Anyone use their old front speakers as surrounds? (1 Viewer)

[Allen Longcor]

I'm thinking this would be a cheaper way (if money was tight) to jump up to a 7.1 system. I could easily buy stands for them so that they would be 2-3 feet above the listening position. If anyone does this do you use them as the rear surrounds or as the side surrounds? Also, is this even a good idea or should you go with smaller bookshelf type speakers for surrounds? One last one, in a 7.1 system how important is it that the 4 back speakers match each other? Whoooo, ok that is all I think.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Yes.
I used to have Def Tech BP-20's in the front with BP-1's (typical small dipoles up high) in the back.
When I "upgraded", I got a set of BP-30's for the front (the BP-20's direct descendents), and moved the BP-20's to the rear.
(My wife got the old BP-1's.)
My impression now, is that the soundstage is more seemless around the room. I am now "in the action" rather than "below it" which is how I compare having 4 towers now(plus centers for the front and rear) vs the dipoles up high before.

 

[Jeff_Hunt]

My old setup:

Energy

e:XL 16 - Front

e:XL C - Center

e:XL R (dipole)- Surround

e:XL S8 - sub

My new setup:

e:XL 25 - Front

e:XL C - Center

e:XL 16 - Surround L+R

e:XL R - Surround Rear

e:XL S8 - sub

I couldn't be happier with this move. The sound is much more enveloping, and I'm not talking about the added surround rear channel. Just having a direct firing speaker with greater range on surround L+R has made a world of difference for me. Of course, the improvement of my front soundstage is also phenomenol, and I have tighter integration with the subwoofer all around.

 

[Brian_C]

I did. IMO, rear speakers are the least important of my setup and right now I'm using very old speakers. They only come on for 5% of a movie and only put out effects anyway. They'll be the last part to upgrade for me.

 

[Mike Strassburg]

I recently bought some used towers from a guy at work and use them as my rear surrounds. They sound very close to my JBL mains and having 4 full range speakers set to Large really sounds great. I'm currently using some small KLH's for the back channel (7.1) and will be upgrading to something bigger very soon. Watched JPIII the other day and it was amazing....sound coming from everywhere.

You actually feel like you're in the middle of the action!

In my setup timber matching doesn't seem to be an issue as I've swapped my mains/surrounds and both sounded good with my S-center. And the KLH back channel speakers blend right in also. Many times the sounds from the rear/back channel are not the same as the mains anyway; such as a helicopter flying off screen, so the sound is fading away as it gets to the rears.

Perhaps I don't have a "trained ear" as others seem to have. As long as "you" are happy with your system. I say give it a try....Mike