Floor Stander Speakers As Surround Speakers.

J

jasper08

Audioholic Intern
A friend told me that the idea surround speakers are floor stander speakers. Is there any truth in it? I just want know the pros and cons of it. Have anyone overhere try it?
 
MidnightSensi

MidnightSensi

Audioholic Samurai
Floor speakers have their advantages over satelites, but really the main benefit of floor standing speakers is that they can have better extension due to a larger enclosure size. But the lower a frequency gets, the less we can tell where it comes from. That's why a "snap" (like twigs in a forest when someone is sneaking up on you) is generally easy to find where a rumble isn't. So, most content mixed into the rear speakers in a surround mix are higher frequency.

While a floor standing speaker may be nice to have in the rears, it isn't essential and, in most cases, the money spent on floor standing speakers for the rears would be better spent having satelites for the rears and spending more money on the front soundstage.
 
Cruise Missile

Cruise Missile

Full Audioholic
Midnight's right with one slight oversight. As far as movies go satellites are perfect, surround music stage mixes such as those found on SACD & DVD-A are the only surround mixes that could really use the extended freq response of floor standers in the rear. Unless surround music is super imortant to you, follow Midnights' advice.
 
CraigV

CraigV

Audioholic General
For movie surround effects, you should go with a good pair of dipole or bipole speakers which are in the same model line as your mains.
 
O

oppman99

Senior Audioholic
I've only seen a couple of set-ups that use towers for surrounds. Mainly by people who have extra cash and don't know what to spend it on. Seems like overkill for movies, but if you have the money to blow, why not? I can see where they would be an advantage for multi-channel music if you have the space and the extra power to drive them.
 
just-some-guy

just-some-guy

Audioholic Field Marshall
i see a lot of guys putting bookshelfs on stand. that end up at the same height as floor standers. perhaps thats your friends reasoning ?

i am about to take delivery of my new fronts. my current floor standers are going to the surrounds. but they will be elevated about 3'. as i don't like surrounds at head level.
 
engtaz

engtaz

Full Audioholic
A friend told me that the idea surround speakers are floor stander speakers. Is there any truth in it? I just want know the pros and cons of it. Have anyone overhere try it?
I prefer them for side surrounds. Easy placement and fuller sound. Rear surround can be either just depends on placement needs.
 
lsiberian

lsiberian

Audioholic Overlord
A friend told me that the idea surround speakers are floor stander speakers. Is there any truth in it? I just want know the pros and cons of it. Have anyone overhere try it?
I disagree. I think Dipoles mounted up a bit on the wall make the best surrounds. Floor standers are the ideal stereo listening speakers IMO because of their extension, but I don't even think they are necessary for Home Theater. A good bookshelf can extend to 100 or 80 hz. just fine with an F3 or 50 to 40 hz.

Then a pair of subs can take care of the rest.

Of course if you have a huge room then you will need floor standers for the fronts, but dipoles for your surrounds should have ample volume for effects.

Honestly I use small satellites for my surrounds and they work perfectly fine. I have no plans to upgrade yet. :D
 
gixxerific

gixxerific

Audioholic
Some say to have all 5 or so speakers be the exact same. May be a bit overboard but it sure would be sweet.
 
J

jostenmeat

Audioholic Spartan
A friend told me that the idea surround speakers are floor stander speakers. Is there any truth in it? I just want know the pros and cons of it. Have anyone overhere try it?
Extension. I very recently swapped my rather large bookshelves being used for sides and rears to smaller units. The new sides are bipoles. I can definitely tell there is some extension missing. And I haven't even tried yet what I find to be the most taxing soundtrack IMO being the DTSMA track for Band of Brothers.

I went with bipoles because they are easily wall mountable, and due to an AH article I read, they could be desirable for greater coverage in a multi row theater. Otherwise, I really liked the larger bookshelves. Towers would be cool for HT, but ya know, there's the looks of it all. To fire over blocking seat backs, some folks use risers for the towers.

So, I disagree that sats would not benefit from greater extension in the HT. Sure, you can argue all day long if it's even worth it at all, for the hassle, or looks, or costs, or whatever. But, I think a lot of people confuse difficulty of implementation with what is better. You could say the same for threads regarding height surrounds, and other DSP. Just because it's a pain, or expensive, or ugly, people seem* to sometimes equate that to equal "no benefit". Or sometimes that is the impression that I am left with.

Some say to have all 5 or so speakers be the exact same. May be a bit overboard but it sure would be sweet.
Yeah, and if you want to take it further, have all of them equidistant. :D


EDIT: otherwise, I agree with Sensi's viewpoint. Ditto. But, for the record, I would never say "NO benefit" as others might.
 
DD66000

DD66000

Senior Audioholic
Some say to have all 5 or so speakers be the exact same. May be a bit overboard but it sure would be sweet.
Its the best way as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who has heard my 7.4, using all identical 7speakers would also agree.

I don't believe one needs to use bi/dipole speakers for surrounds, but to each his/her own.
 
walter duque

walter duque

Audioholic Samurai
A friend told me that the idea surround speakers are floor stander speakers. Is there any truth in it? I just want know the pros and cons of it. Have anyone overhere try it?
I use floorstanding speakers for my surrounds, they are build in mirrow image. The tweeter fires streight up, the mids forward and inward and the woofers fire out. And they sound awesome, but they cost $2200.00.
compressed files.jpg
 
just-some-guy

just-some-guy

Audioholic Field Marshall
i now have towers as my surrounds, dual 8" 3ways. 27" off floor, total height 68 1/2".
will use them this weekend.
 
agarwalro

agarwalro

Audioholic Ninja
I use floorstanding speakers for my surrounds, they are build in mirrow image. The tweeter fires streight up, the mids forward and inward and the woofers fire out. And they sound awesome, but they cost $2200.00.
Is the picture your arrangement? By far the most unique... Certainly not on DD or THX guidelines for speaker placement. Its a WTF - Walter Tries Floorstanders arrangement...;):D
 
walter duque

walter duque

Audioholic Samurai
Is the picture your arrangement? By far the most unique... Certainly not on DD or THX guidelines for speaker placement. Its a WTF - Walter Tries Floorstanders arrangement...;):D
Since I sold my house I ended up in an apartment. These are my speakers from my house, except the ones you see behind the couch I used to use them for surrounds and the towers for rears, about 8' behind the seating area. But for now this works great. I still get great sound without the space that I am used too. These towers are designed as designated rear speakers and they are build in mirrow image. Mine also have a tweeter firing stright up. Attached is a lower bookshelf version without a side firing woofer, even these little ones are over $1000.00 a pair but to me it's well worth it. And they can take 350 Watts with out any sings of stain. The highest I had it running was 127db, usually I listend to my system around 115db. That's comfortable for both the speakers and amps. I call it the save zone.
http://www.sourcespeaker.com/RC-4a.html
 
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