7.1 home theater?

Question

is it better to have 7.1 speakers on the wall or on stands

Answer 1

well Like most things the best answer i can give you is it depends.  To have your system sound the best you want the speakers all around your ear level and unobstructed when you are sitting down.  Stands usually put the speakers at that location.  You also want to have your left and right surrounds equidistant from side to side  from you as well as the left and right back speakers.  Most good receivers will allow you to set the speaker distances and levels for each individual speaker and that will allow you some forgiveness on placement.  Ultimately its going to boil down to what is more ascetically pleasing to you.  Your probably not going to notice a big difference in sound quality from on a stand or on the wall.

Answer 2

Scott is 100% correct. (I've also been doing this since moby d**k was a minnow) If I could add, it seems like you're going buy something better than a cheap surround-in-a-box so in addition, you might want to pay a professional to add some accoustic treatments in just the right places. Naturally, it depends on what your room will tolerate aestetically, but a little bit helps the sound quite a bit in many cases.