rear surround speaker

I recommend the B&W M-1's (mini-theaters they call them). They're compact in size, can be wall mounted, and employ a metal dome tweeter with the B&W Nautilus tapered tube technology and neodymium magnets to minimize standing waves. They are made of a very strong curved aluminum cabinet with excellent build quality. They are substantial. Bottom line, they produce excellent surround sound highs and detail. Amazing little units and sell for about $200.00 each. They have a sensitivity of 85dB but your Marantz A-V receiver can be set to allow for that so they're balanced with the other speakers in your system. I too have a Marantz A-V receiver. My room is 13' x 23' x 8' high. I even use a 3rd one for my center channel speaker since I don't have the room for a full size center channel unit. Enjoy !!

Audio Advisor has wall-mountable $800/pair JM Lab/Focal surround speakers on sale for $189/pair here.

Otherwise, for wall- or ceiling-mount rear surrounds, I'd go with Mirage Omnisat satellites or NanoSats. They have built-in wall-mounts and are omnidirectional, which is definitely preferred for surround.

If you are interested in going the Mirage Omnisat/Nanosat route, you might want to first try a pair of these:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=309-400

They use the Omni-directional technology licensed from Mirage and they look very much like a pair of Omnisats. Heck, for $39/pr you could simply throw them away if they don't float your boat.....

Enjoy,

TIC

Heck, for $39/pr you could simply throw them away if they don't float your boat.....
Enjoy,

TIC

With are land-fills growing daily, please, don't throw them away,instead give them to any needy music lover...8^)

Aol,

It was a bad choice of words. Sorry, but I should have said something like "give them away"....

BTW, They apparently make GREAT computer music speakers. Add them to a little self powered computer subwoofer/amp setup and they may be quite good....

Enjoy,

TIC

TIC,

Thanks,

Only one planet...

About those Mirage-licensed Omnisat knock-offs: for the money, they'd be a good value and probably are excellent computer speakers. But for home theater, you might want to consider this: These licensed speakers are nowhere near the same performance or build quality of the originals. The originals use butyl surround titanium deposit poly drivers and cloth-surround pure titanium dome tweeters, are down 3dB at 70 Hz and have power handling of about 175 watts. The knock-offs use a paper driver, go down to about 135 Hz (a full octave higher), and only handle 55 watts. It's the power handling that concerns me the most about HT.

That said, I have Mirage Omnisats, and the way this speaker design radiates and energizes the room is great. At $39 (down from $89) you'd get a lot of that and I can't say enough for the effectiveness of that design.

Yeah, I'm ashamed to hear people here recommending such options for your setup! In all good consciousness, as someone who's got such quality speakers, otherwise, as Avantgardes, I couldn't recommend another THIRD BRAND of speakers to ANY setup!!! This is a major NO NO for keeping the sonic integrity of your soundstage coherent!
For instance, let's simply move around your sound system, with say your proposed scheme: First, a sound moves from your left front speaker (Avantgarde) on to your center speakers (Martin Logan), then on to the right front speaker (Avantgarde again), then over to some OTHER BRAND of speakers, and then back around to your Avantgardes!!!
This is NOT HOW YOU PUT A QUALITY SYSTEM TOGETHER! I mean, you wouldn't have 2 different brands of left and right front speakers. So why would you consider doing what you're doing, and expect quality?!- cause you won't get it.
You'd be WAY better off either dumping your Martin Logan center, in exchange for and Avantgard Solo(I think that's what it's called) - and maybe adding Solo's in rear - or simply forgoing a center all-togther, and just running stereo! (yes, you could do Avantgardes all across the front, and MAYBE fudge with some other horn-like rears. But it wouldn't likely be so stellar. Remember, quality over quantity! (more is NOT BETTER, necessarily)
Your other option is to simply stick with you Avantgardes for L/R dubty stereo, and add some quality on-wall MATCHING surround system, yes!!! This would give you quality all around. What you're trying to do now will NEVER yield anything but a hodge-podge of sound from your system. You'll always be simply listening to "gear", and not be able to get a soundstage that dissapears into the room! It's your choice.
If it were me, I'd STRONGLY CONSIDER either simply sticking with the 2 channel setup for both music and/or movies, or just getting another system for your multi-channel dubties. This will likely give you better off-axis seating, and a large sweetspot, and also a coherent sound from your system! Yes, you're doing it wrong. If you think not, simply direct your question to ANY AUDIO MAGAZINE PROFESSIONAL REVIEWER, and see what they say! I garatee they'll concure.
Either way, you can do what you want. The Avantgardes fall off like a rock with off-axis listening - which is why you want multiple speakers all around the room anyway- and theyonly have a narrow listening window, if being a superb dynamic speaker system, otherwise.
Yeah, Avantgard Uno's up front for stereo 2 channel dubties, then some sort of On-wall mounted speakers for 5 or 7.1 (or more) movie dubties, INDEED! That's the correct way for you,IMO. Good luck.

Also, BTW, you'll get double the dynamic ability from your horn section if you dump the passive preamp, and get an ACTIVE PREAMP! I've tinkered with passive options in the past. Inevitably, passives don't deliver the "smack" like actives, leaving dynamics, comparably, flatter sounding.
Another recommendation to consider.
Yeah, not along the lines of the post, I know.

I wonder about the active preamps, i have been thinking of the tom evan preamp but you don't see them around much so i will have to wait. As for the rear, i decided on a pair of bipole/dipole speaker-craft wall mount with 2 tweeter and two mids/bass aimable and tunable.also the marantz surround processor have a fully automated equalizing system using an outboard mic so all the speakers gets properly aligned in respect to phase, time and frequency response.For the most part the rear is just accent ambiance sound( bullets and bombs and screams) so getting a pair of $8000 avantgarde solo is only feasible if i happen to win the lottery and besides they are very BIG and just dosn't work.The speaker craft already set me back over $1000 for wall mount speakers, wahtever happened to the $30 ones i can throw away or is it giveaway???I will post after i get a tom evans preamp and let you know how the dynamics improved or not. The placette already convey enormous dynamics, i use to have a krell KBL and a KR tube amp before the placette and tom evans and i hear no decrease in dynamics if anything an improvement but the sound is definitely more transparent on the passive. One thing that is a drag is the placette tends to be sensitive to noise and hum emitting from the Plasma TV and it provide no ground!!thanks all for the advice!