I'm using a pair of Emerald onwalls as L/R and a Protege center. I just got a pair of custom RAD Micro onwalls that I'll eventually install as rears, and custom RAD Tumult sub. I'm running it with a Sony AVD-C70ES in ~50/50 HT/music usage.
The sound is very good, but I'm itching to upgrade my L/R to something that will sit out in the room a bit. Naturally, I'm looking at ACI options, especially the Protege V as I've read the rants here about the benefits of having a uniform L/C/R speaker set. The trouble is that I'm having a difficult time getting excited about standmount speakers -- aesthetically it just doesn't do it for me, especially when the speakers are in that mid-size tier (call it 21-32").
So, I've been exploring floorstanding options (i.e., the Odyssey Nightingale and Meadowlark Kestral2). I have considered just trying it to see how the match will work out, knowing that I could sell my Protege down the line and get the matching center for my mains.
I guess this decision boils down to the criticality of the L/C/R match, and the decision to choose the center to match the mains or the mains to match the center. Or, for that matter there is the option to just go for it and not worry about it. Advice on this from the AC brain trust would be much appreciated.
But, through all of this, I'm left wondering why ACI doesn't have an affordable floorstander designed to blend well with their other speaker models. I know, they have a lot of models already, but there must be others out there who would prefer floorstanders over the 21-32" tall standmount speakers that ACI has been introducing lately. I'm sure that Mike has optimized his designs for size/sound/cost, but if you have to add stands to the cost of every speaker then that optimization goes straight out the window. I'll concede that monitors like the Sapphire XL have their place, but it seems like ACI is ignoring a pretty significant chunk of the market.
Thoughts?