speaker placement...couch against wall

Alrighty. I've been trying to figure this one out. I'd like to step to a 6.1 system (my DD receiver is so long in the tooth it has no bass management or DTS), but due to room geometry the only acceptable place to put the couch is against the wall. That won't be changing in the forseeable future, either.

What do people recommend for the rear channel? I have my L/R surrounds positioned more or less to the sides. I haven't built or purchased a rear speaker yet, so my options are open that way. Another like my surrounds pointed straight down? Pointed at the ceiling? A dipole of some sort?

I guess whether or not it can be done cleanly will decide exactly which receiver I purchase (it's either the 1050 or H/K AVR320 at this point). Any advice or experience with such a setup is *greatly* appreciated.

Regards,
Dirk

I have the same situation as yours.
I was told on another forum that putting the center right above your head was not a good thing. I never tried it after that advice. I will try to find where that info is and let you know.

So does that rule out a dipole on the rear wall?

If you set up your system and your speakers sound good to you, then be happy. Obviously, there is a lot of good information out there to pay attention to that will help your system sound even better, but it boils down to how happy YOU are with the way it sounds.

I have my rear channel speakers set up pretty much over my head and pointing down at the couch. It's not perfect, but the effect is there and I like it.

I'm using my old surrounds (trust me, you don't want to know :-) as the rear channel and I got new Definitive bipolars (BP1.2X) as my left and right surrounds. Ideally, I'd just have 3 of the Definitives on my back wall. Left, Right and Center.

[This message has been edited by kugumby (edited July 03, 2002).]

I would buy one single speaker like your surrounds,and install top dead center in rear wall as close as possible to the ceiling and find out if you like it.the truth will come out!!!

I have my speakers setup with four across the back wall. The two dipole/bipole speakers, and my main speakers form a box. The center channel speaker is above the display. The rear center speakers are above the couch, and angled down. The two center rear speakers are powered by my 1050,and the other five are powered by my 755. The sub is in front between the left main, and the center channel speaker. When I first set up the speakers in the room I had the couch right up agianst the rear wall, and it sounded OK. The I moved the couch eighteen inches away from the wall, and re-calibrated everything. It sounds much better with things arranged this way.

Well, my thing is that I built my current speakers, so it'd be a pain to just build one. I'll probably just get the parts for two, since the 1050 can take the 4 ohm load of two in parallel (a major selling point since my L/C/R's are 4 ohm to begin with).

Thanks all. Since it seems that there are at least a few of you arranged that way (speaker above couch), I'll give it a shot. If I really don't like it, so be it; I'll have nice speakers for my PC.

Dirk