Depending on your room acoustics and the design of your speakers, you may need
to experiment in order to achieve the best effect. 

GENERAL TIPS:  
Make certain that there is nothing blocking any speaker that may muffle 
the sound. 

Position all the speakers at the same level; in other words, don't put one 
on the floor and another on a bookshelf.  This will cause a lopsided stereo 
'image'. 

Position speakers so that the tweeters (small speakers that reproduce higher
frequencies) are at ear level.  This does not apply to subwoofers, because 
low frequencies propagate in a fairly omni-directional manner, so placement 
is not nearly as critical as with mid and/or high frequency speakers. 


TWO SPEAKERS: 
For computer audio, the best place to position a pair of speakers is on either
side of the display screen. You might want to try placing the speakers at ear
level, toed in at an angle so that they are pointing towards your ears for 
best effect.  Both speakers should be the same distance from your head, and 
positioned at the same level relative to each other.  If the speakers are to 
be placed within a foot of your computer monitor, you will need to use 
shielded speakers that won't damage the picture tube or distort the image 
on your screen. 


   


TWO SPEAKERS WITH SUBWOOFER:
Position the satellites and subwoofer so that a monaural signal sounds most 
like it is coming from a single speaker positioned at dead center.

FOUR SPEAKERS (QUADRAPHONIC, A3D, DOLBY PRO-LOGIC): 
This is similar to the positioning of 2 speakers, in that all four speakers
should optimally be on the same level (preferably ear level).  
Your listening position should be in the center of the square created by 
the four speakers.


   


To create the effect of more ambience, you might prefer to place the rear 
speakers farther away from you. This way you hear the sounds from your rear
speakers reflecting around your room rather than coming directly from 
the speakers. 


5.1 SURROUND (DOLBY DIGITAL, AC-3):
This is the most complex of the standardized speaker positioning schemes.  
It is just like the four-speaker setup described above except that 5.1 adds
two more channels, a front-center 'dialog' speaker and a subwoofer.  This is
the setup used for playback of Dolby Digital-encoded DVD movies.  

     


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