Adding Rear Center (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy K]

I recently purchased a Marantz SR6200 which enables me to get the rear center channel. I currently am using Paradigm Atom Bookshelf speakers for the four surrounds, a Paradigm Performance Series center speaker(CC-170), and a Paradigm powered 10" sub. I would like to add the rear center, now my question is do I buy one or two more Atom Bookshelf speaker and add it in the rear center? Or should I buy two dipole speakers and add them as the back left and right, and use one or both of the bookshelf speakers as the rear center? The option I like best is getting two dipole speakers and placing them directly left and right of where I sit, and using the Atom bookshelf speakers as a rear center. Now, if I go that route can I use both Atom Speakers or should I use one? They would both have to be run off the same channel, and if I did use both, how would I wire them? Just stick 2 wires from the same plug on the rear of the reciever? If I go with one more Atom bookshelf speaker I know what to get, but if I go with two of the dipole speakers, which ones should I get to keep the speakers at the same level like they should be? Is the ADP-70 a dipole? That is what I was looking at on there website, it appears to be what I am looking for. The last question would be with the sub. The room is 28' X 20', using 20' X 16' as the living room, so to the right of everything is the extra space. Am I missing something with this sub, should I go bigger. And what would I look for if I do? 12", 14", more power?

 

[EricWT]

I had a similar situation: I recently got a Marantz SR5200, and I had 4 PSB Alpha bookshelves as my surrounds. I also have a PSB C100 Center channel and a Subsonic One subwoofer. I opted to go with bipolars for the side surrounds, and move two of my Alphas to the back channel. (I ended up getting Energy C-R1 speakers as the bipolars, as the PSB ones were too expensive for me.)

WRT the bipolar, I love the way they sound. I have only an 11.5' wide room, and I have couches against the side walls, so I always found direct radiating speakers to be a bit too directional-- it kind of drew my eyes away from the screen to look at the speaker. I thought that was cool, though, but I always wondered what the bipolar "diffused" sound would be like. I tried it with one of each, and you can really hear (or not hear!) the difference. What I mean is the diffusion is really effective, at least in my application (and my ears are not good enough I guess to hear any negatives due to the fact that they are a different manufacturer altogether.) It really seems to help in my narrow, rectangular room, too. I would definitely recommend bipolars, although your room seems a lot wider, so it might not be as dramatic a difference for you.

Now for the rear channel, you should hook up the Atoms in series-- the way you do this (I think ) is to use a single run of speaker wire from the sixth channel from the Marantz. You connect the red speaker wire to the red terminal of one speaker, and the black speaker wire to the black terminal of the other speaker (in my case I separated the red/black wires about 3 feet down. Then you take a short speaker wire (I guess you only need a single strand) and connect the remaining black and red speaker terminals together. The reason you do them in series like this is so that you will not risk harming your receiver (the resistance is now double the normal amount.) If you just use two wires like you suggested, the speakers' resistance will be half of the normal amount, since they are in parallel. This can be bad for your amp, I guess if you are driving them really hard. (Maybe not an issue for the rear channel, I don't know.) When you calibrate your system, I don't know if the resistance makes them need a bit more power, but in my case I had to turn them up about 2 dB more than the sides. Not a big deal.

I am currently looking up the correct distance to put them apart-- I know that I read it somewhere on this board. Regardless, I am just experimenting right now with them about 4 feet apart, and they sound great. I think the idea is to get them just far apart enough that you can discern that the sound is coming from behind you. Gladiator and Chicken Run are they only 6.1 movies I have tried, but they are really awesome to hear in that mode.

Oh yeah, if your 6200 is the same as my 5200 for the surround functionality, it does not officially support DTS ES 6.1-- and I have to manually select 6.1 Channel Surround each time. Funny thing is that in this mode, the receiver will only play sound if it gets a digital surround signal-- if I leave it in this mode, it will not play any sound during the stereo recordings of the DVD menus... So I leave it in Auto for my family, and then I flip it over manually each time I know I am listening to ES or EX material...

I don't have any thoughts about your sub. If you can I would try the smaller one and see-- if it is not enough, I don't imaging the store would mind taking it back for an upgrade . My room is 11.5 by about 21', and my Subsonic 1 is plenty loud, and it is only a 10" I think.

Eric

 

[Jeremy K]

Thanks for the reply and the help. I am glad to know how to hook up the two rear, and also about the dipole being worth it. I was planning on getting some right away, but after buying the reciever I decided to wait awhile. I am glad you replied, because its been awhile and maybe I should go and look for some new speakers now. Anyway, thanks for the advice.