Is it OK to Mount Front Bookshelf Speakers High on the Wall?

Actually wall mounting a speaker properly and angled down provided a better soundstage that facing straight up. If you can imagine the waves coming at you, then a slight angle of 15 degrees or thereabouts will direct them to your listening position much better than say one that is flat.

The more critical thing is for you to mount properly - using the right mounts and tension. Make sure each speaker does not shake or vibrate when you tug at it lightly.

Thanks, very interesting comments!
 
You can hang them on wall ,but bass may reduce,

sec opt is you can shift hanging phone close to tv,shift lt frt apart & even TV towards left so that you can keep them on shelf.

Keeping spk over door is risky as shuting door hard can cause prob.

I have gone for this option for the time being, and it has improved the soundstage/ separation to some extent, even though the increase in distance is only about 8".

Now I am little nervous mounting so high above the door, UNLESS I am able to install very specific and sturdy mounts for these heavy & bulky BS.

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8 ft is more than enough for distance you watch.
I have put Tany F1 only 6 ft apart.To improve soundstage ,I put it away on PC rack,but surr RT comes at same level.
 
and could you tell me how the soundstage would be better? Also, outside of some DVDs, what other THX sources are available to take advantage of the settings? Also the sub woofer placement options are very impractical in my view. Given all this, its OK to review the THX or other HT recommendation, a better bet would be to take advantage of what drives the so called "lobe soundstage" for which a wall mounted and angled/tilted speaker position is the best for bookshelves and satellites.

Putting on wall next to TV is ok,but over door is to high as surr effect will not be correct.see reg HT setup.
 
8 ft is more than enough for distance you watch.
I have put Tany F1 only 6 ft apart.To improve soundstage ,I put it away on PC rack,but surr RT comes at same level.

No. No. I had mentioned 8" (inches) increase....
The distance between speakers is 46".
The viewing distance is double @ 92".
 
Putting on wall next to TV is ok,but over door is to high as surr effect will not be correct.see reg HT setup.

If I mount the FL on wall, then it will be 3" (inches) deeper, as the wall is like that. The wall for FR (& center) is protruding..
 
Someone suggested you to change 180* & instead of sofa can be put there
Keep sofa at other wall.
 
No dear all that is not possible. door also has to open. the sofa will not fit anywhere else.:sad:
 
I can see space below case hanged on wall,you can shift frt LT below it sothat you can get approx 5.5 feet & shift surr LT to, keep frt RT as it is.

This should work for you.Frankly your set up is heavy looking at space...
 
Are there any good mounts available for my speaker?
Is this a good option? Stud Thirty Wall Mount

Where will I get this in Mumbai/ India?

The wall mount does look good. Though I am not sure you will get them in India.

What I did was get small wall stands for TV, mounted them at the required height, and just placed the bookshelves on the stand. This also gave me some 6 to 8 inches space between the rear of the BS and the wall. Such stands are available all over.

Cheers
 
The wall mount does look good. Though I am not sure you will get them in India.

What I did was get small wall stands for TV, mounted them at the required height, and just placed the bookshelves on the stand. This also gave me some 6 to 8 inches space between the rear of the BS and the wall. Such stands are available all over.

Cheers


Will these TV stands hold the speaker very firmly so that it can be angled down?
 
Will these TV stands hold the speaker very firmly so that it can be angled down?

I think Venky is meaning that he just sits them on the stands. There is no angling option in this case.

I have installed a number of BS systems where in the tweeters (this is the key) are above your ear height when in seated position. All I did was to tilt it down a bit and the soundstage was excellent. Long years ago, i used to do measure the waves through professional equipment that I borrowed from a fellow installer buddy. I have to dig up some of the charts to show you how the freq resp was with this setup. Give me some time to do this. So dont get too fixated for the speakers to be at hearing height.
 
Thanks, very interesting comments!

I have to get a bit technical to explain the phenemenon. if you want to get the widest soundstage and sweet spot along with the best high-frequency dispersion, then the way to do it is place your speakers vertically instead of horizontal. This will ensure that others listening to the audio will also feel similar effect as you, i.e., you are increasing the width of the seating area. Mind you, with horizontal setup, you will still get the optimal experience albeit in a narrow area. In this case, you have to ensure that the centre channel tweeter is not directed at the dead of the optimal listening area. Hope this clarifies.
 
