[Kruz]

Hello,

First time poster, long time lurker.  I am considering  ordering a pair of the salk song towers and center with the ribbon tweeter option.  I recently listened to a pair of Ascend Sierra towers with the RAAL ribbon tweeter option and it sold me on the upgrade.  What I'm hoping for is some help picking the rear two speakers for a complete 5.1 system and some comments on my intended placement.  My budget is making it hard to throw in a pair of song surrounds at ~$900.

A couple of facts:

1. The room is 20' x 11' (<1600 cubic feet) and I sit 7' from the long wall in the center of the room horizontally (this is the only way I can setup this room for a bunch of reasons). 

2. I listen to 2 channel music half of the time and the other half will be used for home theater and plain tv.

3. The rear speakers will be about 4 feet above ear level mounted to the ceiling and about 7-8 feet to the left and right of the center of the couch.  They will be about 1 foot behind the couch.

A couple of questions:

1. I would like to place the song towers 1 foot from the front wall and 7 feet apart (I may have more room from the back wall but 1.5' is pushing it).  They will be almost 4.5 feet from the side walls in this placement and about 7 feet from the main listening position.  At first I tried using the golden rule as suggested by Cardas but the speakers were too close to my couch and much further apart in my long narrow room then close to the listening position.  Will my intended placement work for the song towers?

2.  If I was to purchase something like the ascend CBM-170 SE for the 2 rears would I be doing myself a big injustice in the hopes of saving $600 on the 2 rear channels for home theater?  With the way the Canadian dollar is trending with the american my budget is getting smaller and smaller in real terms and I may need to cut corners but don't want to sacrifice a lot in terms of sound.

3.  Will it be a big issue that my rear speakers are going to be much further apart from each other than my front main speakers (16' vs. 7')?  They have to be ceiling mounted because there is only 1.5' behind the couch in the basement and leads to the stairs.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and for any help.

[audiotom]

Put your money in your mains and dont sweat the rears
As long as they are not bright
There are a lot of competent speakers


You can always upgrade them later

[yetis]

It all depends on what is important to you, music or movies.  If you like movies, then you want to have the same speaker in all five locations of 5.1 surround system.   This as 5.1 surround supports the full range for movies.  While you don't necessarily hear it in most systems, this is often because people use speakers that cannot produce the highs/lows, or their processor strips it out...

http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Assets/US/Doc/Professional/42_DDFAQ.pdf
See  FAQ Question 5.

If music is your thing, then I would focus on the front end, so the three fronts.  Make sure they are as close each other in design as possible.  Translation, don't scrimp on the center channel.  This of course assumes you use you processor for music.

[mcgsxr]

Have you heard diffuse rear vs direct radiating?  I use Paradigm ADP-190's as my surrounds, and love how they spread surround info vs pin point sound behind me.

Dipole or bipole sounds different than monopole.  Could be worth exploring, I like it a lot for movies, and don't listen to much surround music. 

Lots found used around CanuckAudioMart or Audiogon etc. 

[JonnyFive]

Put your money in your mains and dont sweat the rears
As long as they are not bright
There are a lot of competent speakers

I second this.

[Saturn94]

Hello,

First time poster, long time lurker.  I am considering  ordering a pair of the salk song towers and center with the ribbon tweeter option.  I recently listened to a pair of Ascend Sierra towers with the RAAL ribbon tweeter option and it sold me on the upgrade.  What I'm hoping for is some help picking the rear two speakers for a complete 5.1 system and some comments on my intended placement.  My budget is making it hard to throw in a pair of song surrounds at ~$900.

A couple of facts:

1. The room is 20' x 11' (<1600 cubic feet) and I sit 7' from the long wall in the center of the room horizontally (this is the only way I can setup this room for a bunch of reasons). 

2. I listen to 2 channel music half of the time and the other half will be used for home theater and plain tv.

3. The rear speakers will be about 4 feet above ear level mounted to the ceiling and about 7-8 feet to the left and right of the center of the couch.  They will be about 1 foot behind the couch.

A couple of questions:

1. I would like to place the song towers 1 foot from the front wall and 7 feet apart (I may have more room from the back wall but 1.5' is pushing it).  They will be almost 4.5 feet from the side walls in this placement and about 7 feet from the main listening position.  At first I tried using the golden rule as suggested by Cardas but the speakers were too close to my couch and much further apart in my long narrow room then close to the listening position.  Will my intended placement work for the song towers?

2.  If I was to purchase something like the ascend CBM-170 SE for the 2 rears would I be doing myself a big injustice in the hopes of saving $600 on the 2 rear channels for home theater?  With the way the Canadian dollar is trending with the american my budget is getting smaller and smaller in real terms and I may need to cut corners but don't want to sacrifice a lot in terms of sound.

3.  Will it be a big issue that my rear speakers are going to be much further apart from each other than my front main speakers (16' vs. 7')?  They have to be ceiling mounted because there is only 1.5' behind the couch in the basement and leads to the stairs.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and for any help.

Put your money in your mains and dont sweat the rears
As long as they are not bright
There are a lot of competent speakers


You can always upgrade them later

I second this.

I third this. 

I used a pair of inexpensive NHT bookshelf with my HT2-TLs with great success. 

[gregcss]

I have not heard these and are not available until after 2/1/14 according the the website, but if you looking for budget ($150/pr) these might be worth looking at. Dennis can probably tell you how they will integrate with your Salks.

http://philharmonicaudio.com/folio-me/html/Phil%20Pages/AALS.html

[Russtafarian]

I have used a a pair of ceiling mounted Magnepan MMG-W's for nearly ten years.  Magnepan shows them as wall mount speakers, but when properly mounted and positioned on the ceiling, they provide phenomenal rear-channel performance.  They are tonally neutral through the midrange and have blended seamlessly with the four different main speakers I've paired them with over the years.  A bargain at $325 pr.  Highly recommended.

http://www.magnepan.com/model_MMGW

[srb]

I've had $2000 surrounds and $200 surrounds, and for Movies/TV I didn't really get any more enjoyable of an experience with the expensive speakers.  Most of the surround info is low level or ambiance, and if there was any LF content, it can be handled by the subwoofer if they are configured as small.

For your ceiling mount application I would look at speakers that include hardware for mounting.  Although some have simple keyhole slots for fixed mounting, an adjustable bracket that has tilt and rotation would go a long way in fine tuning the intended effect.

Steve

[Kruz]

Thank you for all of the quick and detailed replies.  I do like the idea of saving money and being able to easily mount these speakers on the ceiling.

If I was to get something like the NHT Super Zeros 2.1 with the omnimount would they be too small for being 4 feet above my head ,about 8 feet to either side of me and 1 foot back?

[pslate]

I would get the small and cheap HTM-200 SE Ascend surrounds if you have Sierra towers. I have three CBM-170se's that have been sitting in my closet for years. Tried to give them away with another sale but buyers were not interested. Moral of the story, some gear you will be stuck with, rear channels are not very important outside of timbre/level matching. Go with the cheapest possible, because like me, you could have them in the closet for 3-4 years. Caveat, I went from 5.1 down to 2 or 2.1 even for movies, just my preference.

[Saturn94]

Thank you for all of the quick and detailed replies.  I do like the idea of saving money and being able to easily mount these speakers on the ceiling.

If I was to get something like the NHT Super Zeros 2.1 with the omnimount would they be too small for being 4 feet above my head ,about 8 feet to either side of me and 1 foot back?

I think they would work fine.