Which surrounds?

lantastik

I have the SurroundBar and I am looking to add a couple of rear speakers to supplement the sound. Price is not really a factor, but they have to sound good with the SurroundBar and not overpower it. My wife really likes not having speakers hung all over the living room so I won't be replacing the SurroundBar any time soon, but I finally convinced her to let me add the rear speakers. 90% of my usage is Home Theater. Thanks in advance.

jakelm

Surround speakers with the Surroundbar?? HMMMM.....

rskarvan

Lantastic,

You should read up a little on your surround bar. Its designed to work without rear speakers.

"Polk's patented SDA® Surround technology delivers a vivid 5 channel sound field from a single, 43-inch long cabinet. No rear speakers are required."


http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/flatscreens/surroundbar/

Ron

lantastik

rskarvan wrote: »

Lantastic,

You should read up a little on your surround bar. Its designed to work without rear speakers.

"Polk's patented SDA® Surround technology delivers a vivid 5 channel sound field from a single, 43-inch long cabinet. No rear speakers are required."


http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/flatscreens/surroundbar/

Ron

From the FAQ:

Can I use my SurroundBar® with rear channel speakers if I want to?
The SurroundBar® is meant to be a solution for people who want surround sound but don’t want to install rear channel speakers. However, there are three options for using the SurroundBar® with rear channel speakers if this is really what you want:

* Good - Hook up two rear channel speakers to the surround channels, in the usual way, and connect nothing to the rear channel inputs on the Surround Bar. In this case the Surround Bar is being used just like a conventional L,C,R sound bar. You will get all of the audio performance of the SurroundBar® for the front Left, Center, Right channels and conventional rear channel performance from your hard-wired rear channel speakers instead. The surround drivers in the SurroundBar® are simply not used in this option.
* Better - Hook up the rear channel speakers as in a.) above but also connect the surround channels of the receiver to the rear channel inputs of the SurroundBar®. The hard-wired rear channel speakers must be 8 ohms for this option. This will give you conventional rear channel performance plus the wrap-around soundstage of the SurroundBar® which will fill in the sides of the soundstage.
* Best - If you have a 6.1 or 7.1 receiver, hook up a single rear channel speaker in the center rear to either of the extra surround channels and hook up the rest of the channels, including the left and right rear, to the SurroundBar® as normal. This is the best alternative. It combines the ability of the SurroundBar® to deliver a very continuous wrap-around sound stage with solid center rear imaging from the single hard-wired center rear speaker.

I at least want to give it a try. IMHO, it is the best single speaker solution I have ever heard, and I want to see if it can be made a little better.

rskarvan

Hmmm... thanks for the info. I did not know that.

Perhaps the *Best* solution is best and all you need to do is add a rear-center speaker (instead of adding two rear surrounds).

I've used the older Polk RT25i's as rear channels (7.1) with excellent results.

- Ron

madmax

At a polkfest at polk headquarters they were saying a set of surrounds can make the surround bar even better. I'm sorry I can't remember the suggestions if any were made. Maybe someone else remembers.
madmax

cfrizz

Fxi 3's or 5's should do quite well.