2x Questions about surround speakers. (1 Viewer)

[george_k]

Question 1:

Do you really need a quality speaker to act as a surround speaker? I figure the answer is no since so little information (ambient) is sent to these speakers.


Question 2:

Does anybody know of similar speakers to the B&W LM1 which have a built-in bracket to use as surrounds. If I can find a pair of LM1's cheap enough I'd go with those otherwise suggestions are welcome

Thanks!

 

[ChrisWiggles]

The answer is: yes. and no. and everything in between.

Ideally, you want 5 identical speakers, ideally of high-performance for seamless transitions between all the speakers. Most people have matched speakers, i.e. say a smaller (and cheaper) version of a speaker, or from within the same line for surrounds, along with a center channel speaker.

Depending on your needs, and uses (all movies? big on music more?) it really depends. I, for instance, while I value a great matched surround system, am FAR pickier with 2-channel, so I am willing to sacrifice surround-speaker quality for the fronts, and even sacrifice the center channel match to get the best L/R 2-channel performance that I can get. Movies are secondary in terms of my pickiness, because the films that mean the most to me are mostly older, foreign, i mean I'm lucky if they are even in stereo, let alone any kind of modern quality mix that would require perfectly matched 5.1 speakers. But ideally you'd want a perfect match. This costs lots of $$ if you are looking at getting high-quality fronts. But matching the center is far more important than matching the surrounds. For ME personally anyway, matching the center to the mains is less important than having good mains for music. You and others may have different priorities, so it's hard to say.

Also, multi-channel music can come into play. And dibloe/bipole versus direct.

 

[PhilBoy]

If you purchase good surrounds you will be able to take advantage of 5.1 music titles as well (DVD-A, DTS, SACD) in the future...

Even some current DVD-V concert/music releases have wonderful 5.1 discrete soundtracks.

You can always upgrade later.

 

[DavidES]

I figure the answer is no since so little information (ambient) is sent to these speakers.

You will, or should I say, could be pleasantly surprised to learn that there can be a lot of full-range info with Prologic 2/DD/DTS/Multichannel audio. It all depends on the mix.