My take on "rear fill"

[NoDestiny]

Another question on this subject: Is it better to have a wider rear fill, or further back? I basically have the two options: Put them about 2 feet behind me, very wide apart, or at the end of the hatch (maybe 5 feet), but puts them quite a bit closer together.

[KillerBox]

NoDestiny in my SUV (Lexus version of the Land Cruiser), I am using a JBL MS8 in Logic7 processor. I don’t know if you would classify my system as a 5.1 or 7.2 system but, I split the 2 rear channels of my MS-8 to feed 4 different amplifier channels.

Which in turn feeds 6.5” separates in the rear doors and 4” separates mounted on pods behind the 3^rd row seats. Since they are different amplifier channels, I can easily adjust their output.

In my opinion with a proper processor, the rear door speakers help a lot more as long as you can mount the tweeter high in the door. The rear door speakers help with my stage width and 3^rd row speakers just add a little more ambiance.

[Queef]

Spread em Wide ! NoDestiny, you bandpassing/attenuating/playing what is left after whatever is being played (majority of signals) have been removed ?

[NoDestiny]

Sounds like high and wide is the right way to go, then? I'll have to play around with my car's options and see what I can come up with, then! Thanks.

I'm planning a dedicated MiniDSP 2x4 w/ the rear fill plugin for this setup.

[Mr Marv]

Sounds like high and wide is the right way to go, then? I'll have to play around with my car's options and see what I can come up with, then! Thanks.

I'm planning a dedicated MiniDSP 2x4 w/ the rear fill plugin for this setup.

I was taught high/wide is ideal but I have seen others have success in other locations as well and how far back shouldn't matter imo as your goal is to delay the rears 20-21 milliseconds from the front stage so the only thing distance should change is the amount of delay you will need to reach the goal.

[nadams5755]

Tradition rear fill logic: Aim forward for depth and aim across for extra width. Both should help with sense of space/room.

the further back your rear fill is, less delay you need.

[naiku]

One question I have is: What is the optimal placement and aiming direction for rear fill in a hatchback? I'm making my trunk from scratch, so I have a lot of options. For instance: Rear fire VS forward firing VS upward firing? As far back in the trunk as possible VS closer to the seating position? My assumption is I'd want them as far back as possible and rear or up firing, but figured I'd ask.

I have a wagon, so not quite the same, but similar in that it is open. I initially had rear fill mounted in the rear doors in the OEM locations, bit of a waste of time there to be honest, because the speakers were so close to the drivers seat I had to turn them down so much that it was pointless. After a while I decided to try on the little plastic areas that are to the side of the cargo cover, that moved the speakers up closer to ear height and also moved them back about 3-4' in distance. Having them up and further back made a huge difference for me, still took a while to dial things in as I have found depending on what I am listening to some things have way more of an effect with rear fill than others. But, definitely as far back as you can go. I even debated at one point putting them in the D-pillars at the side of the trunk opening.

i can say it's tough to get rear-fill correct.

not enough delay? pulls back.
too much output? pulls back.
too much delay? unnatural echos.
not enough output? no effect.
not centered correctly? steers staging cues left or right.

Absolutely agree with this, it takes a LOT of experimentation and trial and error to get it just right. At the moment I think my output is not quite enough, so need to tweak it some. I also had a difficult time with the stage pulling to the right at one point, took me the longest time to figure out that it was the left rear speaker being too loud and causing the stage to pull right. I kept checking speakers on the right and wondering why nothing made a difference.

Good luck with it though, I really enjoy the effect it gives. In my particular vehicle it seems to add a huge amount of stage width.