Well, since watching Finding Nemo is a _requirement_ for my system (I skipped pearl harbor and the other fluky-flagged DVDs), and I'm currently running 5-channel, I guess I need to install a rear surround channel. The question is: where.

http://metoca.net/etc/speakers.gif
(the happy face is me, in the sweet spot)

As you can see, it's a tiny little apartment; such is the price for living in SF. The current speakers are shown in red. Front right and left are next to the TV, and the right and left surrounds are up against the ceiling, in the corners of the room. I've had this setup for two years now and am quite happy with it. The only downside is that the downstairs neighbors aren't too fond of things like the depth charges in U-571 I don't run it super-loud very often - only when friends come over - but don't watch movies too quietly, either.

Detail of the rear surrounds-- so you can see the height of the ceiling:
http://metoca.net/photos.php?q=3&a=pad&p=10.jpg

I may as well put a pair of speakers in, and in yellow are the two placement choices. If I go with the '1' placement, I would move the current surrounds forward to the sides of the room, and then place the new rears in their place. This would let me put the right and left surrounds about a foot higher than their current spot. This also seems more like a theater arrangement, where there is sound coming from the side of the room.

Alternatively, I could go with the '2' placement and put them against the rear wall of the room, against the ceiling. This seems like a better placement for a rear channel, with less of a 'phantom' aspect since they would be placed so close together, but since the rear channel would be pretty close to the couch, I'm a little worried they would drown out the right and left surrounds. The '2' placement makes things seem a little cramped.

Well, that's the scenario. I hope some of you might have some experience in small-room surround... Any comments?

(before you ask: no, I didn't make this graphic just for this purpose. Before I moved into the apartment, I needed to see if all my furniture would fit, so I measured it all out, took it home, and figured out that yes, it was in fact possible.)

In scenario '1' you might consider leaving the existing surrounds in place as the surround back channels and adding dipole surrounds in the '1' positions, or even moving the existing surrounds to position '2' and putting dipole surrounds in the '1' positions. The concerns you had about drowning out the surrounds should be avoidable with a sound meter and a few minutes of channel calibration, I suspect, but bypassing the '2' positions entirely would reduce the amount of mounting bracket shuffling required.

------------------
gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

i agree with gonk, you should get some bipole/dipole speakers for position 1. direct radiating are not ideal right beside your head/seating area, but that is where bipole dipole come in nicely. if you arent sure what that type of speaker is, it is identifiable by having two baffles (kind of a triangular shape). it looks like you have bose rears, i dont think bose makes any of what we are talking about, and i dont typically recommend mixing brands, particularly not with bose, so you may have to experiment a bit.