Surround speakers - the bigger the better?

[milton10]

I recently changed my HT rear speakers from small bookshelf SB-1's to some large floorstanding Boston Acoustics a150's. The result was a much more full and satisfying surround sound experience - even though the speakers do not match my Heresy fronts.

Now, I am puchasing a 6.1 setup and need to add a sixth rear speaker. The problem is that I live in a small apartment, and my room is getting cluttered REAL quick! I am considering placing KG-1's in the rear three channels (they look like mini Heresies!) in an effort to save space and take advantage of the 6th rear channel.

My questions are as follows:

(1) Will going from large floorstanding surrounds to the smaller KG-1's make that big of an impact in sound quality - even though there is a third speaker?

(2) Should I keep the larger "surrounds" and just add a smaller "rear effects" sixth speaker (or vice versa)?

Thanks for your responses!

[Cal Blacksmith]

If it were me (but it isn't) I would keep what you have and add a rear speaker that matches your rear surrounds speakers. There is not a lot of information that comes out of the back speaker.

[Olorin]

More comes out if the speakers are bigger. I'd go for Heresies all around.

[doudou]

you can use your SB1 as rear in order to make a 7.1 system.

[TheVillain9]

from my experience, when i used a bigger rear speaker, i hardly heard much from it. i'm not sure if its because of the receiver settings, or what, perhaps i need a pre-amp. I tried to use these front, floor standing polks as rears, but they just didn't seem to put out enough sound through a Yamaha RX-V1GL. The polks work fine as fronts. I then tested out these cheap($30) bookshelf KLH speakers from BestBuy, and aside from the ****ty sound, they produced much more sound, filling the room better. so now i'm waiting for a good price on some RB-10s, too afraid that a bigger speaker won't produce enough sound.

[marksdad]

be carefull about too many speaks in too small a room i used to do 6.1 in a small room and it seemed that the sound was just bouncing off of each other, just do a good solid ht, you wont get much more from a 6.1 or 7.1 or 3.1 it depends more on quality than quantity, as far as buying smaller off brand speaks, WOW????????

[doudou]

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On 8/6/2004 10:54:32 PM marksdad wrote:

be carefull about too many speaks in too small a room i used to do 6.1 in a small room and it seemed that the sound was just bouncing off of each other, just do a good solid ht, you wont get much more from a 6.1 or 7.1 or 3.1 it depends more on quality than quantity, as far as buying smaller off brand speaks, WOW????????

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you re right.

if the room is too small too many speakers won t sound good at all.

it will be messy.