Re: Does pairing a good AV receiver matter more to a HTS than having excellent speake
From the choice of equipment that fedexp posted earlier, it looks like the fronts are more powerful and are 3-way.
I don't understand what you mean by "more powerful". Bigger? Louder?
BTW, the TSi 300 is a 2-way speaker (one tweeter, two woofers). A 3-way would have a dedicated midrange. Oddly enough, the TSi 200 bookshelf speakers look like a better match for the CS-10 centre than those floorstanders. Cheaper too!
In that case, isn't it right to say they can cover larger areas than the surrounds, at the same volume level?
When you say "at the same volume", do you mean equally loud? Not that it matters since coverage area has to do with the speaker's dispersion pattern (how wide it sprays the sound), not volume level. For example, if you walk around a bipole speaker, it will sound the same from every direction. That's a lot (360 degrees) of coverage, even when playing quietly.
By comparison, a horn speaker will play very loudly, since it concentrates the sound (same reason why people cup their hands around the mouth when shouting or use a cone/megaphone). But if you move off-axis, the sound will drop off quickly. Not great coverage, but you can hear it from far away if the speaker is pointed at you.
So when you say "more powerful", do you mean a speaker that can cover a wider area OR a speaker that can be heard from a greater distance?
If that's not the case, why use powerful/ wide-range fronts?
I give up, why?
Personally, I use 7 of the same bookshelf speakers for consistent sound all the way around.
How will surrounds being closer be the same as the fronts being closer to the listening position?
When you move a speaker closer, two things happen: it gets louder and the sound arrives sooner. So to compensate for that, you set individual channel levels and delays during initial calibration of the AV receiver. Actually, most receivers these days do it automatically.
If distance doesn't matter, is it okay to say the surrounds he is using, can be used for a 30 ft long room as well?
Instead of using hypotheticals, let's use actual numbers. I Googled the specs of the Polk TSi 200 and Polk OWM3; turns out they have the same efficiency (will play equally loud for the same amplifier power). Suppose the bookshelves are 15 feet in front of you while the surrounds are 30 feet away. Adding 15 milliseconds of delay to the front channels AND reducing their level by 3dB will make them sound like they too are 30 feet away. Just like the surrounds. Tadaa!
I just want to understand better and take advantage of your knowledge.
No problem, ask away. You'll eventually discover that most of this stuff is easy to understand.