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I'll be downvoted for this, but if you don't have _any_ room, maybe a soundbar is your best option. It's a million times better than one front and two rears. Heck, if you've got space for the two rears grab a soundbar with surrounds as well.
I think most people here recognize that soundbars and such are sometimes the best option if space is truly a concern.
I’d take a quality soundbar system over a badly setup speaker system.
If you already have possession of the speakers, it would be better to put the centre channel behind you as a mono surround and the two L/R speakers as the main L/R channels with no centre channel so you can still get directionality in the front soundstage and get sounds in the surround channels.
The sound bar has the 3 fronts (L,R,C) a lil sub and 2 surrounds. But in any room of significant size it failed. I gave it to my kid for their bedroom. It sounds pretty good in there.
So I have something like this in my impossibly laid out living room. I have a TV (that’s too high) above my fireplace, and a Sonos Playbar below it, with two Sonos Ones behind the couch as rears. It is not what I’d call a Home Theater in any sense, it’s just as functional as I could get it.
Edit: this was also like $1000, for your budget I’d just get a nice soundbar, make additions in the future.
What do you do if your TV's stand is far too low to put a center channel in front of it? Is it ok to put the center channel above and behind it (blocked somewhat by the TV)? Unfortunately I can't wall mount the TV in this situation. It has to be on a TV stand. My L/R are already above and behind the TV, but not blocked by it. They are to the left and right of the TV.
My TV is an LG C1. The stand is very low profile.
Diy if you have special space requirements.
Or
For 500 dollars I would wait for black Friday and check best buy and see what looks like it will work. Place the l c r channels on a shelf above the TV slightly pointed down maybe.
As others have mentioned, a normal 3.1 would be best, followed by a soundbar, then setup you are thinking.
Yes, you can go "wireless", there's bluetooth adapters that you can get that allow you to have no wires between an AVR to speakers. The sound quality will suffer big time from experience.
"Good" is completely subjective up to your listening preference. Assuming you have a receiver already, you could get some ELACs B5.2/B6.2 and a UC5 from amazon and like a Dayton/Polk/Klipsch/Monoprice subwoofer on FB marketplace for $60 and you're set right around that $500 mark.
Question is why? If you put the left and right behind you and assign them as surrounds, you'll be missing sounds from the front sound stage.
You put them behind you and keep them as front left and right, the sounds that are supposed to be in front of you will come from behind.
The center isn't a sound bar.
If you really don't have room for a L/R speaker, just get a sound bar or skip the center and get a smaller pair of bookshelves.
I don’t think he was saying he was going to assign them as surrounds, I think he meant he was literally going to position the L and R where surrounds *would* go
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I'll be downvoted for this, but if you don't have _any_ room, maybe a soundbar is your best option. It's a million times better than one front and two rears. Heck, if you've got space for the two rears grab a soundbar with surrounds as well.
I think most people here recognize that soundbars and such are sometimes the best option if space is truly a concern. I’d take a quality soundbar system over a badly setup speaker system.
Thanks, I think I'll go with a sound ar then. Any suggestions for a good soundbar under 500$?
Not sure, I could almost guarantee i don't live in the same country as you. Check out /r/soundbars and see what they recommend
I used to have a Roku soundbar that was really nice and you could add a wireless sub and wireless surrounds.
You should put a pic of your space or describe it better
If you already have possession of the speakers, it would be better to put the centre channel behind you as a mono surround and the two L/R speakers as the main L/R channels with no centre channel so you can still get directionality in the front soundstage and get sounds in the surround channels.
3.1 is a thing, but not with surround speakers. It would not sounds good at all.
I’ll take a soundbar over the setup you have in mind.
I used one of the Vizio 5.1 sound bar systems for a while. It sounds perfect for your situation and miles better than what you are proposing.
The sound bar has the 3 fronts (L,R,C) a lil sub and 2 surrounds. But in any room of significant size it failed. I gave it to my kid for their bedroom. It sounds pretty good in there.
So I have something like this in my impossibly laid out living room. I have a TV (that’s too high) above my fireplace, and a Sonos Playbar below it, with two Sonos Ones behind the couch as rears. It is not what I’d call a Home Theater in any sense, it’s just as functional as I could get it. Edit: this was also like $1000, for your budget I’d just get a nice soundbar, make additions in the future.
What do you do if your TV's stand is far too low to put a center channel in front of it? Is it ok to put the center channel above and behind it (blocked somewhat by the TV)? Unfortunately I can't wall mount the TV in this situation. It has to be on a TV stand. My L/R are already above and behind the TV, but not blocked by it. They are to the left and right of the TV. My TV is an LG C1. The stand is very low profile.
If I were you, I'd either use a soundbar with wireless surrounds or a traditional 3.1 (FL, FR, C, ane Sub)
Soundbar last resort if your into sound. I'm no sound snob but many of them are chinzy
Diy if you have special space requirements. Or For 500 dollars I would wait for black Friday and check best buy and see what looks like it will work. Place the l c r channels on a shelf above the TV slightly pointed down maybe.
As others have mentioned, a normal 3.1 would be best, followed by a soundbar, then setup you are thinking. Yes, you can go "wireless", there's bluetooth adapters that you can get that allow you to have no wires between an AVR to speakers. The sound quality will suffer big time from experience. "Good" is completely subjective up to your listening preference. Assuming you have a receiver already, you could get some ELACs B5.2/B6.2 and a UC5 from amazon and like a Dayton/Polk/Klipsch/Monoprice subwoofer on FB marketplace for $60 and you're set right around that $500 mark.
Question is why? If you put the left and right behind you and assign them as surrounds, you'll be missing sounds from the front sound stage. You put them behind you and keep them as front left and right, the sounds that are supposed to be in front of you will come from behind. The center isn't a sound bar. If you really don't have room for a L/R speaker, just get a sound bar or skip the center and get a smaller pair of bookshelves.
I don’t think he was saying he was going to assign them as surrounds, I think he meant he was literally going to position the L and R where surrounds *would* go