SDAs and Home Theater

vcwatkins

newrival wrote: »

How far apart are your rears?? remember, to get the benefit, the distance from the listening position to the vertical plane of the front of the speakers must be equal to or greater than the distance between the two speakers.

They are wider than the vertical, wider than the opposing fronts, and very close to sidewalls; but if I use them, they are going to have to be in this location. So I'll give it a shot where they are, but won't sweat it too much since I'm really happy as is.

westmassguy

newrival wrote: »

I am fairly certain that people saying to not have SDA for the rears are either improperly setting them up, or have not tried it. Arguing that the effect is good for the front speakers but not for the rear does not make sense. If AVRs are capable of doing just as good of a job in the surrounds, why would they not be for the front channels? Are they utilizing some other method? Rear surrounds in a 5.1 setup are utilized in a nearly identical manor as the front L/R. they, too, are used to create a phantom center and produce stereophonic information. And I'm not the only one who holds this opinion. Matthew Polk's reference theater system, the SRT Seismic rig, utilized the SDA equipped SRT speakers in both the front and rear L/R channels.

Still not convinced? How about directly from the words of a lead engineer at Polk during the development of SDA, Stu Lumsden?

Here is a post from him in the stick thread "Why were SDAs discontinued by Matthew Polk":

Sweet, thanks for that. I'm psyched now. I'm going to set it up this weekend. Just have to figure out how to safely raise the 2As off the floor high enough to get the tweets above ear level to prevent any beaming.

newrival

good luck! let us know how it works out!

westmassguy

newrival wrote: »

good luck! let us know how it works out!

Will do for sure

westmassguy

And the verdict is.....Awesomeness. For the first time, since delving into home theater back in the 80s, I truely have a soundfield that wraps around the entire room. The rear is completely filled in, no more hole in the center, or localization, and the side fields, join seamlessly with the fronts. The Monitor 5s I had been using were great, but they were easy to pick out on some sound tracks, and there were holes in the soundfield.
My poor Pioneer AV receiver did not like the 2As in the rear, and told me so when it's protection circuit shut it down after 5 sec. One of my favorite test sequences is Band of Brothers, Episode 7, about 31 minutes in, where the boys from E-Company are being shelled.
I switched the rears to "small", to temporarily allow them to operate, and the sound was amazing.
The reason I didn't start with the 2As in front, is because the CRS+s were set just so, measured, squared, plumbed, which we all know about, and I didn't want to disturb them. I decided to switch the 2As to the front, and CRS to the rear. The CRSs are now on stands about 4.5' above the floor, and above seated, ear height. They are spaced slightly wider than the 2As due to the way my living room is set up. My Pioneer definitely liked the CRS+s in the rear, and the 2As in the front. I reset all the speaker to "Large" and powered everything up again. I did a rough calibration with my trusty Rat Shack Digital SPL Meter, and the built in test tones from the Pioneer, then fine tuned it with my Video Essentials Dolby test tracks. Fired up B Of B again...awesome, went on to Forest Gump, Vietnam fire-fight....awesome, then Star Trek(2009)....awesome, then Thor....and so on
It's just sweet.
I know SDAs didn't work for some, all I can say is, in my living room, with my equipment, it just works.