Home theater help please?

Question

i have a 7.1 onkyo receiver .and i put two speakers on the side of me and two in the back ,but when i sit on both sides of the couch the two rear speakers sound great but when i sit in the middle they sound bad ,i cant hear any back effect when i sit in the middle please help me ,how far should they be from each other

Answer 1

have you read the manual about calibrating it according to your hearing, speaker size, placement etc. ?

new receivers have a calibrating mic included which you should place in ear position where you are going to be sitted, say while watching TV, DVD or playing video games.

Answer 2

break out your receivers manual, it will run you through a basic test program (with noises) to help position the speakers. Make sure you understand what surround sound is actually meant to do, ie you shouldnt be expecting to hear voices out of the rear speakers unless a movie effect calls for it (ie someone off screen, behind the characters calls out/screams).