How important are rear speakers in a 7.1 setup? (2 Viewers)

[MikWRX]

How important are rears in a 7.1 setup?

I have picked up some cheap bipolar rear speakers as the main listening positions are only 1.2m from the back wall. Monopole speakers weren't quite cutting it. How important is it to have good rear speakers? These ones sound good but are 18 years old. I have Polk fxi A6 for sides. Should I save to upgrade the rears or just run with what I got (Wharfedale wh-2). Thanks

 

[Dave Moritz]

The important part is to have speakers that match what you have in the rest of the system. So the timber from the Polk's may not match what you get from the Wharfedale. So you may end up noticing a difference in sound as sounds pan across the Polks sounding different than the other speakers.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave brings up a point that has always been reiterated to me over and over again...

You want the speakers to match.

You could run with what you have on hand right now just to get the 7.1 experience (which is a huge upgrade from 5.1), but you should strive to eventually have a surround setup where all the speakers match a unified brand.

 

[MikWRX]

Ok, thanks, I have ordered a matching pair of the Polk for the rear, they arrive next week. These surrounds are big and go deep, is there ever any reason to set the crossover for surrounds to 60 instead of 80? Audessey sets the Polk I have not to 60 until I manually set them to 80.

 

[John Dirk]

In any configuration, the front 3 [LCR] are where the bulk of your budget should go. Timbre matching isn't as much of a concern for the remaining speakers, unless the mismatch is obvious enough to draw attention to itself.

Assuming you have a capable sub, definitely go with 80 over 60 for the crossover value, thereby letting your sub do what it does best

 

[JohnRice]

Agreed. Of course, if you get matching models, you don’t have to worry about it.

 

[Mike Up]

How important are rears in a 7.1 setup?

Very important. I have 2 different setups. A 7.1 speaker main system, and a 5.1 speaker secondary system. The main system has 4 Polk TL1 speakers for the side and rear surrounds and the Secondary has 2 Polk TL1 speakers for the surround speakers.

The added rear surrounds on the 7.1 is huge and makes the surround sound completely surround you opposed to limited coverage from the 5.1 system.

As far as having matching speakers or closely voiced speakers for the 4 surround speakers, it's just as important as having the Front and Center channel speakers match in voicing!

I originally had 2 different series of Infinity speakers on the main system's surrounds and when surround sounds panned from side to rear, the sound wasn't seamless as the speakers had different voicing. Going to the Polk TL1 speakers for all 4 speakers made a huge difference as now pans from side to rears are seamless, more natural, and more realistic sounding.

While it might offer benefits to having rear surround speakers be voiced matched to the front speakers, I didn't hear any real benefits when I had voice match front and rear speakers. I had to give up the larger rear surround speakers for speakers that could be wall mounted. I honestly found no negatives by going to different voiced surround speakers. However keeping the surround speakers voiced matched, and keeping the front speakers voices matched has major benefits when sounds pan across speakers. Rarely do you ever hear a sound pan across the front speakers, then onto the surround speakers, in a circle around you.

In case you don't read my signature, my main system has Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2/C6.2, front speakers and my secondary speakers has Polk TL1/TL1 Center, front speakers. My secondary 5.1 setup has matching Polk TL1 speakers all the way around. My Main setup with 7.1 speakers, is much better for movies.

 

[Mike Up]

Ok, thanks, I have ordered a matching pair of the Polk for the rear, they arrive next week. These surrounds are big and go deep, is there ever any reason to set the crossover for surrounds to 60 instead of 80? Audessey sets the Polk I have not to 60 until I manually set them to 80.

I hate Audyssey as it always set the wrong crossovers, channel levels, etc. Bypassed Audyssey to get much better sound accomplished with stand alone SPL meter and tape measure.

Even though my Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2s can reach mid 40s, it's not with authority so I set my crossovers to 80Hz to not be in the Elac's frequency response roll off. The bass is handed over to my SVS SB-2000 and sounds great set this way. Occasionally I'll use 'Direct Mode' when listening to music but with my setup, leaving the sub and crossover in, sounds better with music.