How different can be Front and Rears be?

[navin advani]

We all know that the front three speakers need to be very very similar if not exaclty the same but how different can be rear speakers be?

My wife and I were going through some of the websites (I was showing her pictures of the speakers so she could short list the ones she would tolerate).

The rear speakers my wife liked most were the shallow ones from MA (RXFX), Martin Logan (Electromotion FX2) and Focal (800SR and Electra 1000SR).

However for the front her preference (visually) was for thin tower speakers like the Sonis Faber Liuto, Monitor Audio GX 300, Focal 836V, Paradigm Studio 100...

For the bedroom she visually liked a combination of the SF Liuto with ML's FX2 for the rear. I thoguht that would be an odd combination - the folded motion tweeter is very different from the Liuto tweeter. So how bad is it?

 

[GeorgeO]

I'm also in the market for a pair of surrounds, looking for something unobtrusive.

 

[Sumanta]

I have never bought items in India and so do not know whether they are available here or not and nor do I know any of the tower speakers that you mentioned up.
I liked these speakers with my Onkyo TX-SR608, may be this will be an useful info for you and GeorgeO.

S 426 HCS 3 Home Cinema Systems - Reviews

 

[marsilians]

The surrounds and rears (for 6.1 or 7.1 setup) can be any brand and need not match the fronts. ensure the speaker ratings match the AVR or ampifier. Also make sure the placement is within your ear height and sideways if possible.

 

[corElement]

Can be completely different.

 

[nosortf]

Hi,

I would imagine that they need to at least share the same family traits as the front channels. Unmatched surrounds are no comparison to matched surrounds in my experience.
5 identical speakers is the best that I have heard, in the text book 30 degrees, 110 degrees mode.
I would like to mention this is for home cinema only.
Audiophiles mileage may vary.

 

[sub]

Hi,

I would imagine that they need to at least share the same family traits as the front channels. Unmatched surrounds are no comparison to matched surrounds in my experience.
5 identical speakers is the best that I have heard, in the text book 30 degrees, 110 degrees mode.
I would like to mention this is for home cinema only.
Audiophiles mileage may vary.

Hi

Totally agree with you it is always better to go for same set of speakers than trying different models.

Regards

sub

 

[vjc]

The surrounds and rears (for 6.1 or 7.1 setup) can be any brand and need not match the fronts. ensure the speaker ratings match the AVR or ampifier. Also make sure the placement is within your ear height and sideways if possible.

I have a related question to ask. I have FS as fronts and matching centre channel. Whether it is possible to employ two satellite speakers as surrounds in 5.0 system ? If so what parameters are to be matched- Impedence only?

Whether there will be any degradation in overall movie sound vis-a-vis bookshelves ? My receiver is Denon-1911.

Thanks in advance.
vjc

 

[corElement]

Impedence
Maybe aesthetics
Driver size should not be bigger than fronts.

 

[Casablanca]

Can be totally different.... Impedence to be matched with AVR....

 

[yahoo0212]

Please suggest good Surround speakers.. I have auditioned QAcoustics QAV Surrounds and Wharfedale 9.DFS surrounds... I liked QAV s over DFS ,, QAV s produced a cleaner and crisp sound den DFs... I dont know y, may be the avr was not calibrated properly for the surrounds (Sound level etc).. any reviews of the DFS Series... and please suggest good Surrounds..

 

[Audiodoc]

From the perspective of good surround sound hearing from the mouth of the audio engineers from Hollywood all speakers should have the same sound signature. At least the midrange/mid woofer should be the same for the surround effects to pan throughout the room. In the early days of surround sound the frequency response and dynamic range of the surround channels used to be limited and hence lesser speakers were used but nowadays all channels are equal in the technical respect and though the left and right channel may be larger, there would be identical tweeters and midrange drivers in all speakers.