Low Visibility Surround Speakers

[tmaschek]

I am setting up a home theater system. I can have relatively large front speakers but I need a minimal visiblity option for surround speakers. The room is very wide but not very deep so that the seating area is against the back wall and the side walls are too far away to mount dipoles. I don't want to mount moderate to large speakers on the back wall but I am concerned that very small speakers may not be adequate. Would a passive three piece system make sense? Some of these systems have very small satellites and I could place the bass module behind or next to the couch. (The front speakers will be RT55s with a CS300 center.)

[mantis]

Id use inwalls,inwalls is exactly what you need,there in the wall and you can place your couch right against the back wall and only suffer mininum loss.Onwall speakers will shoot over your head for greater loss.I also suffered this in my current room,I have to pull out the couch and chair away from the back wall to get good performance.I dismantled my 7.1 setup as It was all going over my head when couch was against the back wall,Thinks you have to compromise when you do theater in a living space.
There is another trick I'm fond of(if you don't have small children or pets)is to put a pair of direct firing rears on the floor behind the couch, spaced apart well, firing up at the ceiling.This sounds strange but works extremely well for situations like your's.
How I do my system today is a pair of fx/500's on the back wall out to the sides of the couch by 4 feet on each side and run them in Dipolar(polk wants bipolar fo this but I found Dipolar to work better).They are 72 inches to the tweeter.This could also work for you.6.1 there's not a ton out,5.1 is still the way to go for now.But 7.1 is better if you have depth.At least 4 feet from the back of your seating area to the back wall.

[scottvamp]

The room is very wide but not very deep

A 6 or 7.1 setup should help to feel in your surround area. It may be a good option for u.