How far apart should the front L and R speakers be?

I haven't a clue but i would imagine Dolby has it right.

http://www.dolby.com/gb/en/consumer/setup/connection-guide/home-theater-...

I totally ignored the HOW FAR APART should they be. It is irrelevant in my situation due to room configuration having a wedge & a door right where my F/R speaker should be. I decided to just go equidistant as much as possible from the sweet spot seat, it certainly works well for me. Both my F/R & F/L are around around 8-9 feet from the centre & all are a similar distance from me. Lets face it nothing is perfect unless purpose built.

Regards ... Paul

Symmetry is the important factor when it comes to placing them. The fronts should be ideally in line with your rear speakers, so 3 feet apart from either side of the screen seems to be about right.  This was the advice given by B&W, Dolby and many retailers I spoke to.  It seems to work very well for me.  Of course you can try and play with it and there is no exact science, however the general consensus is what i mentioned above.

Also distance from your viewing position is crucial, which Dolby has on the site.

Hope that helps

That's the first time I've ever heard that before, not least because in a 5.1 configuration it's generally recommended that the "rear" speakers should actually be to the side of the listening position.

Agreed. If the fronts are in line with the rears, you won't get a proper surround effect (unless your room is large enough that you're seated in the middle & not close to the wall).

This rectangular configuration also seems wrong to me. I agree with The_Lhc, as do THX: http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entertainment/home-theater/surround-sound-speaker-set-up/

Oldboy, I don't see how a strict 'distance' can ever make sense, just aim for as close to an equilateral triangle as you can, with L & R level with centre. 

Very many thanks to all of you for your input.

I was just experimenting with my room layout as i moved my sofa nearer to the screen and into the room further to get the nearest i could to the Dolby 5.1 set up and the speakers did seem a little far apart to me in this configuration. Due to the constraints of my room it's impossible to get the ideal set up as i'm sure it is for most people unless you are fortunate enough to have a cinema room and not your average living room but it's a case of i either get the correct angles for the fronts or go with the 3 feet apart approach.

I guess the only way is to experiment with it so when the new tv turns up tomorrow i will have a play around with the two set ups and see which i find the best solution, i'm thinking somewhere inbetween may end up being the best solution. I've got my rears wall mounted in the corners behind my seating position and at the correct height and the centre is in line with the fronts too so it's all set up nicely apart from the position of the fronts.

I do have another issue aswell since moving the sofa and changing the configuration, i can no longer get the sub between either front speaker and the centre as advised by Dolby and THX. All i can do is place it to the outside and near to the corner of the room, is this an issue? I know bass isn't directional but im concerned that with it now being close to the corner of the room it will negatively affect the bass, any ideas?

Can you give us a photo so we can give more specific views re the positioning of the fronts?

I wouldn't worry too much about the sub, unless there's a problem with booming. You can try 'crawling for bass' but if you're positioning is limited (as mine is) it's just not worth getting bothered by. 

I will try! The last time i tried to upload a photo i had all sorts of issues trying to get them onto the site, hopefully i won't have such issues this time around. Picture quality won't be great as will be using the phone or iPod touch but should be good enough for you to see the layout at the front.

You don't upload pictures directly to this site, you put them on a photo sharing site (flickr or some such) and link to them from there.

Thanks The_Lhc, i've uploaded the photos to Flickr but how do i now get them onto the forum???

Copy the http location of the image (it'll end in .jpg), start a new post here, click the little tree icon in the toolbar and paste the location of the image.

Don't know how large the image will appear on the forum so hope you can see it ok, this is how it looks at the moment...excuse the messy cables, next job on the list this weekend once the new tv is in place as then i can run all the trunking.

Thank you very much, hey presto it works!

The distance between front speakers looks fine to me.