big french door (64"W X 80"H) in the middle of the back wall. This is a big room 25'W X 29' L. My plan is to either buy Sierras or 340's. My application is probably going to 80% to 90% HT/TV 20-10% music. So here are my ideas:

Here is setup 1. This seems like the most ideal setup but would most likely require inceiling surround speakers (due to WAF):

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/SpeakerPlacement1.jpg

The next two I have had to come up with ideas, so if you can give better placement ideas please don't be shy. I have not decided on surrounds yet. I was thinking of Axiom Qs8's but am not sure if it wouldn't be better to go with direct firing speakers due to placement challenges. Looking for suggestions as to a good surround for the distance problems I am having to deal with. My goal in the end is to get the best surround experience, yet keep things aesthetically pleasing. So after that long winded rant, here is Diagram 2 and 3:

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/SpeakerPlacement2.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/SpeakerPlacement3.jpg

The back part of the room is intended as a workout area in case you are wondering why there is so much open space in the back of the room. This is a projector type setup. People will be sitting approximately 13-15' from the screen and approximately 4ft from the right wall. Things are setup this way due to allowing a walkway on the left side of the room.

So to sum up my long winded post:
1. Vote for Surround placement.
2. For this size of room and mainly HT application which speakers 340SE or Sierras?
3. Suggestions for surround speakers? CBM 170, 340SE or CBM170,340SE in the rear with QS8's on the side etc etc. I already have a Rythmik 15" 500 watt vented DIY sub to go with whatever speakers that are needed.

Thanks for any and all suggestions

[bilesteve]

I don't claim to be an expert, but I have a friend that has a home theatre room that is fairly large, not as large as yours, and his set up is like the first, top picture. The other two placements seem to put your rear speakers pretty far away compared to my friend's which sounds great (with Axioms).

My other question is how large is your screen going to be? There are all kinds of rules of thumb about how far to sit, but unless your screen is very large, it strikes me that you would be pretty far from the screen, but then I prefer to sit closer than further away from the screen.

Why not just stick with Ascend speakers?

[Hunter69]

The seating should be in the suggested range. My screen is 120"w X 51"H. It is a 2.35:1 setup. People will sit 13-15 feet away.

[natetg57]

I would go with 'Setup 1'

In regards to the speaker brand I too suggest sticking with Ascend or at least another speaker with soft dome tweeters. I love my Sierra LCR but didn't like the way my Paradigms (metal tweeter) sounded in comparison. If you don't go with Ascend than maybe Aperion or Emotiva. They make in-ceiling speakers.

My suggestion would be four HTM-200's mounted to the ceiling and aimed slightly downwards in the locations of 'setup 1'.

[scape]

2ft from your right channel to the wall is too close in my opinion. have you thought about an angled setup? might also deaden some direct reflections.. just a thought :)

but if i had to vote, pic 3 would be my choice if i had no other choice.. im not even sure pic 2 would work with the surround LR placed like that- my guess is it wouldn't sound good

[Hunter69]

So my room is getting close to being functional and beyond the basic planning stages (I know I know it has taken a long time, but hey what can I say). I am going to provide two more drawing of speaker placement. I am going to purchase Sierras for LCR. I am struggling with the surrounds due to issues with placement and interference because of a big bay window. I have a couple thought about surround speakers.

One drawing is using a Bipole speaker (say Axiom QS8), so direct fire in the rear and bipole on the side. The bipole is to help make up for the sides being to far to the rear of the audience.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/bipolespeakersetup.jpg

The next picture is adding another pair of speakers to the side. Replacing the bipole with direct fire. So having 4 direct fire for side surrounds.

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/inceiling-setup.jpg

I could also plan 4 dipole instead of 4 direct fire. I am interested in hearing opinions.
If you vote for the 4 side surround placement with direct fire speakers, please suggest which ascend speakers I should use for this setup. The speaker location setup as a wall mount around 5ft high. The room ended up around 25' X25' with 8' walls.

[natetg57]

I would recommend HTM-200's for surrounds. They can be hung directly on the wall for a less conspicuous look. 170's would have to be mounted further from the wall but should be capable of producing more sound.

I don't think you will like the sound of Axiom combined with Ascend Sierras.

In the second pic it looks like the side surrounds are too close to the front of the room.

You do not have to use 7 channels but if you do, the side surrounds should be directly to the side of your main listening area.

I still love my direct-radiating surrounds (HTM-200's) more than my old Paradigm Dipoles.

[curtis]

One thing to keep in mind with the Axiom surrounds is the fact that they need a higher crossover. The QS8's -3db point is spec'd at 95hz, so you are going to need to cross the sub to the surrounds above that point.

[Dark Ranger]

So my room is getting close to being functional and beyond the basic planning stages (I know I know it has taken a long time, but hey what can I say). I am going to provide two more drawing of speaker placement. I am going to purchase Sierras for LCR. I am struggling with the surrounds due to issues with placement and interference because of a big bay window. I have a couple thought about surround speakers.

One drawing is using a Bipole speaker (say Axiom QS8), so direct fire in the rear and bipole on the side. The bipole is to help make up for the sides being to far to the rear of the audience.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/bipolespeakersetup.jpg

The next picture is adding another pair of speakers to the side. Replacing the bipole with direct fire. So having 4 direct fire for side surrounds.

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu59/Hunter_69/inceiling-setup.jpg

I could also plan 4 dipole instead of 4 direct fire. I am interested in hearing opinions.
If you vote for the 4 side surround placement with direct fire speakers, please suggest which ascend speakers I should use for this setup. The speaker location setup as a wall mount around 5ft high. The room ended up around 25' X25' with 8' walls.

Hi Hunter,

For placement options, I'd suggest image #1. I don't think a second pair of side surrounds is necessary unless you plan to expand the seating capacity with another couch or two in front of the current couch.

Forgive me if you've seen this already, but Dolby (http://www.dolby.com/us/en/consumer/setup/connection-guide/home-theater-speaker-guide/select-config-7-1.html) offers an interactive guideline on speaker placement. This might help with fine-tuning.

With that said, I'd strongly recommend against the dipole option. Stick with direct-radiating (there's a reason Ascend doesn't offer dipoles ;)). For surround speakers, either the 170s or 200s should work. The 200s are smaller, sealed, and (arguably) a bit easier to mount.

[Mag_Neato]

Just a little factoid:

The Axiom QS-8 is neither a Di-pole or Bi-pole speaker. It is, in fact, a Quad-polar speaker. All the drivers are wired in phase. There is a midwoofer on the top and bottom, and a tweeter on each of the angled front baffles. I had them with my original Sierra-1's. They sounded good, but not perfect together.

[Hunter69]

So there are a few factors to this situation.

1. A huge bay window is in the place where I would place the side surround.
2. I figured on wall placement (even if its not perfect) is better than in ceiling.
3. The WAF does not approve mounting the speakers just hanging from the ceiling. WAF is mount inceiling or on the wall.
4. 5.1 is not acceptable.

Thanks for all the assistance.