which rear surrounds to buy???

[abaker]

I am currently in the process of setting up for 6.1/7.1 and am curious as to what rear surround speakers to buy. I have Legend 20 main speakers, C-7 center, and ksf-S5 rears.

I can buy either S-6(which really go with the Legend 20 towers) to use for the side surrounds and use my S-5s for the rear surrounds or I can by another pair of S-5s for the rear surrounds to match the S-5s I have. What should I do?

[lerajie]

IN my opinion direct radiating speakers are best for rear surrounds. I am currently using KSB 2.1 for rear surrounds and RS-3's for surrounds.

My system is as follows:

KLF-c7 center

KLF-30's mains

RS-3 surround

KSB 2.1 rear surrounds

KSW-12 subwoofer

Parasound HCA-1500a amplifier (powering KLF-30's)

ADCOM 3 position speaker switch

Denon AVR 4800 AVR

Toshiba Sd-2200 dvd

Denon RC-8000w/base remote

Zenith Inteq 36in Direct view SDTV

Sony SAT-A4 dd5.1 DirecTV receiver

Sony 5** dual well tape deck

The KSB 2.1's are not long for this HT. They will be replaced with KLF-20's. I had and then had to send back an SVS 16-46cs sub to replace the KSW-12. I will be placing an order for another 16-46 either tonight or tomorrow.

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lerajie

[boa12]

lerajie (or anyone), i'm looking at your denon 4800 for a new a/v receiver but trying to figure out how it hooks up for my optional various speaker set-ups.

i assume (maybe wrong) that i'd have to use the effects preouts & a seperate amp to hook up & use direct rear surrounds. it looks like you're not using the effects channels though. are u hooking the rs & direct rear speaks to the A & B surround speaker connects

then switching between them for HT vs. music?

sorry if this assumption is wrong - maybe that adcom switch allows u to use the effects preouts to the direct rears(?).

if i wanted to use only the direct speakers when playing music for like 5 channel stereo,

but use both them & a dipole (like the new rs-7) for HT (7.1 surround), is this possible w/ the denon - i.e., could i hook up the cornwalls as rear surrounds w/ another amp & then of course the surrounds (rs-7) to the A surround speaker connects. then in the different sound modes u can select to turn the A surrounds on or off?

whew, this 7.1 is something & all the receivers seem to have those different features

thanks!

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RF-3 (front), RC-3, Cornwall I (rear)

Velodyne HGS-18 sub

Monsterbass 400 sub cables & Monster Z-12 wire

Sony de935 a/v receiver

Sony DVP-C650D dvdp

Sony Trinitron 27" tv

Technics dual cassette deck

Technics direct drive turntable

Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2000 digital cable box

rock on!

[lerajie]

No you would not need another amp to do this. The receiver can power a both A&B surround simultaneously. You can turn them on and off via the on screen menu.

You would of course need an additional amplifier to power a pseudo 7.1 setup(it's not really true 7.1 as the rear surrounds are both matrixed)If I wanted to I could go to my HT right now and hook up an additional pair of speakers to the B connection of the surrounds and have 9 speakers plus the sub while only using an additional two channels of amplification. I could then turn those additional speakers on and off at will via the on screen menu.

Currently I am powering the KSB 2.1's with the front channels of the 4800. You can select which speakers to power with the AVR via the on screen menu.

I am using the adcom selector to switch between my mains and my Klipsch outdoor speakers as well as using it to run the KSW-12 through the speaker level inputs.I usually don't run the KSW-12 via speaker level because the bass tends to "bloat" but it is MUCH louder that way.The selector makes it easy for me to fiddle with the bass levels.

Does that make sense?

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lerajie

[boa12]

ler, yea that makes sense w/ the remote speakers & sub. thanks for the reply & info.

i went & started a new thread on this too under HT.

i saw how i could put the cornwalls on surround B & use them only for music, but then I started thinking with the corns in the rear anyway why not just use them for both rear music cd play (without the side bipolar surrounds) & also use them for rear effects on HT (& use that matrixed 7.1). looks like this is possible though the denon 4800 manual doesn't cover it per se. also, then i guess i could look to the 5800 & not need another power amp.

what mode do u use for CD music? if u use the 5 channel stereo mode, do u then have it set up to play the side rs too or just the rears as far as surrounds go?

[lerajie]

I use 7channel stereo for CD music when I want big sound and 2channel when I want it to be accurate. For 7 channel stereo music I drop the level of the RS-3's by 5db. They sound kinda muddy for music playback when they are at the HT setting.

As for using your cornwalls for both cd playback and pseudo 7.1. I am currently using my KSB2.1's in that exact manner. They are hooked up via the front L&R speaker terminals as I am using the Parasound to power the KLF-30's. There is a menu where you can specify which channels you want to be driven by the AVR. You can choose to either drive the rear surrounds with an outboard amp or the mains.

Let me know if you get the 4800 and need more help.

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lerajie

[boa12]

ok a light finally went off there & from that

other thread on the 5800. so if I had the 4800 & another amp like u i could do what I want. if i got just a 5800 however I could not (per colabear on the other thread).

thanks again.

p.s., as the receiver features are ever changing, sure they'll have a self-contained model w/ this flexability in the near future. by the time I get around to it i'd probably end up getting more speaks to have 9 total plus sub anyway. Boa