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Surround strategy


twk123

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I have a smaller HT room with the couch about 1.5 ft from the back wall. I used to have my surrounds with the tweeter pointed directly at my ears which was great for music but I really didnt like it for movies. Instead of a surround field it was more of a "Hey there is the surround coming out of my speaker...".

 

Anyway, last night I decided to move the surrounds out about 2ft and bounce them off the back wall into the listening position and its MUCH better. I like the diffused sound as much of the content is ambient noise which in real life is often bounced off many surfaces before getting from the source to your ears.

 

That being said, what is your surround strategy? Do you guys prefer localized sound from direct pointing, shooting over the head or reflected?

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I like the surround near my ceiling and slightly behind.  The RS speakers are flush mounted using the keyhole bracket an no angling down is my preference.  I don't want any of the speaker firing directly at my ears drums, lol.  I have the mains converge behind my head.  A tweeter hitting the ear drums for a long time is not my cup of tea, lol.

Edited by derrickdj1
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I always preffered the rs style speakers once I heard them. Wish I had the cinema style ones in my basement. But I don't. The palladium ones upstairs are fantastic with the forward woofer and tweeter on each side. And they prolly do the best job of any surround I've owned at being there when called upon but not drawing any attention to themselves when not being utilized.

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Depends on what the source is. For typical ambience I like the RS style that is elevated.

For music or stuff that pans a lot or stuff with very strong rear material, I prefer towers. Gunshots for example, when something is strong up front but then it goes to the rear and it is weaker and elevated, that's just weird to me. Concert blu rays where guitars pan around the room is weird as well, I want them on the same level, same tone, and same volume as the mains as much as possible. I had some towers working for awhile as surrounds and missed a few effects once I switched, otherwise I wouldn't know any better.

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^^this!!

I had towers as surrounds and they were amazing. I chose twin centers over rs surrounds and am almost about to go back to towers again. Dispersed sound just does not interest me, I like all sound sources to be similar. Would anyone here have rs series as there mains? 

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Dispersed sound just does not interest me, I like all sound sources to be similar.

 

LOL!  I am your opposite!  I like dispersed sound, and similar sound sources does not interest me.  :lol:

 

I prefer to put my money into L/C/R and go cheap on the surrounds.  Since my main system is in the living room, I also don't like giant speakers everywhere, I don't want large speakers bringing attention to themselves.  Smaller is better.

 

I guess that's why they make different kinds of speakers.  B)

Edited by wvu80
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^ Ain't that the truth!  Some people prefer vanilla ice cream, some chocolate, some strawberry, and SOME want Neopolitan.

 

I have KLF-30s up front, 20s as surrounds and LOVE how they sound, and how the big speakers look.  They remind me of Mike Tyson, in a tux, dancing like Fred Astaire.  Show my age much?  It sets an anticipation of the audio experience that may be expected.

 

Of course, a very understanding wife helps a lot, too, in carrying it off.   :)

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LOL!  I am your opposite!  I like dispersed sound, and similar sound sources does not interest me.  :lol:

Expanding on a couple of good examples of where direct radiating is nice that I mentioned earlier:

1. Metallica's through the never, the camera is moving around the stage, the guitar kind of shifts and seamlessly pans around the room, like Kirk is supposed to be in front of you then slowly shifts to right beside you. Once you hear it on towers it sounds odd and boring when Kirk isn't just beside you, but above you, as well as with a different tone that is dispersed.

2. Edge of Tomorrow, there is some robotic gatlin gun action where you are immersed in the gunfight and there's shooting going around everywhere. There is some very strong surround material where these guns are just about as loud as the mains. It is much more captivating when the same tone and volume is bouncing all around you.

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When you say same volume, what do you mean? If a speaker is level matched it wouldn't matter if it were a RS-62ii or rf-7ii, the gun shots would be the same spl coming from the original source

I mean there was some pretty punchy full range stuff that I just can't see my RS's being able to reproduce nearly as well.

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LOL!  I am your opposite!  I like dispersed sound, and similar sound sources does not interest me.  :lol:

Expanding on a couple of good examples of where direct radiating is nice that I mentioned earlier:

1. Metallica's through the never, the camera is moving around the stage, the guitar kind of shifts and seamlessly pans around the room, like Kirk is supposed to be in front of you then slowly shifts to right beside you. Once you hear it on towers it sounds odd and boring when Kirk isn't just beside you, but above you, as well as with a different tone that is dispersed.

2. Edge of Tomorrow, there is some robotic gatlin gun action where you are immersed in the gunfight and there's shooting going around everywhere. There is some very strong surround material where these guns are just about as loud as the mains. It is much more captivating when the same tone and volume is bouncing all around you.

 

 

How far away are the rear towers from your seating position? I think that has an effect as well. If I fire my KSB 1.1's direct they are about 3-4 feet from my head which makes it too localized to the speaker. This is great for 5 channel stereo for electronic music as it sounds more enveloped but for HT I dont get the immersive effect. 

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I mean there was some pretty punchy full range stuff that I just can't see my RS's being able to reproduce nearly as well.

 

Surrounds never get exactly what is sent to the mains.  That is why companies can get away with smaller surrounds.

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How far away are the rear towers from your seating position? I think that has an effect as well. If I fire my KSB 1.1's direct they are about 3-4 feet from my head which makes it too localized to the speaker. This is great for 5 channel stereo for electronic music as it sounds more enveloped but for HT I dont get the immersive effect.

When I was temporarily running towers the drivers were within a couple of feet from the outside of my row of 4, fired straight across our faces. Now my RS's are about 6' high and flat against the wall, other side of a walkway that is about 4' wide, with the drivers spraying in front and behind me. I may not be describing it correctly but I felt I could tell a significant difference in the tone during panning, punch with strong material, plus the lower height was just more correct in many cases. There's a reason why I started the "RF-7ii as surrounds" thread. I felt that the towers were more fun.

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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Don't forget about all channel stereo modes that most AVR's have.  It seems having surrounds that more closely match the mains may benefit such modes.

 

Ever since I swapped my RS-62's out for La Scala II's, then swapped out those for P17b's, I've grown to like the direct sound over what I heard with the RS-62's.  I also keep all my mid-ranges aimed to ear height, which is also counter to the original THX recommendations, but sounds very good to me for multi-channel music.

 

 

I mean there was some pretty punchy full range stuff that I just can't see my RS's being able to reproduce nearly as well.

 

Surrounds never get exactly what is sent to the mains.  That is why companies can get away with smaller surrounds.

 

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