Speaker Positioning Guide — Stereo / 5.1 / 7.1 / Atmos

Free interactive speaker placement guide for home cinema systems. Switch between stereo, 5.1, 7.1 and 7.1.4 (Atmos with 4 height speakers) — each renders a top-down room diagram with correct Dolby/THX angles, listener position, screen orientation, and per-speaker labels. Includes precise angle/distance recommendations from each official standard.

Placement principles

1
Symmetry first

Each L/R pair must be the same distance and angle from the listener. Even 10 cm asymmetry is audible.

2
Height of front L/C/R

Aim tweeters at seated ear height (typically 110–120 cm). Center can sit just below or above the screen — angled toward listener.

3
Subwoofer placement

Use the "subwoofer crawl" — place sub at the listening position, walk around the room until you find the spot with smoothest bass, put the sub there.

4
Atmos heights

Real ceiling speakers are best. Up-firing modules sitting on top of front L/R reflect off ceiling — works ok with low textured ceilings, poorly with high vaulted ceilings.

Top-down diagrams for stereo, 5.1, 7.1 and Atmos — Dolby/THX angles

Best heard on headphones or a properly placed system. Each test pad pans pink noise (or a sub-frequency sweep / dialog-band noise for the centre and sub) through HRTF to mimic that speaker's position.
Published