large vs. small surrounds?

[rack04]

In a small apartment living area what would the advantages of using bookshelf speakers over satellites for rear surround. My preliminary thoughts are that I am going to be limited on space so therefore I am contimplating going with satellites mounted on speaker stands. Seems to me that bookshelves mounted on speaker stands would be too noticeable in a small room. Can anyone recommend a good pair of satellites for the situation? If it helps at all here is a pic of the apartment floorplan.

 

[JoeE SP9]

By satellites do you mean something like B(l)ose mini-cubes? Bi-polar surrounds tend to give a larger more difuse sound field. For those of us who have large floor standers most small bookshelfs classify as satellites. Even with DPL and very small rears I notice a difference in bass response when the rears are engaged. I think in any room/rig the size of the rears is not as important as tonally matching your fronts. Purchasing all your speakers from the same manufacturer will probably give better overall sound. Speakers from a given manufacturer will have the same sort of (house) sound.

 

[rack04]

What I am trying to stay away from is having the rear channel speakers make cludder in the small room. I am looking for a relatively easy and inexpensive way to add rear channel sound in apartment living. I don't want to spend too much because in about 1 year I will be moving into a house, which then I will buy all new stuff. Can anyone give any recommendations on a good/cheap speaker stand? Here is one that I found but I don't know anything about it, including if and how bookshelf speaker attaches to it. Seems to me that to have the rear channel speakers above the ear height you would need a stand to be at least 31". The bookshelf speakers that I am looking at are the Athena Technologies AS-B1. Any help is very apprecated.

 

[JoeE SP9]

The system my brother and I set up for our mother uses Sanus stands. They are not overly expensive don't look to bad and do the job. you will probably want to staple/tape or attach the speaker cables to the stands for aesthetic purposes.

 

[Unregistered]

which room the den or living room ??

 

[rack04]

This setup is for the living room in the above floorplan. Typically, how do speakers attach to the stands?

 

[JoeE SP9]

We used small dabs of bluetack in the coners of the stands mounting plates. We didn't have to worry too much about them being tipped over because the size of the speakers made a 22" stand height just right. We had to add a sub as my mom was not happy with the bass without a sub. She has been listening to my rig and my brothers rig and has been spoiled.

 

[rack04]

I guess the first thing would be to find out what stand height is needed for a 13-3/4" height x 7" width x 9-1/2" length speaker. Should the rear channel speakers be mounted on stands such that the height of the tweeter is above the listener's ear? So there is no bracket provided with the stands that secures the speaker? To hide the wires I hope to persuade my girlfriend to pick out a rug that she likes, and I will run the cables under it and the couch to the rear channel speakers.

 

[JoeE SP9]

Tweeter height usually should be around ear height or slightly higher. I should add that a lot of listeners place the rear speakers rather high and aimed down.This may be because of space restrictions. The taller stands have smaller platforms for speaker mounting. Using blue tack to mount the speakers provides a semi-permanent method. If you can't find blue tack mortite is available at almost all hardware stores. A small bead in the corner of each stands platform works best. Squash it flat. In most cases the speaker will be larger than the stands mounting platform.

 

[rack04]

Should the rear channel speakers be skewed in towards the listener?

 

[JoeE SP9]

I would urge you to experiment. Until I knocked down a wall to enlarge my listening room I had my rears pointed at the back wall. I have seen them pointed at the ceiling and at the back wall. I believe this is because you don't want them too close. Currently my rears are about 7ft. apart 6ft. behind my seat. they are pointed ahead and toed in slightly. They are not the same ones I had pointed at the wall. The old ones were boxes the current ones are ES panels.