What's a good pair for surround with R50 speakers?

soverdi

I have a pair of Polk R50's, with B&W center, Boston Acoustic Subwoofer and also rears. I have upgraded from a 5.1 to a Yamaha RX-V863 with a 7.1 option. I am looking for a good pair to add as surround speakers, or maybe make my R50 the surround, and upgrade my main speakers.

A salesman at Fry's told me that it is useless to put in flooring standing speakers as surrounds since there is not much sound coming out from them. He was recommending the OWM3's. I even saw other bookshelf speakers, like R150, or Monitor 30's that may fit the bill. R300's would make a good combo for floor standing speakers, or the Monitor 50.

I am just curious if it is worth utilizing the space, or if I should go with bookshelf or wall mounted surrounds for the kind of sound that will be emitted from them ? I hope you can share your experiences if you've been enjoying 7.1 sound!

kawizx9r

Endless possibilities!

First recommendation is either;

Buy a better matching Polk center, or another (would recommend sticking with Polk ) center channel speaker and get new matching front speakers and move the R50's to the back;

OR

If you really like B&W, get a matched pair of fronts for that center channel.

What you want to do for HT is timbre-match your frontstage, the surrounds as well (not required though) but recommended.

Btw, welcome to CP!

-Freddy

soverdi

Hmmm! Is the CS2 a good match for center ? I do feel that sometimes the center is a bit soft.

Thanks! Glad to find this forum!

kawizx9r

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290213&cm_re=polk-_-82-290-213-_-Product

Keep an eye out on newegg, Polkies usually post a thread when there's a promotion going on with promo code.

The monitor speakers have gone on sale several times in case you'd want new fronts as well.

Btw, how big is your room?

soverdi

I have enough space for another pair of floor standing speakers, but I'm not sure if my wife would be happy :-). I actually had Infinity SM-1(?)'s, which had 15" woofers before changing to the R50's. They were just too big and kinda-old style looking, but I miss the sound now...Problem though is my wiring has to cross a fireplace on the left and a hallway on the right. I would have to remove my floor trimmings, which I did when I installed the rears years ago.

Knucklehead

Freddy gave you some excellent advice, keep in mind that you dont have to be "too" selective when it comes to surrounds as they are mostly ambient sounds anyway. I have R50 mains with f/x500i's for my surrounds and it sounds famtastic.....IMO.

David

soverdi

just got my Cs2 ! Now to sell my B&W

Strouty

I have a pair of OWM3's as surrounds and they work nicely. Very wife friendly as well. If wall mounting or space isn't of any importance, though, monitor 30s,40s or 50s would work just as well (or better). OWM3's can be found off Polk's ebay store pretty cheap. I got a pair shipped to me for $70.

But as others have suggested, matching your fronts is important, surrounds, not so much. Just pick something you think sounds and looks good and you'll be good to go.

soverdi

Thanks, Strouty! I WAS looking for surrounds, but with the excellent tips, I got a center first! And I just won it from Ebay! ...now I have a feeling you beat me in one of the OWM3 biddings :-) ... Looks like they ran out too.

soverdi

WooHoo! I finally won my surround speakers! Got a pair of MONITOR 40's! Now to think of how to route the wires......

cnh

Congrats....on the new speakers...I assume you're going to use the 40s as surrounds and use the Bostons as back surrounds?

Enjoy.

cnh

soverdi

yes, cnh, that's the plan.

I might need stands for the MONITOR 40' too. Anyone know of good ones for these ?

2809layla

Hello soverdi i have r50 for front and back its it sounds perfect and centerchannel polk to me to use cs20 cuz it has the voice match for it