Surround speakers slightly in front OK?


Merry Christmas! The family is still asleep, so I thought I would post a question while I'm waiting. I posted previously about my new home theater system and the responses were very helpful.

Because of my room setup, the easiest place for my surround speakers is to the side and just in front of my seating position. I know they are supposed to be directly to the side or just behind, but that poses considerable mounting problems. Does it make that much difference? Thanks.

Lew
scuby
Don't sweat it, it will sound fine. If at all possible, however, try aiming the speakers to a location behind you. This should help to overcome their less than textbook-style placement.

Merry Christmas!

-RW-
Balance is always a key issue, with any properly setup system. In the case of the location of the speakers, in relation to imaging and steering of the soundfield, you might find it a little less than enveloping, ideally. However, it would not sound bad, all things considered, just as if most of the sound-field is happening in front of you. Think of it as a more extended front sound stage, perceptively, than what a 3 speaker set up would do.
A concern I would have in placing any speaker in a room, would be how each speaker actually sounds in a given location! This is the most overlooked of considerations in speaker positioning by novices. You can easily have speakers and seating positions located where there are "holes" and nasty peaks in the sound (of course, with today's EQ tech, this is of much less concern, as it can be rectified electronically), if phase issues between speakers. The former is more often a culprit.
I would say, as long as you're able to get good overall sound from these speaker locations, then you would be "OK". with it, if no other options.
With anything, there are usually compromises to be had, short of a perfect ideal, obviously. yes, I think you'll still enjoy your system if you need to leave them there.
Have you considered ceiling mounting some speakers? Is that an option?
Scuby: If it sounds good to you then they are in the perfect spot!! Merry Christmas!
Is it a mono-pole or bi/di-pole? If its the latter it will be great, even if its the former it will be fine but my dad has Di-poles slightly in front and as they are out of phase they are very hard to place in room.,,come to think of it just try them out of phase and see what you think.
Either way you will be just fine, Merry Christmas
Iplaynaked, I haven't considered ceiling mounts, but I can mount them on the back/side wall corner next to the ceiling. I have the Infinity stands that require no mounting, but a door makes me place them slightly in front. The wall mount is my next option.
Centered about 2 feet from the back wall. Farther in cuts off access to the room from one of the doors.
what processor do you use? What exact speakers are you using? My initial thoughts tell me you have space over your door entry way, no?
Onkyo TX-SR803 AV Receiver, Infinity TTS-1100 Speaker System. The speakers are too large to mount over the door. If slightly in front isn't acceptable, I'll mount them on the back wall.
Um, If I'm wrong, those speakers would work/aim much better set over your door way (I may be reaching here -life-style considerations, tastes, acceptable compromises, etc) in the "horizontal" position. Set vertically, you'll run into a bit of comb filtering from being up high, and you sitting down low. The water fall plot would be much better served for you up on the wall with those particular "Dappolito" configured speakers. Its' a thought. In fact, if I had to use those speakers as rears, unless I could get them down lower (actually, that compromises localization and image height a bit), I would be setting those rears in a horizontal position above or slightly behind my seating location, tilted a bit down towards the listeners, yes! Why? Again, the propagation of the sound will steer or spread across the seating area better, in your setup. The other way around, and you'll be rolling the highs off somewhat, and combing the mid-range, somewhat. That is a fact, btw. I used to deal in those speakers, installed them, and have owned the TSS-750's in the past.
Actually, another consideration is to use the smaller otherwise excellent little TSS-750's as rears instead! They are still very little dynamic speakers, they will work better in terms of proper sound distribution, set up different ways, they're much smaller (and thus more flexible to position), and they use the same exact drivers and crossover as the TSS-750's! With your setup and system, that''s what I'd chose to do, if you couldn't deal with the rears properly. And sounds like you can't.
You can find the TSS-750's around dirt cheap if you look. Somwhere in the $30 ea neighborhood (were $99). Again, it's a consideration for you.
Yes, for the record, if I had to use your TSS-1100's as rears, I'd be turning em horizontally, and putting them just above my door, sandwiched between the ceiling, tilted slightly down - same for the back. If you put em on the back wall, imaging and tonality will be a major challenge, and you won't get such good sound from the speaker(in short, the sound will be very very roll-ed off in the high's/upper mid's).
Well, anyway, I gave you some thoughts to consider, for what I believe would possibly maximize your performance, and possibly be workable ergonomically. Yes, if it where me, I'd be ditching the 1100's for the 750's (same frequency response range, same clean sound, more open sounding, and actually just as dynamic, basically - yet much more flexible, and they'll disapear into the room better, visually).
Good luck
I've solved the problem. With the surround speakers mounted slightly in front of my listening position, the surround quality is quite good. When the wife isn't around or if/when she accepts the idea, I can move the surround speakers (they are on speaker stands) to either back corner, where they sound great. This position isn't practical all the time since one of the speakers is sort of in the doorway, but I can live with the setup. Thanks for all the input.

Lew