Hi Reju,

I think the concept of placing the BS speakers at ear level is based on the assumption that the stands (or the base of the speakers) are horizontal. But if the speakers can be kept firmly but above the ear level but tilted slightly and directed so that the sound reaches the listener roughly at the ear level, I do not see any harm in it. The sound waves coming out of the speakers do not know or care about the horizontal direction. The only caveat in this is that the speaker-diaphragms have some mass (however little) and they feel the effects of gravity and hence they would know a bit about the horizontal and the vertical directions (however, this cannot be a large effect). Hence the suggestion of speakers with a slight tilt as opposed to a lot of tilt.

Regards.
 
Actually they are made for TVs to be tilted downwards and can do the same with speakers. The base slides both ways and, once you place the speakers on them, you slide the base towards the speaker edges and tighten the screws The the whole base plate holding the TV/ Speakers can be tilted. As I said before the angle is not too deep.

Cheers
 
.... The sound waves coming out of the speakers do not know or care about the horizontal direction. ....

Sorry my friend, you may want to read up on wave interference with horizontal speaker placement (esp. the MTM design). Following link is a simplistic explanation of the issues with horizontal speaker design.

Horizontal Center Channel Speakers and Why They Should Be Avoided - Blu-ray Forum

Look specifically at the various speaker designs esp. from B&W. Quite interesting and innovative! Seymour is active on Audioholics and has written fairly extensively about speaker design in the past.

I am not saying that all problems will be solved if you place the speakers vertically, but you will not be introducing new ones and most of the issues with horizontal should go away..
 
Hi marsilians,

Thanks for the reference. I looked it up briefly.

Let me clarify a few things. It seems to me that you and I are talking about two different things. So let me explain what my intentions were.

I caught up on this thread late and a brief quick read of some of the posts has made me think that the thread-initiator Reju thought putting speakers at the ear-level is a must. I thought Venkat's suggestion of putting the speakers high on the wall but slightly tilted towards the listener at the normal position is an interesting one. So I took it from there and wanted to convince Reju that there seems nothing wrong with that kind of an idea at least from the point of view of basics.

It is true that once the sound is produced by the speakers, the sound waves outside the speakers (assuming no reflections from any walls which are usually always horizontal and vertical) do not know about the horizontal direction (if one ignores the masses of the tiny air particles through which the sound wave propagates, and this is largely correct). So tilting the speakers slightly would not matter.

However, then the tilt should not be large. Gravity acts vertically at a given position. Assuming the vibration-movement of the speaker diaphragms to be in a horizontal direction, this diaphragm movement should not be affected by the gravity because forces do not affect movement in a direction perpendicular to the force. So if the tilt is large, their movement (which is no longer horizontal) will be affected by the force of gravity. However small this effect may be because of the lightness of the diaphragms, there will be an effect.

The suggestion of a small tilt is acceptable in my thinking.

Please note that I am addressing the general problem of keeping normal speakers in a slightly slanted but elevated position. I have no experience with multichannel HT speakers, let alone centre speakers. I do not know what I have written above and explained in more detail now would actually help reju with respect to the more complex problem of setting up HT speakers. At least for the front two speakers I hope my explanation is applicable.

You are talking about a more complex thing I guess. But what I am saying is a very simple thing and understandable from basic principles. I hope this is correct and helps somebody.

Regards.
 
Marsilians, for the specific issues with the centre channel there is a patented design called Vertical Array. Though this also looks externally like a regular centre channel, a vertical array speaker completely removes horizontal radiation of the listening area, A pair of baffle boards are mounted to a vertical array with small diameter speakers, in symmetrical opposition. The boards are kind of sealed at the rear, while the front are open to a predetermined width.

This is one of the reasons I purchased Aperion Audio's 533C VAC (now 5C VAC), one of the few companies that makes what is called the Vertical Array Centre Channel or VAC.

Cheers
 
Edit : please ignore my post
i had questioned how ppl were advicin wall mounted speakers Vs stands

however on closely reading the thread i found nowhere had the said ppl mentioned stands
it is just a discussion of wall mounting and ear level and wall mounting at a higher level
 
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Hi Magma,

There is no question that speakers on good stands will sound better most of the times than wall mounted speakers. Here the question of wall mounting comes because of the constraints of Reju's room (please look at the photos posted by him in the beginning). He was not happy because the he felt the front BS speakers were to close to each other, and in any case they were not mounted on stands to start with. Hence people are exploring other possibilities.

Regards.
 
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