Optimum speaker height for home theater.

I have 4 di-pole surround speakers at about 7ft high, at that height the do not call attention to themselves and fill the room better. In my younger days I had them low, then I grew up. I am not sure if ear level is better or not for music applications.....but it seems to me the higher more ambient the better.

I've found sides and rears elevated to about 6', do a nice job. It depends on the type speakers used and your room shape and dimensions.
Dipoles and bipoles both seem to do OK at that height, in my experience. I recommend you consult the manual of your receiver or processor.
I don't think it would be productive to have them at "movie theater height".
Good Listening!

I plan to go to a 9.1 setup. All of the surround speakers will be full-range Infinity Kappa 9. The surrounds will not be used for music at all....only for home theater.

The Kappa 9 are 5ft tall. I was considering mounting them at 10ft off the floor (my ceiling is 22ft high).

I consulted the manual of my processor. From looking at the speaker placement diagram, it was designed for conventional sized residential rooms. My room is far from conventional at 22ft wide and 70ft long with a 22ft ceiling height. I don't think Sunfire had my room in mind when they printed the speaker placement diagram.

Mitch that sounds like a great room if you place the speakers and set the delay correctly. It will be cool to see pics on your system when you get it all up and running....good luck

Movie theatre speaker setups have nothing to do with good sound. The side speakers are up high so that when the theatre is full, the people on the edges don't block the sound for the people in the middle. It just helps with dispersion. It's also why nuclear weapons work best when they explode above the gound rather than at ground level, although I don't know why I just thought of that.

Another thing that theatres do is pump up the volume in the centre dialog speaker so that people on the side don't get blasted with sound from side speakers. You end up with theatre sound that's closer to mono.

Ear level is best because higher frequencies are more directional. However, original surround sound was primarily for low frequency effects. A high location for the speaker doesn't matter because the low frequncies are not very directional. You get the effect no matter where the speaker is. For discrete surround, the practicalities mentioned above take precedence over the niceties of good sound reproduction. High mounted speakers also keep kids from from shoving fingers through speaker cones or stuffing garbage in speaker ports.