Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems 5.1 Surround Speaker Height Compromise

Hi folks, just moved and setting up my system for what I hope will be the last time so want to get it as perfect as possible. This time around I can get my surround speakers slightly behind and to the side of the listening position close to what Dolby recommends, albeit only about 2-3 feet between the front grill and my ears. Now I appear to have a decision to make…

1. Match all 5 tweeter heights (I have 3 verticals DSP3100s and 2 DSP33s) but have the surrounds blocked from a clear route to my ears by the back of the couch.

2. Raise the height of the rears so the tweeter (centre of the speaker in the case of the DSP33s) is unobstructed by the couch - but here the path of the bottom woofer would still be obstructed.

3. Raise the height of the rears completely above the couch - no obstruction but tweeters between front and rear would be around a foot different.

There maybe a fourth scenario as I use +1 on the electronic height correction to get the fronts firing to ear height - the dsp3100s on stands are about 6 inches below ear height. As you don’t appear to be able to make the electronic height correction independently between front and rears then presumably I would need to point the rears approx 6 inches below ear height therefore they would need to be mounted even higher on the wall to avoid being obstructed by the couch, and at quite a significant angle.

Am I overthinking this or will the options I’m toying with actually make a noticeable difference. I’d prefer only to drill one set of holes and get it right first time…

I guess the crux of the question is what’s more important for SQ, matched tweeter height or unobstructed positioning or somewhere in between… 1st world problems!!