RE: Where to put surround sound speakers...

["Nick Tyson - The Edge" <nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

That's true of surround sound, but can the same be said of the discrete
"surround" channel formats? (ie. 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 etc.)

Absolutely, the sound you get in cinemas is discrete 5.1 (or whatever).
Just because the sound is ambient doesn't mean you don't maintain
steering between left and right surrounds, for example the left-hand
surround sound is still obviously coming from the left, it's just not
obvious exactly where from.

As an aside, for a difuse sound field, would in-ceiling speakers be a
good solution?

We've found ceiling speakers can work very well, especially the dipole
versions so that once again you're spreading sound around the listener
rather than firing it straight at him. As with all systems, try and
match the surrounds voice-wise, with the rest of the system so that
movement of sound is more seamless (so the Harley Davidson doesn't turn
into a Vespa as it jumps from the front to surround speakers).

Nick