(1) According to Dolby Surrounds should never be Direct Radiating because movie sound engineer mix then to be filler sound and atmosphere rather than percise and as such should only be bipole, dipole or quadrapole. (2) Surrounds should be placed with a Tweeter height of 2'-3' feet above the listeners ears at the Seated posistion.
Saying that "movie sound engineers mix them to be filler sound and atmosphere rather than precise" is not a hard-and-fast rule. For example, movies like Gravity
do have precise and discreet audio going into the surround speakers. There are many scenes where the actors are talking (in their spacesuits) while the camera is panning around. The audio of their voices moves around all the speakers so their voices match their position (both on and off camera), and the effect is
quite stunning.
The second rule you mentioned I consider a general guideline and is often not feasible in many living rooms, and plus the design of the QS4/8 makes them somewhat forgiving and flexible regarding their placement. The average person's ears are roughly 3' (plus or minus several inches) above the ground while seated comfortably on the couch. Obviously this number varies depending on the height of the person, type of furniture, posture, etc, but let's just use 3' as a nice round number. That 2'-3' rule you mentioned would mean that the surrounds would have to be 5'-6' above the ground. Of course the surrounds also have to be at the proper angle behind the listening position. Unless you just happened to have equidistant walls that allowed you to mount the speakers at both the proper height
and angle behind the LP, you would either need very tall speaker stands or the speakers would have to hang down 3'-4' from a 9' ceiling, which in both scenarios would look unacceptable to many people (and all wives
). I've got my QS8's hanging down from the ceiling about half a foot and angled downward toward the LP. When playing a movie at louder volumes (the higher volumes all home theater enthusiasts watch their movies at
), the sound bouncing off the ceiling along with the quadpole effect creates a wide soundstage that you can't tell are coming from speakers 5' above you.
