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how much did you spend on rear surround speakers?

I thought i would share my experience setting up my home theater speaker system. I had Dali Helicon MkII for my fronts and Dali Helicon center. my side surrounds were an old M&K from one of their early surround systems. I replaced the M&K side surrounds with Dali Helicon C200 and was very happy with the sound. I moved the M&Ks to a rear surround position for my 7.1 system. However, when i found a pair of Dali W200 on Audiogon i bought them. After setting up with Audessey from my Marantz AV8801 processor, i was extremely pleased with the improvement in sound. I was very hesitant to spend much on side and rear surrounds, but in my experience, the extra dollars to have matching voices from the Dali helicon line actuallly made a difference i could hear.
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audiojan's avatar
audiojan
245 posts
 
I have a full Thiel speaker set up, so that doesn't come cheap, no matter how much I "bargin hunt"… My Thiel PowerPoint rears were $1200, which is probably more than what I should've spent, but sounds amazing and the sound is completely coherent as it pans across the room.
rlwainwright
1,901 posts
 
Timbre matching is greatly underrated. I found that when I added the Gallo Ref. AVs as surrounds for my Gallo Ref. 3.1s the sound improved dramatically...

RW
fingerpaws
51 posts
 
I think I will just be another voice in the chorus, I have five speakers, all Boston Acoustics, in my system. You can't beat having that kind of blend. I did read in Get Better Sound that the tweeters of the front speakers should be as matched in height as possible. When I inverted my L/R speakers the imaging really improved. Also, move any coffee tables out of the way, they just block and reflect the sound.
internetmin
258 posts
 
You do indeed want to timbre match all your speakers and it does make a difference. If you're budgeting, then go most to least expensive front to back. If you need to cut corners due to budget then do it in the 6th and 7th channels. The side surrounds, 4 and 5 are indeed very important and you'll notice a quality difference.
bacardi's avatar
bacardi
639 posts
 
I have Casta Acoustic speakers with dipole surrounds. They are made in Italy with custom made horns and drivers throughout. The surrounds were very pricey but compared to the Axion Qs8's I used to have the Casta's improved the information by 40-50%. That's huge. I've mounted them about 6-8 inches from ceiling on side wall behind the listening position with amazing wrap-around/front-back panning. One of 16 mounting positions available from Casta. This is the only surround speaker I've heard that has great dynamics/punch/extension which all the others I've tried had none whatsoever. For home theatre you just can't beat horns....Simply amazing........highly regarded.
mlawitm's avatar
mlawitm
67 posts
 
I have b&w 802's and an htm1 with four 805's for my back speakers and a rel stentor for my sub
vernneal's avatar
vernneal
438 posts
 
Whatever brand you select GET THE SAME BRAND FOR FRONT CENTER AND REARS. Otherwise it will sound like CRAP
bacardi's avatar
bacardi
639 posts
 
I agree 100%.
bobnegi
24 posts
 
Thanks Bacardi, you have just given me a reason to spend another $5.2K on surround speakers!...

I am waiting for a second pair of Qs8's to arrive, but you have got me thinking that perhaps I should have saved up to get the matching surrounds for my fronts.

I feel that my exisiting QS8's were easely twice as reveling than my old surrounds. I think your Casta's would be in the same ballpark price wise to my required Focal Prestige series surrounds.

Now I have to justify somehow that spending 500% more on surrounds will be worth the 40-50% gain in bliss...
bacardi's avatar
bacardi
639 posts
 
I can't even explain the difference I heard from the Axioms to the Casta's. Well worth the money spent. If your room is medium to large. Mine is 13 x 19 x 8. This spring/summer it will be 22 x 20 x 8. These surround speakers fill your surround experience so much it's incredible. It also depends on what quality your putting into it - Clean power, speaker wire, interconnects, power cords, isolation devices. Conditioning. I recently added an Audience Adept Response aR6-TSS(latest). This is one piece of equipement I will never ever take out. Just stunning. So all the parts together make a fantastic system. Cheers!!!!!!!!
zephyr24069's avatar
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zephyr24069
1,183 posts
 
Having spent a number of years chasing the high-end 7.1 HT scenario, I definitely agree with all the feedback above; matching of LS, RS, LSB and RSB speakers is essential. If your surround-proc allows it, go for a subwoofer up front and one for your rear channels as well; you won't be sorry. Alternatively consider my last config involved ditching the smaller LS, RS, LSB and RSB speakers that I had and going with a pair of full-size, full-range speakers in the rear that matched my front channels. It was well worth it and frankly HT and multi-channel audio never sounded the same ever again....
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