Positioning your X-Ref Series speakers for home theater use
Although the goal is always to achieve the best overall listening experience, because more speakers are required for home-theater than for stereo, you are more likely to encounter practical constraints on where they can be located. Various surround-sound systems and standards also recommend slightly different speaker placement for optimum performance.
When listening to most music, the surround speakers are primarily used for ambience information. In most movies, important and highly-localized information is present in the Left Front, Right Front, and Center (front) channels. The sound quality, voicing, and optimum placement of those speakers is, therefore, the most critical. While surround speakers must still be of good quality and must match the voicing of the main speakers to maintain proper imaging and a cohesive sound stage, there is much more latitude in terms of the type of speakers used for surrounds and how they are placed and configured.
In this section we will give you some suggestions for which speakers to use for each job, and where to place them. Please take these suggestions as starting points and try different variations to determine what works best for you. Neither our advice (nor anybody else’s) should ever prevent you from doing what sounds best to you.
The X-Ref Tower models are intended to stand directly on the floor (with the included bases and carpet points), and should not be placed on top of other objects, stands, or furniture. They make great main Left Front and Right Front speakers.
The X-Ref Series Center/LCR Monitors are designed to work well both as Front Center speakers in a large system (with X-Ref Towers as front mains), or as Left Front, Center Front, and Right Front main speakers in a system where stand or shelf mounting are preferred. If you are using them as Left Front and Right Front main speakers, they should be placed vertically and symmetrically (with both tweeters offset either towards or away from the center). Ideally they should be mounted on stands, with the tweeter at approximately the ear height of the listener. (When mounted vertically, the XRC’s should not be tilted forward or backward).
If you are using one XRC as a Center Front speaker, then it will probably be mounted horizontally either above or below your screen. Emotiva offers a high quality stand for supporting the XRC Center/LCR Monitors when they are mounted horizontally, which includes a foam pad to prevent damage to your XRC’s finish, and applies a slight vertical tilt to the speaker. We suggest offsetting the tweeter upwards and tilting the XRC upwards when you position it below your screen, and offsetting the tweeter downwards and tilting the speaker downwards when mounting it above your screen.
The XRC’s can also be used as surrounds, in which case they can be mounter either vertically or horizontally. (If you mount them horizontally, try mounting them on shelves above head height. You can use the optional stands to point them down towards the listener for a more focused presentation, or up towards the ceiling for a more diffused ambience effect).
