Socketman are you also having trouble placing your Surround Speakers at proper height because of room constraints?
Obviously these are the recommendations because they are Scientific Acoustical Facts that have been Engineered into the different Audio Formats. So whenever you have to alter or change these parameters you will be degrading what could be, and yes we all make some sacrifices unless were lucky enough to have built our room from scratch.
My simple point is this, Can you place your Surrounds 2'-3'feet above your listening position?
If so congratulations you just improved the dispersion of your Surround Sound Field.
These are the Fundamentals...your welcome to put the speakers upside down and backwards to if you like, but this is a discussion about
proper speaker placement.
http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/home-theater/surround-sound-speaker-set-up/
