I want to design a set of rear surround speakers for my home theater. I haven't decided on what route to take, but feel that precisely matching these to my main speakers isn't as crucial as I originally thought. So can anyone give me any idea's on how to set them up. Any angles that work best, any pitfalls to watch out for, etc.
I have a bunch of bravox 3" full range drivers I bought from Radioshack a while back and never used, so one plan was to use those with a larger midbass. Aim the 3" drivers in all directions, wired out of phase for a more diffused sound. However, I'm afraid I will end up with a very bad sounding surround if I'm not careful, with too much cancelation or something.
I know that probably the right thing to do is to buy 4 more Focal midbass drivers with the w-cone, and two more TD120 tweeters, but the cost is very high for such a speaker, and if I don't need that level of matching, I'd rather not spend it right now.
Any pointers or links to information would be appreciated, thanks.
I have a bunch of bravox 3" full range drivers I bought from Radioshack a while back and never used, so one plan was to use those with a larger midbass. Aim the 3" drivers in all directions, wired out of phase for a more diffused sound. However, I'm afraid I will end up with a very bad sounding surround if I'm not careful, with too much cancelation or something.
I know that probably the right thing to do is to buy 4 more Focal midbass drivers with the w-cone, and two more TD120 tweeters, but the cost is very high for such a speaker, and if I don't need that level of matching, I'd rather not spend it right now.
Any pointers or links to information would be appreciated, thanks.
Hi
At the moment I'm using the Vance Dickason's surround design in the back of the LDC, it uses a layout similar to the one you're suggesting. It has an Audax AP130Z0 5" midwoofer on the front of the cabinet and two Audax TW025M0 tweeters, wired out of phase with one either side of the cabinet. It works very well and is reasonably cheap, I think Parts Express sold the drivers last time I checked.
Plans for the full system here...
http://www.partsexpress.com/PDF/300-655.pdf
I don't think it's too crucial the surrounds are up to the standard of your fronts, most of the time there seems to be very little coming out of them to me. So long as they're reasonably good you'll be fine 🙂
Something you might want to try is having a few surrounds either side of you like in a real cinema. After all thats what the dipole surround speakers are trying to emulate, why not do it with those little Bravox's?! Skywalker sound use what looks like 3 monopole surrounds per side in their mixing rooms 😀
At the moment I'm using the Vance Dickason's surround design in the back of the LDC, it uses a layout similar to the one you're suggesting. It has an Audax AP130Z0 5" midwoofer on the front of the cabinet and two Audax TW025M0 tweeters, wired out of phase with one either side of the cabinet. It works very well and is reasonably cheap, I think Parts Express sold the drivers last time I checked.
Plans for the full system here...
http://www.partsexpress.com/PDF/300-655.pdf
I don't think it's too crucial the surrounds are up to the standard of your fronts, most of the time there seems to be very little coming out of them to me. So long as they're reasonably good you'll be fine 🙂
Something you might want to try is having a few surrounds either side of you like in a real cinema. After all thats what the dipole surround speakers are trying to emulate, why not do it with those little Bravox's?! Skywalker sound use what looks like 3 monopole surrounds per side in their mixing rooms 😀
3 inch speakers generally work well for surrounds. I tend to use a vifa 3 " from there tc line. It has a lovely top end (very directional though). If you have enough speakers do lots of little 1 litre boxes evenly spaced around the room for the best effect aimed at the listening position.
I have used 2 drivers,wired out of phase, on the sides of a 2 litre box. this did create a very good cinema like effect and is well worth trying.
I have used 2 drivers,wired out of phase, on the sides of a 2 litre box. this did create a very good cinema like effect and is well worth trying.
Thanks for the responses guys, I think I will give it a shot. I would much rather use a vifa or even Tangband 3" driver if I could, if not something like the Aura, or whatever. However, I happen to have these cheap Bravox drivers. I listened to them once in a test enclosure and wasn't that thrilled, but for surround duty, I think they will be fine. My original plan was to use them to make a Left/Center/right all in one speaker that would go under my TV in my bedroom, to give a bit of a front surround effect, and better sound than the built in speakers do, however then I decided it was a waste of time and money.
My processor has the ability to support up to 6 seperate surround speakers each controlled seperatly, however I don't have enough amp channels to power them. I could always use something like one of my chip amps, but thats a whole lot of wire to run also. I'm currently redoing my listening room, well moving everything into a new room, and setting it up right now, before moving my gear in. The room is 27 feet long and 16 feet wide, so I don't even want to think about how much wire it will take to wire up 6+ surround speakers.
Anyway, thanks again, we will see what happens. I think I will start with between 3 and 4 surround speakers, and see how that goes.
My processor has the ability to support up to 6 seperate surround speakers each controlled seperatly, however I don't have enough amp channels to power them. I could always use something like one of my chip amps, but thats a whole lot of wire to run also. I'm currently redoing my listening room, well moving everything into a new room, and setting it up right now, before moving my gear in. The room is 27 feet long and 16 feet wide, so I don't even want to think about how much wire it will take to wire up 6+ surround speakers.
Anyway, thanks again, we will see what happens. I think I will start with between 3 and 4 surround speakers, and see how that goes.
You only need one amp channel per side if you wire them series-parallel, the extra channels on your processor will be for centre back ect probably. If you have 4, 2 pairs in series then both pairs in parallel. If you use 3, 2 in series then that pair in parallel with the last speaker. Although this way you'd get more output from the single speaker, you could experiment with greater output from the centre speaker of the array.
Lots of possibilities to play with 😀
Lots of possibilities to play with 😀
i am using 3 pairs of radio shack minimus-7s for surround duty. one pair on each side wall, and a pair on the back wall. they blend great with the 3 sets of double advents in the front. btw, all speakers are wired in parallel pairs. as long as the amp will handle the load, its ok.
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