New rears

[ErnieM]

I’m looking to buy some new rear speakers for my 5.1 system (see signature). The VT-254s I’m now using will be retasked to a second zone in the kitchen. One possibility is a pair of Audioengine P4s (see review below) which my wife likes because they are about half as tall as my Hsu fronts.

http://stereomojo.com/Audio%20Engine%20P4%20Speaker%20Review/AudioEngineP4SpeakerReview.htm

Usage: 60% movies, 40% music, ranging from classic rock to jazz to classical. The room is 12 wide by 20 long with an 8 ft ceiling. My primary listening position is on the width axis about 2 feet to the right of center and on the length axis about 14 feet back. The rears would be much closer to me, at about 3 ft for the right rear (and almost directly behind me) and at about 7 ft over my left shoulder for the left rear.

How closely do I need to match speaker efficiency? My HB-1 MK 2 fronts are rated at 92dB sensitivity while the P4s are 88 dB.

My budget is $300/pair or less. If I bought the same as my fronts (HB-1 MK 2 in rosenut finish) the price is $360 /pr. If I go with black, they’d run 300. The Audioengine P4s are 250/pr, well within my budget. If I can stay around $250 then perhaps my financial advisor (read: wife) will be more quick to approve my next upgrade: an Oppo BDP 83. I can go with black and the since we don’t have small children or dogs, the fact that the P4s have no grill is not a big issue.

Thanks to any and all who respond!

 

[Hasselhof]

you can equalize for difference in efficiency by turning up or down for the individual speaker pairs in your receivers speaker setup. So I would not worry about that.

I would however try to get speakers as similar to your front speakers as possible to get the most homogeneous sound. So identical speakers would be optimal, which also takes care of the need to adjust for efficiency.

But with most things in the home, keeping the wife happy will result in more joy and relaxation than any piece of electronics

 

[sholling]

You're already running Hsu HB-1 bookshelves as mains so I'd go with two more for surrounds. The color is a matter of personal taste. You might even want to call them and see if they have any b-stock on hand. The only disadvantage that I can think of is they need some room behind them for the ports to do their job.