Whether you're planning a budget home theater system, or working with high-end A/V gear, paying attention to the location and positioning of your speakers usually pays off with a big improvement in sonic performance. If you're in the process of choosing home theater speakers, knowing the basics of speaker placement can help you make the smartest choice for your specific room.

You can watch our video on speaker placement to get familiar with the basics, or find more in-depth placement tips below. Keep in mind that there are too many variables involved for there to be a single "magic spot" that's always best. Every speaker has different sonic characteristics, every room has different acoustic properties, and everyone's ears hear sound a little differently. So use the tips presented in this article as guidelines, but when it comes time to actually set up your speakers, let your own ears be the final judge. And remember to read the owner's manual that came with your speakers — manufacturers sometimes offer model-specific recommendations for ideal placement.

Your center channel speaker

Your center channel speaker should be the first speaker you place in your home theater room. Because your center channel speaker's job is to anchor dialogue and other on-screen sounds to the screen, its position depends upon where you put your TV.

• Place your center channel directly above or below your TV — centered, if possible.
• If it's atop your TV, make sure the speaker's front edge is precisely aligned with the front edge of your TV screen. This reduces distortion caused by sound reflecting and diffracting off the TV's cabinet.
• If possible, the height of the center channel speaker's tweeter should be close to the height of your front speakers' tweeters — ideally, within about 24" or less. If you're placing the center channel on a particularly low cabinet where this might be a problem, then you can also use your center speaker's cradle (if it comes with one) to angle the sound up towards your listening position.
• Your center channel speaker should be precisely the same distance from your listening position as your front left and right speakers. (See below for details on front left and right speaker placement.)

Your front left and right speakers

Your front speakers pull double duty: along with handling movie soundtracks, they're responsible for reproducing all of the sound when you listen to stereo music. This makes their position relative to your listening position especially important.

Try to place your left front, center channel, and right front speakers equidistant from where you sit.

• Position your front left and right speakers in front, and at equidistant points to the left and right, of your primary listening spot. Together with your center channel speaker, they should form a slight arc, so that all three speakers are exactly the same distance from where you sit, with the tweeters from all three front speakers aimed at your ears. We recommend measuring the distances — just an inch or two can actually make a noticeable difference in the way your system sounds.

Place your front left and right speakers so the tweeters are at your ear level when you're seated.

• If you'd like a more precise guideline to follow, your front speakers should be at a 22°-30° angle with respect to your television. In other words, imagine you were to draw two lines — one from your listening position to your television, and one from your listening position to your right speaker. The two lines should create an angle somewhere between 22 and 30 degrees. The same holds true for the left speaker. (See illustration above.)
• For the best possible sound, the tweeters should be at ear level when you're seated. Most floor-standing speakers are designed with this in mind; smaller speakers can be positioned on stands or mounted on the wall to achieve the proper height.
• Make sure there are no solid objects (like furniture) blocking the pathway of the sound traveling to your listening location.

Your surround speakers

Your home theater's surround speakers are there to envelop you in a cloud of atmospheric sound and special effects, so you feel like you're actually in the middle of the action. We've offered some recommendations to help you achieve this effect, but it's important to note that surround speaker placement is one area where positioning may vary widely. An approach that works well for a friend or neighbor may not even be possible for you, given the shape and layout of your home theater room. Feel free to experiment — what matters most is how it sounds to you. And get room-friendly tips for running cable to your surrounds in our article on connecting home theater speakers.

• Ideally, your primary pair of surround speakers should be placed to the left and right of your listening position — either in line with it, or just behind it. They should form a 90°-110° angle with respect to your television. (If you were to draw two lines — one from your listening position to your TV, and one from your listening position to one of your surround speakers — the lines should cut out an angle somewhere between 90 and 110 degrees.)
• If you have a 6.1-channel or 7.1-channel system with more than two surround speakers, or if side placement isn't available for your surrounds in a standard 5.1-channel setup, consider placement behind your listening position, facing the front of the room.
• Surround speakers should be placed high enough so that the drivers do not fire directly at your ears when you're sitting down — one rule of thumb is to place them at ear level while standing. (If your surround speakers fire directly at your ears, they can overpower your front speakers.)
• If your surrounds are mounted on the side walls on adjustable brackets, experiment with aiming them. You may get good results from pointing them at the ceiling or toward the rear corners of the room.
• If no side or rear walls are available for mounting your speakers, try placing a pair of traditional bookshelf speakers on speaker stands, slightly behind and to the sides of your listening position. Avoid aiming them directly at your ears. You can also try in-ceiling speakers.
• Surround speaker placement which is ideal for home theater is not necessarily perfect for multichannel music listening, where a precisely focused rear soundstage is best. If both types of listening are important to you, then you can position your surround speakers for a compromise between the two.
• If you mount the rear speakers on the wall, try to mount them to wall studs to keep them from falling — an insecure mount can mean damage to your speakers, your drywall, and possibly furniture. Stud finders are available at most hardware stores. If mounting to studs isn't possible, wall anchors should be used to make a solid connection to your drywall. Most speaker mounts include wall anchors.

5.1-channel setup with the surround speakers wall-mounted to the sides of, or slightly behind, the listening position.

6.1-channel setup with the surrounds wall-mounted to the sides of the listening position, and one back surround wall-mounted behind the listening position.

7.1-channel setup with the surrounds wall-mounted to the sides of the listening position, and two back surrounds wall-mounted behind the listening position.

