Surround Speakers or Floor Standing for Rear Setup??

DJ Eddie-Lo

Afternoon, so cool I found this site to ask users of Polk Audio. I've finally began to upgrade my surround system to something I wanted so badly when I was younger but couldn't afford them. Now point in my life where I can afford quality surround sound system as Polk Audio.
Question is, do you or would you rather place floorstanding speakers in the rear or should I stick to researching the satellite speakers? I still would have the front floor standing, but just wasn't sure if there was an added benefit to having floorstanding speakers in the rear.

My Current setup:
Receiver - Onkyo TX-NR609 7.2
Front Speakers - Monitor 70
Front Channel - CS2 (This thing is massive, have to find new entertainment center now)
Sub - PSW505

Thanks so much for any assistance.

flyfisher

Which floor standings did you have in mind?I haven't heard floor standings for rears so I cant compare.A few members in hear use floor standings and have great results.But if your looking for surrounds,check out the monitor 30 or 40's and the FXI series.

Good luck

WagBoss

I'd go with surround speakers your receiver would have trouble powering more then 2 towers.

mdaudioguy

Some people use towers and love it, but I've never been a fan of that approach. I'd go with what Polk recommends for the task:

From here: http://www.polkaudio.com/education/showanswer.php?question_num=78

urround speakers work best when elevated at least two feet above the seated listeners' heads (a height of six to seven feet above the ground is considered normal)

Btw, Welcome to Club Polk!

BlueFox

I have 4 LSi15s in my HT. I used to have LSi7s in the rear, but I found the LSi15s are much better. Plus they have built-in stands, and I do not have to worry about a speaker being knocked off the stand.

polkfarmboy

I say if the rooms big enough and the equipment can handle it go for the towers. I had towers for surrounds and the bass was just awesome and the mids. I never new so much detail existed in the surround department and was really evident in sherlock holmes on bluray when I did an a/b with the towers. I could really hear the trotting of the horses and the rattling of the carriage giving me a greater sense of immersion

dudeinaroom

If you have the room I'd say heck yeah. You can run your crossovers lower which can help with localization of sound effects. By running your sub at lower crossover point will help your sub disappear. It's cool when you can hear and feel thunder coming from behind you. You've got 5 full bandwidth channels, might as well use them.

rebuy

I'd do towers too, just watch that you do not overdrive the Onkyo. For normal listening it should be good.

DJ Eddie-Lo

Wow, thank you all for the responses. I see there is a mixture of suggestions which is always great because it then comes down to preference and if the equipment and room can handle it. Thanks ago so much. I plan on reading more threads and learn alot more for the experienced posters.

mdaudioguy

I'm surprised so many of you advocate towers for surrounds... Maybe a majority in this thread, but clearly a minority among all HT enthusiasts. I still think it's less than optimal. As always, ymmv.

SRTer

I use all RTi A9's fronts and RTi A7's rears. I find this setup more pleasing for a home theater that is more focused for music reproduction. This allows for me to run all my speakers full range when playing music. I don't like running the powered sub during music play back.

As some have stated, there is a full range of sound in the rear channel of many movies. Having the towers in the rear with good bass response can add to the exsperince. However, full range towers are in the minority due to the nature of what your rear speaker are to do in a home theater. Rear speaker should not stand out, therefore speaker mounted higher and bi-pole works similar to the setup at your local theater.

I don't like mounting speakers nor looking for nice speaker stands and paying for them. This often will put you nearer to the price of a tower. Therefore, I chose my setup as it is. However, each to his own. I'm a purist in only one thing and that is getting what I want.

MykalSpencer

I've just set up towers front and rear, I run Polk RTi A9's front left and right and Polk RTi A7's rear with a CSI A4 center and Polk DSWpro660wi sub. Just in the connection phase now so it will be interseting to hear what they sound like. My Yamaha RX871 reciever will not give me enough power at 100 wpch probably so later I will have to do what SRTer has done by adding an Adcom GFA-555 200 watt amp or equivalent. I've noticed so far with the RTi A9's hooked up they sound pretty good actually, but I'd love to hear them properly powered. I like my music as much as my audio so I figured front and rear towers were the way to go. It does make sence to have the rears not stand out above the fronts, I would think you can set this up in the 5.1 configuration for room sound and fine tweaking what you like. It's always fun to achive the best results with the choices you've made. Any suggestions from you guys would be welcomed-for example would the CSi A6 be a better choice for my system? Bi-wiring etc.- Mike

tonyb

Well, think of it this way, in 5 channel surround mode, your Yamaha 871 is pumping out 60 watts per channel, 7 channel surround is down to 35 watts per channel. Do you think thats enough power to make those towers perform their best ?

SRTer

MykalSpencer wrote: »

Just in the connection phase now so it will be interseting to hear what they sound like. My Yamaha RX871 reciever will not give me enough power at 100 wpch probably so later I will have to do what SRTer has done by adding an Adcom GFA-555 200 watt amp or equivalent. I've noticed so far with the RTi A9's hooked up they sound pretty good actually, but I'd love to hear them properly powered.

Any suggestions from you guys would be welcomed-for example would the CSi A6 be a better choice for my system? Bi-wiring etc.- Mike

Yes, that GFA-555 will do the trick. I bought it just to see if it would be any different that the internal ICE amps in the SC-35. I've never been happier. Your reciever will need the extra help if your going to push your setup to high volumes.

I'm exspecting a little money coming in so I will be putting my GFA-555 for sale and see if I can find a D-class ICE amp for my setup because I want to make a all ICE amp HT.

As far as center channels go, I would say the CSi A6 is a must with you setup. I own a CSi A6 and A4, and truly the A6 is the ticket because deep voices sound more natural.

Lietuvis91

m40s are probably a better match to your m70s & cs2. I wouldn't really go any bigger. No need. Then again, m30s have mounts to hang them, I don't think m40s do.

Monster Jam

BlueFox wrote: »

I have 4 LSi15s in my HT. I used to have LSi7s in the rear, but I found the LSi15s are much better. Plus they have built-in stands, and I do not have to worry about a speaker being knocked off the stand.

Also my setup.