Surround sound philosophy that needs help

[thinker311]

this is a thread based on movies, not music...i dont have my system yet or really need help on any specific components, this is really just me trying to grasp a few concepts of surround sound....these questions grew from me attempting to put together a surround sound setup very cheaply...and the "cheap" part is problable what became my downfall.


These are 3 imaginary speaker setup senarios. To make things easier, all recievers and subs were created equal, just for these three examples. And keep in mind i am not considering floor standing speakers.


The Ultimate Surround Sound Setup would have all 5 speakers being quality two-way bookshelf's. So, everything is exactly even and has the potential to blast u out of ur room.


The "acceptible" Surround Sound Setup would be one of those "home theatre in a box deals". It would have all 5 speakrs being low quality one-way satelites. So, everything is exactly even, but lacks power. So u will get a terrific surround effect, but it wouldn't have what it takes to play that movie loud.


the last one is....My Mixed Surround Sound Setup. It would have started as a HTIB deal that consisted of "low quality" one-way's for the 5 speakers. The only speakers i keep in this are the two rear. Now i replace the center with an "ok quality" two-way speaker. Lastly, i replace the front speakers with "ok quality" two ways. Now i have a sytem that does not have a "perfect surround" effect, but i can have it louder because my two fronts will handle it better, without the distortion you would get from smaller one-ways. And the increased loudness shouldnt hurt the rears because they only do softer ambient sounds, and are hardly ever used.


The whole point of this thread is to determine if that last senario makes any sense, or worth doing. And it would be great if it could be worked like that because you can get a decent quality reciever that way for little money.

[pinkmouse]

It makes perfect sense to me. Upgrading in stages is a very good way of going about it.

[Mr Evil]

It will all work, but I would recommend having five identical speakers, otherwise sounds change character as they pan, which sounds a little odd.

[Mark Techer]

Research has proven that even when using the same type of loudspeaker in all postions, that as sounds pan around the room, there is a percieved change due to the shape of our outer ear.

I like the concept of identical speakers, but really like the spaciousness of a diffuse radiator for the surrounds.

So what I did was to my build system with the same drivers in all channels, but built the surrounds as diffuse radiators not direct.

They are close, but any required correction is handled by THX processing IE Timbre Match...

Mark

[Emiel]

Originally posted by thinker311
The Ultimate Surround Sound Setup would have all 5 speakers being quality two-way bookshelf's. So, everything is exactly even and has the potential to blast u out of ur room.


The "acceptible" Surround Sound Setup would be one of those "home theatre in a box deals". It would have all 5 speakrs being low quality one-way satelites. So, everything is exactly even, but lacks power. So u will get a terrific surround effect, but it wouldn't have what it takes to play that movie loud.


the last one is....My Mixed Surround Sound Setup. It would have started as a HTIB deal that consisted of "low quality" one-way's for the 5 speakers. The only speakers i keep in this are the two rear. Now i replace the center with an "ok quality" two-way speaker. Lastly, i replace the front speakers with "ok quality" two ways. Now i have a sytem that does not have a "perfect surround" effect, but i can have it louder because my two fronts will handle it better, without the distortion you would get from smaller one-ways. And the increased loudness shouldnt hurt the rears because they only do softer ambient sounds, and are hardly ever used.


The whole point of this thread is to determine if that last senario makes any sense, or worth doing. And it would be great if it could be worked like that because you can get a decent quality reciever that way for little money.

I think it won't make much sense to go this way, because of some recent experiences I had:

About 1,5 years ago I helped a friend picking a decent surround system fitting his not too large budget. I proposed to help him making all the speakers himself, but he didn't want to go that way. After listening to lots af out-of-the box sets (against my advice) we stumbled on some small Mission bookshelfs. The sound pretty amazing figuring they were only 99 Euro/pair. We decided on buying 4 of these bookshelfs, combined with a small sub and a mission center speaker. The surround amp and DVD player we picked were some reasonable Sony's. Together it was about 800 Euro for the complete set.
After installing we had some other friends came over to watch a movie. One of them had just recently bought an out-of-the-box set at about the same price.
When he asked what we payed for the complete set and we answered with 'about 800 euro's', he was totaly amazed and said it sounded A LOT better then his system. (I think I even saw him pinking away some tears.)

So my advice: DO NOT buy these out-of-the-box sets but invest time in listening to the speakers, and buy seperate components. You'll end up with a better system at the same price!

Kind regards, Emiel