[Phil P]

Is it worth getting the auricap or TRT upgrades to the 626R or dipole ribbons being used as rear and side surrounds in a home theater setup(also used for listening to music), seeing that they cost more than the speakers themselves?

[Sedona Sky Sound]

Hello Phil,
For all but the most exacting audiophile (who probably would not be doing multi-channel audio anyway    ), the capacitor upgrades are probably overkill for the rear speakers. The added warmth/clarity/etc given by the upgraded capacitors will be mostly masked by all the additional soundwave reflections in the room (and your ear's ability to establish a reference).

The much harder decision is whether to use the Free Swinging Tweeter (which basically adds 25% to the cost). In my demo room, I use the older spiral ribbons in my surround 626Rs. However, I did this because I specifically wanted to be able to show customers the differences in the two tweeters. In two channel listening, the FST is absolutely better. However, in "real-world" rear channel listening, it is really, really hard for me to tell the difference. In most cases, I believe the cost/benefit of the FST in the surrounds is a toss-up. The one time that I would absolutely recommend the 626R with FST for the surrounds would be if you also are using 626R/FST for your fronts and center.      

Julian
www.sedonaskysound.com

[Tyson]

IMO, the FST 626R's have MUCH better dispersion than the old spiral tweeters.  That would make them much better as rears, as you want wide, even dispersion from the rears (and fronts too).  JMHO.