Locating speakers behind where you sit versus positioning them on the side?

Place it where you can maximize physical distance of surrounds from your ears (closest you can match with distance of front mains to ears) Ignore Dolby’s lil layout pictures for side surtounds/back surrounds....On the same note, Sony’s 360 reality SSM beats Dolby to a pulp if you want to optimize for music listening as well, i.e, Dolby’s not the only game in town (Auro’s there too)..

I'm using a Sony HT A9 setup, and it's impressive.  But I've wondered if the backs of our Stressless chairs reduce the effectiveness of the rear speakers, and have been planning to raise the rear speakers.  But after reading this thread, I'll try placing them to the side, and rerun the DSP.

The home theater spec is to the side, BUT! that ignores toe-in. A lot of speakers are not designed to be listened on dead straight, but get smoother if you are 15-20 degrees off axis. 

So, they should be to the side, but you might find better sound turning them so they point towards your fronts a little.

I have both.  that is what Dolby expects.  I use 3 sets of floorstanders.    But if you have one or the other then you should be able to program your AVR to use one or the other.  

I guess you just tell it you have only rear speakers when you put them on the side or do you tell it you have side speakers and no rear?  I would experiment and see how Dolby adjusts for the missing speakers.

We all have to make compromises.

Jerry