Imagination Help

inazsully

Strange title but I have a strange idea and need some opinions. I just replaced my front Polk Towers (unknown model but they have one large speaker and one smaller speaker mounted high in the box) with two Monitor 70's, and a 10 JBL sub replaced with a 505. I currently have and like very much a pair of Mirage Nano Sats for my rears. What should I do with the old Polk towers? Kind of big if I use them as rears and put the Nano Sats on the side wall in a 7.1 configuration but might sound pretty good. Or, use the old towers as Presence speakers in front but I've only seen bookshelf speakers wall mounted for presence speakers. They may be too big visually (the rooms big but not huge 17x21). Or, I could use the old towers as rears and use the Nano Sats as presence speakers but they don't have much in the lower end. Or I could just sell them but they aren't worth that much. Also, how bad would the 10" JBL sub sound if paired with the 505? I'm thinking pretty bad but I thought I'd ask.

comfortablycurt

Got any pictures?

It's kind of hard to tell what they might be with the description you gave for them...

inazsully

I'm sure they are similar to the least expensive Polk Towers that I see advertised for well under $100ea in the paper these days. They are about 37" high and contain two individual speakers. I bought them about 8 years ago open box for $150ea. They were pretty good as fronts in my old system. The new 70's sound better but not as much better as I had hoped. The old towers were set on small and I let the sub do the heavy lifting, while the new 70's are set on large to go with the 505 ( cross over at 80hz ) and the CS2 set to large and the rears are set to small. Basically I'm leaning towards using the Nano Sats as front presence speakers and the Polk Towers as my rears and staying with the 5.1 format as opposed to setting it up 7.1. I was hoping some Polkies have tried similar set ups. Thanks for your help and opinions. 10" JBL sub probably a bad idea to run with the 505??

mdaudioguy

I played around with presence speakers in various configurations and after a year, I pulled them completely. Seemed gimmicky and the perceived benefit was never apparent. I'd consider the 7.1 config or just selling them - or use them for a 2-channel garage/basement/spare room setup.

inazsully

Considering that there is little actual 7.1 content out there, what will the extra two speakers in a 7.1 set up reproduce? Will they just mimic the surrounds?

mdaudioguy

inazsully wrote: »

Considering that there is little actual 7.1 content out there, what will the extra two speakers in a 7.1 set up reproduce? Will they just mimic the surrounds?

Well, there is some content out on BR, and surely will be more. There are also solutions that matrix sound to the back speakers (Dolby Digital EX, I think). Some AVRs also have the ability to matrix 5.1 to back speakers. Also, some of the PS3 games we have (I don't know if they are true 7.1), sure do sound good through all 7 speakers (8 if you count the sub) - extremely immersive. But, your room should be large enough to accommodate the expanded sound field. In many applications, 5.1 is all anyone needs.

inazsully

Thanks mdaudioguy. I have 25 or 30 blu-rays including Avatar, Dark Knight, and Star Trek so they may be able to take advantage of 7.1. My room is pretty big (17X21) so I may try it out and see how it sounds.