Dennis C

I'm in the process of upgrading my home theater equipment, including speakers. I'm looking at several brands, but so far I like the sound of Bowers & Wilkins speakers in my price range.

My question is: what is the prevailing wisdom for rear surround speakers? I know they are usually smaller than the front speakers, and often are bookshelf models. My rear speakers will be standing on the floor, so if I go with bookshelf speakers, I'll have to put them on stands. I'm more inclined to go with a proper floor-standing speaker, but I wonder if this is overkill or a waste of money for the rears.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or input.

Thanks!

cobalt

This could be answered so many ways. What are your mains and centers? amp etc. Size of the room?

I like full range speakers all around and I find using similar speakers to my mains and center to work best. Matching tonal quality is key for the mains and center but doesn't hurt for the surrounds although is not as critical.

Dennis C

Thanks for the response Anthony. I know there are lots of things that factor into this... I guess my main concern was that I don't want to spend the money to buy full range, floor standing speakers for the rears if it won't make much difference.

The room in question is difficult. The house features a very open floor plan, so the kitchen and the dining area open into this room. It's large, with high vaulted ceilings and some unusual angles to the walls and celings. It has hardwood floors, so echo can be a problem. I am planning to run a 5.1 system, and to put the speakers in pretty much the "standard" configuration. The center channel speaker will be on a shelf above the television monitor, and the left and right front speakers will be roughly 8 feet from the monitor on either side. The previous owner had the rear speakers mounted up high, and they were really set up in a strange way. I've already taken them down.

I'm running a Pioneer Elite VXS-32 receiver - nothing too fancy. If I end up going with the B&W speakers, I'll probably use model 683B for my left and right front speakers, HTM61B for my center channel, and I'm considering model 685B for my rears. If I use these speakers for the rears, I'll put them on stands that are roughly 24" high. I'll use a powered subwoofer with the system, probably a B&W model ASW61STB, although I may buy something more powerful because of the size of the room. This particular sub is 10", and features a 200W amp.

Here are some photos of the B&W stuff.

Tippy

Dennis - I might add, if you have a very open floor plan, you might want to consider a sub with a 12" woofer. I'd think a 10" with 200w RMS might be a little anemic.

Not sure how you are with keeping all the brands the same but Polk has a 12" 300w RMS HT sub for only $229 right now on newegg.com for reference.

Dennis C

Agreed... I think a bigger sub would be better.

cobalt

I too have a very open floor plan for my HT room.

I have experimented with many different speakers and found that with my open floor plan I need a speaker that will produce a minimum of 80Hz. The B&W are just shy of this and might work with the aid of a sub.

However, IMO the sub should be used more for super low frequency filler than most of the bass. In essence it should be felt more than heard. If you plan on listening to music i would consider something with a full range for the mains and similar for the center. The rears are not as critical but will make a difference in some movies.

IMO matching the tonal quality of the mains and center is most critical. After that you can always build the rest of the system. I have purchased and sold many pairs of speakers on audiogon getting to where I am now. If you are on a budget that can be added to later focus on the mains first and then the center. You can always upgrade the rears later so put your money into the primary speakers to start and plan on upgrading later once you get a feel for the room and your system.

One thing I always tell people is that although you might not listen to music on your HT a good portion of movie content is music so consider this when building a HT.

Dennis C

Thanks for that feedback. We do actually listen to music on the system as well - so I'll keep that in mind.

Dennis C

I ended up going with the smaller B&W 685B speakers for the rears. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the sound. It was a good purchase.