Suggestions on Rear & Side Surround Full or BookShelf Speakers

[Yamaheart]

As I've seen members using Floorstander speakers for their Rear & side surround. How are floorstanders go against bookshelves in this case. Of course bigger is better but by what margin? A 5.1 set up uses Side Surround, a 7.1 set up added Rear Surround, the question is do Side surround play a major role over Rear or vice versa or whatever is playing from the source? Can I set Presence Speakers using 5.1 set up? Thanks.

 

[XEagleDriver]

As I've seen members using Floorstander speakers for their Rear & side surround. How are floorstanders go against bookshelves in this case. Of course bigger is better but by what margin?

IMHO floorstanders are overkill for HT purposes, but there is a more persuasive argument for using them in MC music applications such as SACD. This is a relatively expensive upgrade, I would lean towards purchasing better frontstage speakers vice this option--but I am pretty budget conscious in my upgrades. Additionally, either WAF or room layout can make floorstander surrounds problematic.

A 5.1 set up uses Side Surround, a 7.1 set up added Rear Surround, the question is do Side surround play a major role over Rear or vice versa or whatever is playing from the source?

5.1 surrounds are much more important than 7.1 rears--using floorstanders as rears would be silly use of cash in my opinion.

Can I set Presence Speakers using 5.1 set up? Thanks.

Yes, your 3800 can be set to assign the surround back amplifiers to support presence speakers. I did it for a while with a V659 and it was fun to play around with, assuming you don't mind DSP vice Direct mode sound reproduction. Overtime, I went back to no-presence and Direct mode.

Cheers,
XEagleDriver

 

[m_vanmeter]

I agree with "eagledriver's" comments. Unless you are into multichannel music, or think you will be, towers are usually not required for surrounds...there is just not that much audio information on the typical movie surround channels, and the added "rear" channels in a 7.1 setup carry even less.

However....there is one time where towers can pay for themselves. When you are going to need to buy stands for the bookshelf speakers because of your room setup, then towers can usually be purchased for the same price as the bookshelf/stand combo. I used this technique with a family member's setup, using Polk R50 tower speakers for surrounds because there was no convenient furniture available to support bookshelf units and they did not want to mount anything to the walls. The system works very well and they are very pleased with the looks and results.

An example of a great sale on a budget 4 tower + matched center channel system is the Jamo E660 setup http://www.wwstereo.com/website/ecommerce/productdetail.aspx?product=E6605.0

 

[sptrout]

I agree with the comments of the other posters and would like to add one more that is kind of related to m_vanmeter's comments. I recently changed my surrounds from large heavy towers to Infinity's Beta 20's (because one of the two surrounds died, and I wanted to match my fronts before the 20's disappeared forever).

I have the 20's sitting on 36" stands on hardward wood floors. Since the Beta 20's just happen to weigh in at slightly over 20 pounds, these two speakers are top heavy and could be dangerous to any kids that may happen to knock one over. Just a consideration....

 

[Yamaheart]

I have another question:

As per my Yamaha RX-V3800's manual, a 5.1 set up considered 2 Side Left/Right Surrounds and they are at 6-feet high. But I see some of the member's 5.1 theater in here but they had their Side Surround far back to the Rear Wall being used as Rear. Is that because due to space restriction? Or because their seat is all the way back? Thanks..

 

[sptrout]

The "surrounds" should be mounted at ear level or slightly higher, and at about 90 to 110 degrees. For a 7.x system, speakers 6 & 7 should be mounted behind the main listening position again at about ear level. These are Dobly Labs' recommendations not to mention most others.

The problem that comes up often is that specific room layouts do not allow for the recommended solutions, then the "Rules Change" as required.