Seeking advice/opinions etc. on side surround speakers...

[Happy Joe]

I use my living room as my home theater and listening room.Its your basic 17 foot x 12 ' 4" x 8' box.
having the main listening position against the end wall in the long direction and social seating against the other walls.
The corners are occupied by speaker towers. Polk R-700s at the front and NHT 2.5 I speakers in the rear

I'm looking for thin-ish wall mount-able side surround speaker options, at, hopefully, a moderate budget.
So far the cheapest option that I have come up with are a pair of, stacked, 6 1/16 inch deep, Polk es-35 center channel speakers

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-d3bQ9ofR8wi/p_107ES35WN/Polk-Audio-Signature-Elite-ES35-Walnut.html?tp=189

mounted to each of the long walls (above a small table on one side and above a loveseat on the other). I realize small speakers are not great at sound reproduction; but I'm willing to take the hit to get side surround sound effects. ( ... and I have several of these that are seeking usefulness).
Note; I am not willing to do "in the wall" speakers.

...Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome...

Enjoy!

 

[j_garcia]

Well, it says they go to 68Hz and you HAVE them, so I don't see why not. Not ideal obviously, but no reason why they wouldn't work.

 

[Happy Joe]

Thanks, for the response.

Note: I do intend to add at least one high quality subwoofer; in the future and all of the on the wall speakers (KEF, Martin logan, Focal) that I have been looking at on line seem to need/recommend subwoofer support.

I have mocked up the 2 speaker stack on one wall (sitting on the back of the loveseat) and it seems to give a fuller/richer sound than just one of the es-35s. I haven't noticed any significant boomy-ness yet... the 2 speaker stack should give roughly a 3 db level increase.

Enjoy!

 

[lovinthehd]

You're planning on doubling up these speakers on the same amp channels?

 

[Happy Joe]

Yes; in series for approximately a 16 ohm load (unless a better choice comes along)... quality amps should allow this.
I hesitate to put them in parallel (giving a possible load of less than 4 ohms at some frequencies) as the power supply in the Denon X3800h seems a bit on the anemic side... Though admittedly it has a lot to power with most outputs driven.
It's why I put an higher power amp on the front L & R; to drive the power hungry R700s.

In recent years, after the brand left Japan, some Denon products seem to have become, slightly, pale imitations of what they once were, IMO. Now it looks like Marantz is staging a bit of a comeback.

(I took about a 20 year time out from home audio to concentrate on building Difficult Terrain 4WDs (four wheel drive vehicles))...And Camping in hard to access places.


Enjoy!

 

[TLS Guy]

Yes; in series for approximately a 16 ohm load (unless a better choice comes along)... quality amps should allow this.
I hesitate to put them in parallel (giving a possible load of less than 4 ohms at some frequencies) as the power supply in the Denon X3800h seems a bit on the anemic side... Though admittedly it has a lot to power with most outputs driven.
It's why I put an higher power amp on the front L & R; to drive the power hungry R700s.

In recent years, after the brand left Japan, some Denon products seem to have become, slightly, pale imitations of what they once were, IMO. Now it looks like Marantz is staging a bit of a comeback.

(I took about a 20 year time out from home audio to concentrate on building Difficult Terrain 4WDs (four wheel drive vehicles))...And Camping in hard to access places.
View attachment 73901

Enjoy!

You never wire complete speakers with crossovers in parallel. You can wire individual drivers. Two per side will be way worse than one. You should mount those speakers vertically and NOT horizontally. Even if you did that you would gain zero output as the loss of output going to 16 ohm will cancel the increase in output of having two. Going to 16 ohm would loose you 3db. Using two speakers gains you 3db. So no upsides, only downsides.

 

[Happy Joe]

... Thanx!
Vertical mounting doesn't fit well, although I prefer it due to the, potential interference patterns (in combination with head movement; sometimes results in dead spots during movement).


Enjoy!

 

[TLS Guy]

... Thanx!
Vertical mounting doesn't fit well, although I prefer it due to the, potential interference patterns (in combination with head movement; sometimes results in dead spots during movement).


Enjoy!

Yes, vertical mounting is much preferred. As you probably know, a center is not the preferred speaker for this application. So, a lot depends on what your expectations are.

 

[Wardog555]

Kef q4meta and arendal 1961 will be significantly better.

Sounds like you need to be away from walls to solve your problems.