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Sonos five stereo placement above ear level

  • 17 July 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 808 views

I have a new pair of Sonos five’s that I will be using in a large kitchen with vaulted ceiling. I was originally going to go with in wall speakers with a sonos amp, but I promised my wife I’d try not to cut the walls if possible. The only good place to put them is on top of the kitchen cabinets on either side of the stove. I’m assuming a vertical placement would be best for stereo imaging. My other decision is whether to use the flexson wall mounts to angle them down a bit or to simply mount them on top of the cabinets facing forward. Does it matter or can the built in room correction fix it? I have an old play:5 up there to see how it will work and it sounds OK, but a bit muddy. 

 

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8 replies

K

My other decision is whether to use the flexson wall mounts to angle them down a bit or to simply mount them on top of the cabinets facing forward. Does it matter or can the built in room correction fix it? I have an old play:5 up there to see how it will work and it sounds OK, but a bit muddy. 

 

Angle them down to point to the listening area, then do the room correction; the latter process is always better served by first doing all that is practical to orient the speakers correctly. Horizontal/vertical is less important; room correction should take care of that.

U
Userlevel 1
Badge +4

I have a pair of fives and a pair of ones at 7’ high, the fives are in the flexson vertical mount. I like it how mine are. 

J

I guess if I want to angle them the flexson is the only solution. That should look the cleanest as well. Thanks. 

melvimbe

I guess if I want to angle them the flexson is the only solution. That should look the cleanest as well. Thanks. 

 

I probably wouldn’t want to go with a mount given you’d have to drill into the tiling and all that.  Definitely agree that you want to angle this down, but you should be able to use some old books, wooden blocks, or something custom to raise the speaker up over the molding and tilted downward at a slight angle.  You don’t need much of an angle.

Danny
Stanley_4
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I mounted my Play 5 on the cabinet top, just used a homegrown plywood wedge under it to get the angle I wanted. Mounted it horizontal as that kept the spouse happier with the appearance.

Ran Trueplay on it and was very satisfied with the sound.

J

I definitely wanted to go with the wedge approach, but I didn’t think that would work if I want them vertical for “true stereo sound”. I have the mounts, I’ll see what works once they get here next week. 

K

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that horizontal is any less true stereo in the given space. And assuming your mounts will be on the wall, I can’t see how the mounted speakers will be able to be tilted down to not point at the top of the cupboards. 

Wedges allowing the speakers to be at the front edge of the cupboards may be the best, just make sure they don’t slide off the wedge to the floor.

I would first see how they sound minus any wedge, units placed right at the front edges, with true play done. And since it is easily done, try this in both speaker orientations.

J

Sounds like a plan. Thank you all for the replies. Sending back the flexsons would certainly save some money. 

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