Need some help picking a set of surround speakers (1 Viewer)

I have a small room for my theater. 10'X13' room in which the couch is against the back wall and the projector shoots a 74" screen on the far wall.

Onkyo Tx-SR605 7.1 reciever
Sides Cerwin Vega LS-12's (yes a bit bassy but I use this system for music as well)
Cerwin vega 15" powered subwoofer in rear corner
Cerwin vega center


I have had a variety of side surrounds but usually consisting of small 6" bookshelf speakers. And through dropping them( yeah I know) I have broke my last set of cheap bookshelf speakers.

I was never really happy with the sound stage in the room, There never seems to be much surround feel just a slight hint of sound from the corners if I listened for them( yes I used the Recievers microphone calibration software)

I put a set of sony towers in the corners and it really expanded the soundstage, but was almost too loud at times for the person sitting right next to the speakers. I did not recalibrate for the towers in the sides but I COULD hear them this time!


In such a small room what is your recomendation to get a good sound stage, With out blowing out hte person on the corners? I was thinking a high wall mounted or ceiling mounted would be the best bet?

Should I expand to 7.1? and how

Move your couch off the wall to the middle-ish of the room.Why not try CV of the same series you have now?

I to find Cerwin Vega to be to bassy but muddy kind of bass. If you are happy with the [SIZE=14.3999996185303px]Cerwin Vega over all then I would just stick with it and speaker timber will match 360 deg around the entire room. If not happy with the over all sound and dispersion of the speakers you might want to replace all the speakers and go with another brand. I would start off with are you happy with what you have and the brand over all? If yes I would go with a matching speaker to what you have. If not look at the following brands.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]Boston[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]Polk[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]Klipisch [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]B&W ([/SIZE]Bowers and Wilkins)
Definitive Technology

I have at times found them a bit muddy but since adding the V-5C center its watchable. I am trying to repair these sony three way towers a friend gave me, BUT The 6" woofer is blown and SONY wants 90 dollars to replace the driver if I can even find stock for the well discontinued set.

Going the CV Route I guess would be the SL-5M 5.25 2-way bookshelf speakers. Next step up would be the SL-8 floor speakers. I just dont want to spend another 200 dollars and shave them dwarfed by the mighty LS-12 left and right channels... Maby Its just a matter of setting everything up correctly level wise.


The Vegas were a compromise and I can live with that. But I would like to hear my surrounds. I know Its impossible to say much without seeing the room. I'm thinking the old KLH 403's were just not enough speaker and possibly mounted too low to do there job right.

Have you ever ran Audyssey?(I personally don't like auto eq, but...running it will tune it up...then you can tweak it)

A trick you can use is to put some poly fill insulation inside the cabinets which should help improve the base of the speakers, this could help your cv sound. The material is cheap so it would be worth a try IMHO.

Audyssey keeps failing. I'm guessing because my rear speakers don't match right now as I try to fix the other tower. But I did notice that there is a huge difference between the tower and the little 4 inch satellite I was using before. The tower can handle full frequency range , the little satellite had its frequency range locked by audyssey. I wonder if those six inch CV satellites will be full range

This room is definitely too small for 7.1, but not a big deal since the difference is subtle anyway. The surround speakers should not be too prominent in your setup, remember they just support the front speakers. Your surrounds should be to placed to the side or slightly behind the listening position and it's always best to go with the same brand of speakers as the fronts. I once believed my surrounds were not doing much, but try playing a movie with lots of surround information (like the Harry Potter series) and then disable your surround speakers. You should find (as I did) that your entire surround field simply collapses to the front. In other words, the surrounds are doing a great deal, it's just not easy to notice their presence until they're disabled.

Elfmaze said:

Audyssey keeps failing. I'm guessing because my rear speakers don't match right now as I try to fix the other tower.

Click to expand...

I'd be willing to bet that Audyssey could be failing because you're running a 5.1 setup on a 7.1 receiver and have your "surround" speakers connected to the "surround back" channels. There is a difference. The "surround back" speakers are the two that are added for 7.1.

If you have speakers connected to the surround back and nothing connected to the surround speakers, it can cause Audyssey to fail.

Honestly, this could also be a cause for your general problem of "not enough surround".

Just a thought.

Also if you have to much noise coming into the room while running the Audyssey test that could cause it to fail or not calibrate properly as well.

I have a small room myself 14x14 and this is my set up; it works for me.



Now this is my last rear setup. Custom made surround towers with side firing woofers. Worked great. Nothing like a good rear sound stage.

Your main speakers have a 98dB sensitivity rating. If you don't give the rears a bit of help (either though manual setup or Audyessey) they probably will sound soft. That's why the towers you put there probably sounded better...they were closer to the sensitivity of the mains.