HELP: Educate or correct me on my rears (1 Viewer)

[Father John A]

I am looking to replace my small Sony satellite rears. I am currently using:

SV PCi sub
PhaseTech V6 Center
BA A60 Left and Right

I suspect that I could do better than the Sony's on the rear but don't want anything big or much bigger than they (approx. 4x7in.). I have no idea what to look at.

Also, As my room config. is such that the viewing area is against the rear wall I cannot place the rears behind the seating but must put them on the sides. Which is best, side ear level or closer to the ceiling angled down? What about in the wall, perpendicular to the seating facing the listeners sides?

Thanks for any help!

 

[GrahamT]

The best placement in my experience for monopole rear speakers when the listening position is against the wall is to put them up high (6-8') and wide and aim them right at each other over the listeners heads.

As for better surrounds, I am not sure for that size. If I were you I would get matching speakers all the way around.

 

[Father John A]

Thanks for the note.

The placement sounds right to me.

As to the same speakers all around: I love my BA A60 so I can't really replace them now. I went with the PhaseTech center because BA didn't seem to have anything that matched my A60s as well as it. I would be inclined to put PhaseTech on the rear but don;t think they make anything complimentary that woud be small.

 

[GrahamT]

If you like the way the BA's and PTs mix, then that is all that matters.

 

[Drew_W]

Your room will dictate proper direction. Up is good as a rule of thumb, but you may find aiming them directly at the listening area creates too much of a localized sound. I have a simliar situation to yours with my seating position along the back wall of the room, but I've put my surrounds about 6 feet up and facing into the room at a 45 degree angle to the wall. Naturally this requires you to calibrate the levels for those speakers a little higher because they're not facing you directly, but the addition of REFLECTED sound they provide facing in that direction adds a greater ambience to the soundfield created by the 5 speakesr.

 

[Father John A]

Just as I thought also re: the placement.

I was hoping someone might chime in and tell side mounting was OK mostly because I wanted to try in the wall speakers AND because Oncall.com has some PhaseTechs on closeout for $69 I think, normally $150 range.

As I suspected though I will probably just go with something wall mountable and aimable. Any suugestions on that?

 

[Shane Martin]

Their V-Surround is SMALL. It totally disappears in my room. Mine are Wall mounted and sound great.

 

[Father John A]

Shane,

Thanks for the follow-up. Unfortunately as these are nearly a foot wide, they are a bit bigger than I wanted. What did you pay for them?

They do look nice.

 

[Father John A]

Follow-up:

Got a great deal on the V-Surrounds and couldn't pass it up. Really like them so far.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Did Boston ever make a scaled-down version of the A60? I.e., same tweet, smaller woofer and cabinet. If to, that would be an ideal candidate for a well-matched center and rear selection. Of course, you’d have to find some – eBay.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt