All tower speakers in a 5.1 setup ?

[timetohunt]

For this question lets say good sound is the only factor. Forget price, space etc.

Given a decent tower speaker, any really, but for the sake of imagination, say Paradigm Studio 100s or Polk Ri12s or Klipsch RF83s..etc. Except for the subwoofer(s) how would this sound in a 5.1 or 5.? setup. Would this be ideal in terms of sound ?

 

[darien87]

In theory, it would be ideal in that you would have the exact same speaker producing all of your sound, so timbre matching would be optimal.

However, in practice I don't think it would work that well for the center and surrounds in terms of placement. Unless your TV is pretty high from the ground, a tower in front of it for a center isn't going to work. And tower's behind your sitting position, which would most likely be a couch, probably wouldn't be ideal for directing the sound to your ears.

 

[jliedeka]

I've thought about that. The only down side to consider is if you want to use a sub to fill in the low end. It may be tricky to get a good match as far as where to cross it over.

I finally decided on going with 5 monitors and a sub. You can get a better sounding speaker for your money with a monitor. The tradeoff there is you need 5 speaker stands and you can't play 2-channel in pure direct without losing the low end.

Jim

 

[croseiv]

With surround sound, the surround speakers really don't need to be "full range" because it's mainly an ambience kind of thing. You can go full sized (towers) up front and go bookshelf or surround speakers for your rears. In the Dolby Digital signal, I'm pretty certain the surround speakers don't get full range signal.

 

[obscbyclouds]

With surround sound, the surround speakers really don't need to be "full range" because it's mainly an ambience kind of thing. You can go full sized (towers) up front and go bookshelf or surround speakers for your rears. In the Dolby Digital signal, I'm pretty certain the surround speakers don't get full range signal.

Unless you're listening to SACD or DVD-A. In which case, it's probably better to have full range identical speakers.

In Dolby Digital, or DTS: surround speakers would get a full range signal if their crossover setting was set to large. However, it probably depends on the mixing that takes place for the movie if there's any information that low. If the crossover is set to a higher setting[i.e small], it will take the frequencies below that and send it along to the subwoofer.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I also think it is ideal to have 5 identical full-range towers PLUS a subwoofer.

If you can do it, go for it!

 

[supervij]

The sub is necessary, of course, because quite often there's low frequency sounds dedicated to that .1 channel and nowhere else.

If you can do towers all around, and if space and price is not a concern, then why not do it? The front three towers will hide well behind an acoustically transparant projection screen. And the surrounds will have to be elevated in some fashion to get their tweeters two to three feet above seated ear level.

cheers,
supervij

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The sub is necessary, of course, because quite often there's low frequency sounds dedicated to that .1 channel and nowhere else.

If you can do towers all around, and if space and price is not a concern, then why not do it? The front three towers will hide well behind an acoustically transparant projection screen. And the surrounds will have to be elevated in some fashion to get their tweeters two to three feet above seated ear level.

cheers,
supervij

I agree 100%!

 

[Warpdrv]

And the surrounds will have to be elevated in some fashion to get their tweeters two to three feet above seated ear level.

cheers,
supervij

That is the part that makes me have a hard time with that scenario, raising a Studio 100 2-3 ft above seated ear level to me would look somewhat rediculus.

Also, there is a limited amount of surround material in movie recordings, its just not nearly as powerful as the front 3 speakers, its more like ambient sound in movies, of coarse this is certainly an ideal situation for multichannel music.

Will you be using this system mainly for movies or music?
What is the ratio of movies/music?
Do you listen to multichannel music?

IMO, if its mainly for movies, and multichannel is not something you use your system for, I would say you could spend your money in better places in your system...

 

[markw]

There's the fly in the ointment.

...the surrounds will have to be elevated in some fashion to get their tweeters two to three feet above seated ear level.

By raising the rears a few feet above ear level, you cancel out the boundary reinforcement from the floor which tower speakers need to sound their best.

Why not just use the matching bookshelves in the first place and save floor space and money?

 

[Warpdrv]

By raising the rears a few feet above ear level, you cancel out the boundary reinforcement from the floor of which tower speakers need to sound their best.

Why not just use the matching bookshelves in the first place and save floor space and money?

Agreed..... there is a reason that both companies make surround models to support different layout scenarios. If your room is large enough you can use Studio 20's like I do for the side surrounds, but otherwise I have a smaller room setup with ADP's and they sound great as well...

I mainly prefer the more directive nature of the direct firing speakers, but placement of them in a small room is difficult. The ADP's do well in a small room, but its not the same IMO, more of a smearing of sound.

 

[supervij]

That is the part that makes me have a hard time with that scenario, raising a Studio 100 2-3 ft above seated ear level to me would look somewhat rediculus.

Hey, I thought a centre speaker mounted vertically on top of my TV would look ridiculous. The truth is, I was the only one who noticed it!

Yeah, a floorstander is meant to do just that: stand on the floor. I don't see any other real objection to having 5 or more towers all around. Still, price and space were no object, the OP said. Maybe he has a way for it to look aesthetically pleasing -- a partially obscured pedestal, perhaps?

cheers,
supervij

 

[jliedeka]

It's funny how opinions vary yet we all seem to agree that a sub is necessary. I'm in the 5 identical monitors plus sub camp. The bang for the buck is better and placement is a little easier. Plus level matching with the sub is easier.

I don't agree with the need to elevate surrounds. I like multichannel music as well as movies and I think direct radiators at ear level sound better. I found a pretty good compromise placement that sounds good for movies and music in my room. The trick is to focus them just behind your head.

Jim

 

[gene]

It's almost NEVER a good idea to go with 5 Full range speakers in a surround system b/c the speakers will almost always never be properly placed for optimal bass response. You are better off with 5 monitors that play flat down to 80Hz at high SPL and 2 or 4 subs.

See: http://www.audioholics.com/news/on-location-articles/home-theater-cruise-panel-2-setting-a-new-surround-sound-standard

That being said, with the proper measurement tools, and active equalization, you can run 2 full range towers up front and integrate them to 2 additional subs but its tricky and usually involves running the bass portions of the main speakers in mono and thru the LFE/sub channel. They only way to truly get a good blend of all bass sources is to have them play the identical signal all of the time.

Also, placing full range towers at ear level is very distracting for surrrounds unless you can put some distance from them and the listening area. I still prefer having my surround speakers slighly above ear level and optimally places side surrounds and surround backs.

 

[Starmax]

7.1 Floorstanding Surrounds

I set-up my room with seven speakers - Polk RTi12's in front, RTi 10's on the side, RTi 8's in the back and a CSi5 for the center. I have two Hsu VTF-3 MK2 subs positioned l/r in the front, and a Klipsch RSW12 dedicated to the LFE channel. I set everything up using the Audyssey program supplied with my Denon 5805 receiver. The side and back tower tweeters are almost at ear level (aided by the fact my couch sits low), and all I can say is the sound ROCKS, whether I'm playing DVD-Audios, SACDs, music videos, cds, or movies. I'm sure I could tweak it more (elevating rears) etc. to get incremental improvement in sound. However, if you've already got the hardware (which I did) I say go for it. At worst, it will sound damn good (I'm far from an expert, but I read this site to know quality components from junk), and at best, well, audio nirvana is the limit.