Surround advice

Slaine777

My room is 40? long and 16? wide, half of the space is the living room which is completely open to the dining room/kitchen. The TV and the seating are a little off center due to a hallway on the right side of the room. I have a five seat 90 degree sectional facing the TV with the main seating about 12? from the screen, the leftmost seat is in a bay window area. I currently have Harman Kardon AVR3600 (85 wpc), RTi A3 fronts, CSi A6 center, and an Epik Empire sub. I?m exploring my options for rear/surround speakers. Wall/ceiling mounting isn?t really an option. My two best options are speaker stands behind seats 2 and 4 on the sectional, or on top of the kitchen cabinets (about 15? behind the seating area, 7? off the ground, limited to 12? speaker height. I am primarily interested in a 5.1 setup but I?m open to 7.1.

One option is to upgrade the front speakers to RTi A5?s and move the A3?s behind the sectional, but I?m concerned the sound from the A3?s will be too directional there. The A3?s will not fit on top of the kitchen cabinet.

Another option is to keep the A3?s in front and put FXi A6 or A4 behind the sectional, or FXi A4 on top of the kitchen cabinets.

One final option involves a special at Onecall.com. They are currently giving a pair of Atrium 5 speakers with a qualifying purchase. A pair of FXi A6 would qualify, so I could put them behind the sectional and the Atrium 5?s on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Which of the two speaker locations would be better for a 5.1 system? Are the Atrium speakers viable for use in this setup?

Lietuvis91

Slaine777 wrote: »

One final option involves a special at Onecall.com. They are currently giving a pair of Atrium 5 speakers with a qualifying purchase. A pair of FXi A6 would qualify, so I could put them behind the sectional and the Atrium 5?s on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Which of the two speaker locations would be better for a 5.1 system? Are the Atrium speakers viable for use in this setup?

I got my Atrium 5 free as well when I bought my onkyo receiver, came as a package. In my HT system, see my sig, they do ok, nothing amazing, but they get the job done. One thing I will note is that they are meant to be hung and not sit like a bookshelf speaker. So if you plan to use them as a bookshelf, you might have to support then from tipping over. They are the perfect speaker for hanging though, as they have a fairly good amount of adjustability as far as being able to point the speaker where you want it.

So anyway, when stuff is free, you can imagine it's kind of basic, but as surround back speakers, they will probably be ok.

Slaine777

Anyone have advice on RTi A3 vs FXi A6 for placement behind the sectional?

Slaine777

How do the FXi3/5 and FXi30/50 match with the RTi A line?

Almadacr

If you are asking , if its better a monopole speaker like the RTI A3 , compared to a Di/bipole speaker like the FXi 3,4 or 6 , for a HT use i will say dipole/bipole any given day

Slaine777

I was asking more about timber match. I guess I was also asking about differences between them. It look to me like the FXi30, FXi3, and FXi A4 are all the same speaker with slightly different grilles.

Almadacr

Your surrounds don`t necessarily need to match your fronts even in brand , you can go polk or other brand if you want to save some $$$ look at this . i have Axiom with Quest as surrounds .