Jump to content

Monitor -vs- Surround Speakers


budabear

Recommended Posts

HI,

Has anyone here compared the difference between monitor speakers such as the ksb-3.1 -vs- a rear surround speaker such as the ksb-s1 or even the rs-3II. I had been using the ksb-3.1's for front and rear but I just bought a pair of rs-3II's for the front. I am now wondering if I should get rid of the rear 3.1's for a pair of real surround speakers.

Thanks!3.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey,

First thing I would recommend is to get your RS-3II's to the back for the surround channel. They were specifically designed for that channel and quite honestly they sound like crap if you're running them as mains (I experimented with this once just to see what would happen... Not too good at all). Next, if you're in the market to do another upgrade, I strongly reccomend you look into getting a pair of RF-3II's or if you can swing it, a pair of RF-5's. If size is a constraint, try to get a pair of the RB-3's or RB-5's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks All! Yup the RS was a TYPO! My fronts are the RF-3II's. I'm currently still running my 3.1's in the rear but I guess according to your comments I will get rid of one of my pairs of 3.1's and pick up a pair of the RS-3II's. I've never heard a pair of the surround speakers but I hope there is a big difference.

THANKS MUCH!16.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

----------------

On 6/3/2003 7:10:30 PM fabulousfrankie wrote:

The RS-3II's should give your HT a more cohesive sound when things pan from front to back. With the WDST arrangment of the RS-3II's it will also create a larger more diffuse surround field. You will notice it but don't expect it to be a very dramatic change.
----------------

I'll toss in my opinion as someone with "monitors" for surrounds. Our HT setup has KLF-20 mains, a KLF-10 center, and 4 KLF-C7s (actually center channel speakers turned on end) as side and rear surrounds. I also had the vaunted KSP-S6 speakers running surround duty as these were the "recommended" surrounds for the Legends and also feature the WDST arrangements. Honestly, there was a small difference going from WDST speakers to direct-radiating surrounds, but it wasn't a good/bad change, just a different one. Since we have a 7.1 setup, the diffuse nature of the rear surround field might be augmented by the rear centers, but in general, we don't move around a whole lot when we watch movies so having a wider soundfield (as provided by the WDST speakers) coherent in more places than just the prime listening position wasn't a big deal to me. In that respect, at the prime listening positions, I actually preferred the C7s to the S6s on surround--I did not find them to provide a discontinuous or jumpy surround soundfield. Moreover, we like the "monitors all around" sound for music listening as they provide just a bit more presence than the WDST speakers did--no surprise since all of the sound waves were aimed directly at our heads rather than bouncing around the room over a 180 degree arc.

Part of our preference may be that the C7s were timbre matched to the KLF series while the KSP were actually from the Synergy line. Maybe it's because the C7s are much beefier speakers with larger horns and woofs than the S6s. Whatever the reason, we ended up preferring the C7s for surround so much that we recently sold the S6s to someone who went the exact opposite direction (S6s all around for the surround channels). I think it comes down to a matter of personal taste and what kind of room you have. We have a very large room for our HT so the direct-radiating nature of the C7s actually provide more surround "presence" without drawing attention to themselves because we're not losing so much energy directing the effects channels into areas the room where no one is sitting. But in a smaller HT, I can see where WDST speakers might be preferred because they would better approximate the diffuse nature of the multi-surround setup in a much larger theater. I'm not going to advocate one as being better than the other...you have to be the final judge to be sure, but at least there are a few people out there who have had success using "monitors" as surrounds.

Stuff my wife thinks I have more fun with than her...

Denon AVR-5803 (THX Ultra2 Receiver)

Panasonic TH42PWD5UY (42" ED Plasma Display)

2 Klipsch KLF-20s (Left / Right)

1 Klipsch KLF-10 (Center - not YET horizontalized)

4 Klipsch KLF-C7s (Side and Rear Surrounds)

1 Klipsch KSW-12 (Sub) with an SVS PB2-Plus on the way!

Denon DVD-1600 (Progressive DVD Video/Audio Player)

Pioneer DVL-919 (DVD/LD Combo-Player)

Yamaha CDC-735 (CD Changer, only used as transport)

JVC HRS8000U (S-VHS VCR)

Panamax 1000+ (Power Conditioner)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...