Surround Speaker Question

Greetings

What speakers do you have for your fronts and what are you using for electronics? If you simply ask what are good surround speakers, I think that's the wrong question. If you get a different brand of speakers than your fronts they likely will not be timbre matched and when you ha e surround effects, especially effects that go between the surrounds and mains, it will sound different.

Secondly, you can either go for direct radiating or dipole surrounds. There are merits to each. Thus you may be able to get a direct radiating speaker (like a bookshelf) version of your fronts. You then have both timbre matching and placement options.

Regards
Theo

You can get some Martin Logans (used) for a price that hits your budget. Used you can look at the LX-16. If you have space for in-wall, then look at the Martin Logan Passage. They are on sale from $799 each to $299 at Audio Advisor. http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MLPASS%20%20%20%20EAWHT

The Audioholics store has additional Martin Logan speakers at a clearance deal at: http://store.audioholics.com Martin Logan Source speakers are on sale from $1,100 to $600.

For a time, I used high quality Focal surrounds to mate with my Revel fronts. There was a indeed a difference and it was noticeable.... and it was bothersome. If you can afford it, try and timbre match your setup with the same brand. Chances are they will tend to be voiced similarly.

I disagree with the opinions that the surrounds don't matter. They do. If it's not within budget and you need to compromise, that's one thing, but if you can make it work within your budget then do it.

You also do not need dipoles for surrounds so if you're worried about that, then don't. Using direct firing/direct radiating speakers works perfectly in a surround setup and many of the higher-end manufacturers don't make dipoles any longer for the surrounds.

Here, look at this auction for Martin Logan Vignettes. I think you found your solution.

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/monitors-martin-logan-vignette-black-2012-09-20-speakers-37209

To nineballg's point,

Having direct-radiating surrounds works very very well now with lossless codecs. I use direct radiating surrounds an point them all directly at the listening position. I've put my sides at a 110 degree angle. My anthem preamp allows me to specify dipole or direct radiating for all surrounds. I chose that instead of 90 degrees based on reading Floyd Toole's book and reason the spec for DTS and Dolby lossless setups.

Now, my surrounds are all 9 feet from the primary listening position. If your surrounds are foing to be 3 feet away, then it may be a different situation. :-).

But my serious point is that direct firing surrounds work incredibly well and I actually prefer it to dipole.

Best
Theo