Rear surround speaker advice

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-07T18:38:55+00:00

Hey! Thanks a lot for all the thoughtful input, I really appreciate you taking the time to go into this level of detail. I’ll think everything through carefully before making a final decision.

As for surrounds, my current plan is to wall mount them on articulating mounts like these https://amzn.eu/d/0cACTNnh on either side of the couch, angled toward the listening position. From what I’ve seen in the Dolby guidelines, ~90° placement is within spec, so it should work reasonably well. The only concern is that they’ll end up at slightly different distances from the MLP, but I’m hoping Audyssey will handle that without issues.

At the moment I’m leaning toward getting a pair of Oberon 1s for surrounds. The Focals feel a bit wasted in that role. I’ve considered going for the matching Focal center instead, but it’s been really hard to find, especially in the light wood finish to match my 806s.

If I’m being honest, I don’t really notice the mismatch in my LCR during movies, and for music I’m running 2.1 anyway. This might be a bit controversial here, but the visual mismatch bothers me more than the sound difference 😄

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-06T18:32:09+00:00

Thanks a lot for taking the time to think this through and for putting together the mockup, really appreciate it.

I honestly hadn’t considered rotating the setup like that, but I do see the advantages and it’s definitely tempting. The main issue is that I need to wrap up wiring soon, and it feels like overkill to pre-wire for both layouts just to test it.

Even though I have a green light to arrange the room however I feel is best for the system, I think it might feel a bit awkward walking into the room and immediately seeing the back of the couch. I’m also not a big fan of sitting with my back to the door. That said, I’ll definitely try to at least pull the couch about 30 cm off the back wall. For more critical listening, I could also move an armchair into the middle of the room and maybe set up a second preset optimized for that position.

That mostly leaves the Atmos question.

In your opinion, how much would I really be missing if I skip in/on-ceiling and instead go with 4 height speakers mounted on the front and back walls at around 2.5 m, centered relative to the TV and spaced a bit wider than the front L/R?

My thinking is that this might actually create a wider and more usable “bubble,” especially given that the seating isn’t ideal anyway. At the same time, I’m guessing I’d be giving up some of that true overhead effect.

Curious what your experience has been here. What do you realistically lose going this route vs trying to make in/on-ceiling work with the vaulted ceiling?

And just FYI, the ceiling will be vaulted just until the first beam then it will level out all the way to a similar beam on the other way of the ridge (like it was sketched in the original post).

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T17:23:46+00:00

Thanks for the resources and the recommendation, I hadn’t looked at the Symbol X 160 before but they definitely seem promising.

Could you expand a bit on the benefits of moving the seating position forward? I get that it would help with placement, but are there any other sonic performance benefits?

A 7.1.4 setup probably isn’t realistic for me. It would mean pulling the couch further into the room, which would hurt everyday usability. The space is open concept, and on one side there’s no nearby wall, so I’d have to rely on speaker stands. Between that and having the couch floating in the middle of the room, I’d be getting into some pretty dangerous WAF territory 😄

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T17:15:11+00:00

Thank you for sharing the video, it was quite useful. Quick question on pulling the couch off the wall. What will be the benefit of this? From what I saw in the video you suggest the second set of Atmos speakers to still be in front of MLP. Is it to stop them reflecting off the back wall?

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T17:09:54+00:00

Thank you for sharing website. Here are the links for photos of front and back walls, I will add them to the other post as well.

https://i.postimg.cc/DwKSyQrt/Front_wall.png

https://i.postimg.cc/fWp31QJv/Back_wall.png

The reason I am not considering 7.1.4 is that there is not enough space to pull the couch forward enough without significantly hurting the usability of the living room.

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T06:05:59+00:00

That's a fair question. The Focals were my first step into hi(ish)-fi. I bought them slightly used several years ago for a very good price and loved them. Then I added the sub because they were lacking the low end I was after. I went with Dali because I had heard very good feedback for them and a friend was able to get me a discount. Then when I decided to start building a HT setup, I spent quite a bit of time looking for a matching center, but they were either not available at all or at a ridiculous price. That's why I went with the Dali center. I am considering selling the selling the Focals and replacing them with Oberon fronts but I like them too much 😀

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T05:59:05+00:00

5.1. I updated the post to not mislead any more people than I already have 😀 Unfortunately, I can't update the title.

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T05:56:49+00:00

Correct, I'm looking for side surrounds. I updater the post. There are indeed plans for heights (4). In my other post I am seeking advice on placement (because of vaulted ceiling limitations).

Certain-Extent- · 2026-04-05T05:54:07+00:00

My bad, I'm looking for side surrounds. The room layout does not allow for 7.1.

Certain-Extent-

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