The Best Home Theater Speaker Placement

When you're attempting to create a great listening environment in your home theater speaker placement is an essential aspect to consider. Most surround sound systems come with five speakers plus a subwoofer.

The smaller speakers are set up in front of and behind the listeners to create a true feeling of immersion in the sound. The placement of speakers can be a very in-depth exercise, complete with calculations involving the physics of sound waves.

But that just makes it harder than it needs to be. You can just try out different placements with your speakers until you hit upon an arrangement that gives you the best surround sound experience.

Unless you have an acoustically "perfect" room, it's impossible to have a "perfect" listening environment, so don't be too hard on yourself while you're working on your setup. Don't expect perfection in an imperfect setting.

Read your instruction manual from the manufacturer, but rely on your own ears for the final say in home theater speaker placement.

Center channel speaker - Put the center channel speaker centered directly below your screen. The center channel speaker is responsible for on-screen sound, such as conversation, so it's important for the realism that it's placed with the television.

Front left and right speakers - These should be placed at about ear level when the listener is comfortably seated. If they must be placed higher, angle them downward, but this is certainly not the best situation.

The music will be emitted from these two speakers, which will split the stereo sound of the movie soundtrack. You want these speakers to be place the same distance away from the listener as the center channel speaker. All three speakers should form an arc if you were to look down on them from a bird's eye view.

Surround speakers — These should go right behind the listener, to the left as well as the right. These will go much higher; they ought be about ear level when you're standing upright.

You can play around with them even more if they come with adjustable brackets or stands. Try pointing them at the rear walls. The sound that results when it bounces off the walls can be astoundingly realistic.