5.1 with sofa against rear wall?

[tenohfive]

I've had my heart set on a 5.1 or possibly 5.1.2 setup for awhile now, basing AVR and speaker choices upon that. But I'm now not sure if I'm going to be able to make it work.

The rough sketch below lays out the issue - the sofa is against the back wall which makes the surround placement tricky. Dolby recommend 110-120 degrees from the surrounds to the MLP, but with listeners heads being maybe 18 inches max from the wall that's not going to happen.

Has anyone had any success putting the surrounds at around the 90 degree mark, toed in?
If so - how should I be considering doing this, on speaker stands or wall mounts?

The speakers I'm planning to use are Monitor Audio Bronze 1's - I'm currently running them in a 2.0 setup and being bookshelves I suspect they'll be okay with being wall mounted. But if there is something more suitable, as long as they're fairly compatible I'm open to keeping the B1's as fronts and using something else as rears. The TV is a Sony KD65XE9305, so moving closer isn't much of an option - by the time I've added a Centre (even wall mounted) I can see clearance being tight, and it's going to be strange being so close to the TV in any event.

[Howard-]

Put the rear speakers either side of the sofa, as far back as you can get away with (if at all), facing in toward the sofa.

It's an arrangement I've had in my lounge "home cinema" for a couple of years now, and it works well and gives an excellent surround effect. I've been occasionally inching the sofa forward a little bit, subtly enough that my other half doesn't notice so it's not actually against the wall.

[B17NNS]

Mine's the same. Either side of the sofa toed in towards the listener slightly.

Set up with Audyssey. Surround sounds good to my ears.

[tenohfive]

Cool, sounds sensible. I thought plenty of people did just this but a poster on another forum got me doubting myself. Although I'd imagine the angle will be deeper if closer to the sofa then a good ways back?

Any thoughts on Bronze 1's vs. Bronze FX's?

Edited by tenohfive on Thursday 21st June 18:54

[Tony Starks]

I'm in a similar boat to you, but going between the SVS recommendations and Dolby, I got to this.





I don't think 7.1 would work well in my room. But 5.1.2 should be sweet.

Edited by Tony Starks on Friday 22 June 06:44

Edited by Tony Starks on Friday 22 June 06:45

[Howard-]

tenohfive said:

Cool, sounds sensible. I thought plenty of people did just this but a poster on another forum got me doubting myself. Although I'd imagine the angle will be deeper if closer to the sofa then a good ways back?

Any thoughts on Bronze 1's vs. Bronze FX's?

Edited by tenohfive on Thursday 21st June 18:54

Go for the Bronze 1. Direct-radiating speakers are generally recommended over di/bipoles for rear duties nowadays, especially if Atmos is likely to be made use of.

[Fonzey]

The recommended angle for the surround speakers is between 90 and 110 degrees, so you can have them right next to you if needed - but I'd recommend getting them a bit higher than listening level if you can.

I had mine at 90degrees at my old house and it was absolutely fine, since moving I'm able to pull my sofa about a foot from the back wall so that's just enough for me to get a bit of angle on them behind, hopefully will be able to test next week when the sofa arrives!

[thebraketester]

Is there no scope to be able to put in some speakers into the wall cavity?

[Douglas Quaid]

The surrounds are not supposed to be behind you, they’re supposed to be either side of the sofa firing directly at your ears so you don’t have a problem.

[B17NNS]

Douglas Quaid said:

The surrounds are not supposed to be behind you, they’re supposed to be either side of the sofa firing directly at your ears so you don’t have a problem.

In a 7.1 yes the backs would be behind you with the surrounds either side.

I think in a 5.1 the surrounds ideally go behind facing the listener. This is Dolby's diagram (albeit 5.1.2).

[hoegaardenruls]

I had a very similar setup in our old place, and it worked fine..

The only thing I ended up doing was replacing the bookshelf speakers with a pair of Mordaunt-Short Genie's on stands, as thanks to a staircase I couldn't really wall-mount anything.

[tenohfive]

Sounds promising then.

Any views on whether to mount them (angled in) the back wall or look at speaker stands?

[Fonzey]

I struggle to find stands high enough for rears/surrounds. Go for wall mounted

[B17NNS]

Good article here.

http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/surround-sound-spea...

[tenohfive]

Interesting, but left me more confused than anything.

I'll sling it in here, although I'll probably post on AV Forums too: front speaker and sub choices.

For the fronts it's pretty straightforward - Bronze 1, 2 or 5 (bookshelf, bigger bookshelf or floorstanders.) It'll be almost exclusively TV/film use rather than music, with clear dialogue my first priority (closely followed by that 'immersion,' factor.)

Given that I'll have a sub and they'll be close to the wall (possibly even wall mounted) I've pretty much ruled out floorstanders. So 1's vs. 2's. It's a small area and I'm veering towards 1's right now - is there a good argument for the 2's?

Sub wise, I'm sold on BK subs - I've heard them raved about elsewhere. The XLS 200, Gemini II, P12-300? I don't know where to start on the sub-front.

[B17NNS]

tenohfive said:

I don't know where to start on the sub-front.

SVS worth a look.

[aquarianone]

I've done similar and have Bipole rears, works pretty well.

Flat on the back, hangs off the wall, and the speakers fire out an angle, so spreads the sound around.

https://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/sur...

[WindyCommon]

https://www.monitoraudio.com/en/product-ranges/bro...

HTH.

[tenohfive]

WindyCommon said:

https://www.monitoraudio.com/en/product-ranges/bro...
HTH.

Ruled out the FX after advice on here and from MA themselves - they recommend some room between the speaker and MLP, the FX's would be firing over my head. They've suggested bookshelfs, positioned above the MLP on wall brackets and pointed down - pretty much the same advice SVS offer on a quick google (2ft above and angled down.)

thebraketester said:

Is there no scope to be able to put in some speakers into the wall cavity?

Unfortunately not.

B17NNS said:

SVS worth a look.

Any in particular? I'm aware of SVS but got the impression they were for the more serious hifi enthusiast; don't they start around the £500 mark?

My next step is to work out Bronze 1 or Bronze 2. My suspicion is that the greater bass response of the 2's could be an issue if placed too close to the wall. Although I've heard elsewhere that the reflex port is on the front on the B2's (I don't know what that means, but sounds promising.) But practicality may dictate they're placed closer than intended if there's not room to get past without knocking things over. I'll get some stands and stick my B1's in place at the recommended distance (25cm IIRC) and see if it's feasible - if so, I'll probably go for B2's.