This dipole/bipole speaker from Polk is specially designed with home theater surround sound in mind. (Polk Audio FXi A6 shown above)

Dipole and bipole speakers
Some manufacturers offer dipole/bipole surround speakers (sometimes referred to as "Solid/Diffuse" speakers) which are equipped with a switch for selecting between different modes of operation. Such speakers are often recommended as ideal for movie surround use, because of their ability to produce a diffuse soundfield, and their flexibility in a variety of placements. However, they are not as effective for multichannel music. Because they are most often seen in high-end, movie-focused home theater setups, our recommendations here focus on more commonly seen front-firing speakers and their use as surrounds.

Dipole mode creates a diffuse, ambient soundfield when the speakers are placed on the side walls.

Bipole mode fills your room with surround sound when the speakers are placed on the rear wall.

Tips for odd-shaped rooms

Since not everyone's entertainment room has the ideal layout for a home theater system, we've come up with a few tips to help you deal with odd-shaped rooms.

1. If your room accommodates it, try to make sure your listening position is somewhere in the middle of the room (i.e. away from the back wall) to improve the front soundstage and help the surround speakers work better.
2. Position the main speakers so that they fire into the length of the room, rather than the width.
3. If you want the best surround effects, place the surround speakers on floor-stands. You'll want them to be at roughly equal distances from your listening position.
4. If stands aren't an option, you can also wall-mount your surround speakers. You can even mount them to a joist in the ceiling, if you've got a ceiling-mount bracket, though your speakers might not sound their best when placed that high. Again, you'll want your surrounds to be roughly equal distances from your listening position.
5. For a really clean look, try in-wall or in-ceiling surrounds. Check out our placement guidelines for these types of speakers, or watch our short in-wall speaker installation video to get an idea of what's involved.
6. If you have to place the rear speakers at different distances from your listening position, then you can use the speaker levels in your receiver to help compensate for that difference, or rely on your receiver's auto-calibration to handle that for you. It'll work best if the difference in distance is 5 feet or less.
7. You can also adjust speaker levels to compensate for differences in distance between your front left and right speakers. However, we recommend you try and place them equidistant from your listening position, or within a few inches of that, whenever possible. You'll notice more subtle differences in volume and timing in the front soundstage than you will in the back.

Below we've come up with a few simple diagrams so that you can see our tips in action.

Window in a bad place Here we moved the speaker to the back to avoid a window. You'd probably need to increase the left surround speaker's levels on your receiver to compensate. Alternatively, you could mount the speaker higher up, above the window. Click for Large view	Door in a bad place Here we moved the speaker to the back to avoid a door. Again, you'd probably need to increase the right surround speaker's levels on your receiver to compensate. You could also mount the left speaker further back, so that the two speakers are equal distances from your listening position. Click for Large view
Diamond layout Here we placed the listening position in the middle of the room, so the front speakers fire lengthwise into the room. We also mounted the surround speakers in the corners of the room, at equal distances from the listening area. Click for Large view	Open floor plan Again, we placed the listening position in the middle of the room with the front speakers firing lengthwise into the room, and the surround speakers mounted on the side walls at equal distances from the listening area. Click for Large view

L-shaped room In this L-shaped plan, we chose a space clear of doors and windows, and placed the listening position in the middle. The front speakers are firing lengthwise into the space, with the surround speakers mounted on the side walls at equal distance from the listening area. Click for Large view

Your subwoofer

A powered subwoofer delivers crucial impact in a home theater system, but is one of the least demanding speakers to position. Since low bass frequencies are omnidirectional, you can usually place your subwoofer just about anywhere in your home theater room, with good results.

• Placing your subwoofer near a wall will generally result in more bass, and placement near a corner — where three room boundaries come together — will get you even more. Keep in mind that even though the bass increases as you place the sub near a wall or corner, the quality of bass may be slightly "boomier" and less controlled. Aim for a spot where you get a compromise between quality and quantity of bass.
• One cool technique for placing for your subwoofer is to put your sub in your listening spot, play some music, move around the room, and listen. You'll probably notice that the bass sounds a little bit different as you move around from location to location within the room — where it sounds the best may be where you want to put your subwoofer.
• Many powered subwoofers are equipped with a phase control — usually a 2-position switch. Choose the setting that produces the most bass while all your speakers are playing.

After you've got your sub where you want it, check out our article on tuning your subwoofer for more tips on how to get great bass.

Your room

One thing to remember when setting up your speakers is that your room plays a key role in how your system will sound. Your room's shape, layout, and where the speakers are placed in the room are all factors that will affect a home theater system's performance.

• Placing your front speakers next to a wall will slightly increase their bass output. This can improve the sound of smaller, bass-shy satellite speakers, but can muddy the sound of floor-standing speakers. Conversely, bringing speakers out from the wall may lessen their bass response but improve clarity.
• A room with too many reflective surfaces, such as windows and tile, can add harshness to the sound or make it seem too bright. Adding carpets or drapes can help your system sound much more natural.

Unfortunately, there are too many variables in your room to be able to account for them all. That's why most newer receivers come with automatic speaker calibration. This feature uses a microphone to record and measure test tones played through your speakers. The time it takes for the sound to reach the microphone, along with the strength of the sound and other factors, tells your receiver what kind of speakers you have, their placement in relation to your listening position, and how the sound they produce reacts in your particular room. The receiver can then make adjustments to ensure that you get the best sound in your room. Watch our short video on auto calibration to learn more about how this works.

You can also check out our article on room acoustics for more information on how your room can affect your system's sound.