Choosing surround speakers

[banjobyron]

I use two Klipsch RF-82's with a SW-112 sub.  I recently found a used center channel to match (RC-62), and now I'd like to get two surrounds for a 5.1 HT.  My question is, do all of my speakers need to be from the same manufacturer/line, or would I be better served looking into other brands for the surrounds?  If I should be looking around, I would really appreciate some suggestions that would pair well with what I already have,

Honestly, before I started reading these forums a while back, I had no idea there are so many manufacturers out there.  Each signature line on this board seems to boast a manufacturer I have never heard of (except for Emotiva, of course!  I know about them :-) 

Thanks in advance.

[drtrey3]

Banjo, there are a few of us who will start to chime in (drum roll Chuckienut) that swear by matched speakers. I had a mix and match set, then I updated to all Emotiva everywhere, and the improvement in the surround sound was just killer. The surround is now immersive and less gimmicky. Others will tell you that similar tweeters are fine, and they are, but matched speakers that use the same tweeter are bitchin fine!

Trey

[stiehl11]

Jul 21, 2014 22:46:28 GMT -5 drtrey3 said:

Banjo, there are a few of us who will start to chime in (drum roll Chuckienut) that swear by matched speakers. I had a mix and match set, then I updated to all Emotiva everywhere, and the improvement in the surround sound was just killer. The surround is now immersive and less gimmicky. Others will tell you that similar tweeters are fine, and they are, but matched speakers that use the same tweeter are bitchin fine!

Trey

+1 Only for Phase Tech instead of Emotiva. Different strokes for different folks.

[Deleted]

BanjoByron, Welcome to the Lounge!

There are opinions on both side.  Some folks will say any surround speakers are fine, it's only for rear channel gunshots, and other effects. Some of us know that the rear channels contain volumes (pun intended) of reverberated/reflected sound as well as rear channel instruments and movie effects.  Many multi-channel movies or music recordings have very important sound in the rear channels.  These sounds should be exactly voice/timbre matched just as the front three channels are for ideal 360 degree surround sound.  

If you were to play your trumpet in a solo, front and center soundstage performance in a concert hall, there would be significant reflections of your trumpet notes off the side and rear hall walls.  We want this to match the sonic characteristics as perfectly as possible to the more direct sounds we hear from the left center and right.  Using a surround speaker with different voicing/timbre lends to an audibly less coherent and less perfect surround spread/360 degrees.  Lots of movies as well as multi-channel or DPL sound tracks have significant music in the rear channels which needs to be as closely matched as possible to the front three channels. 

Whether you have the  RF-82 or RF-82II, either the RS-52 or RS-52II should be the perfect surround speaker match.  These 
RS-52 models with drivers angled to both sides off both specifically localized sound when needed and also better spread of the surround ambient rear sounds.  Note, the surrounds will not need as much power as the LCR's in most situations, different amp for the rears is fine.  

www.klipsch.com/rs-52/details

www.klipsch.com/rs-52-ii-surround-speaker/details



PS:   Please ignore the incessant pop up adds in threads here at the Emotiva Lounge forum for speakers other than your brand or speakers of the host brand (Emotiva), unless of course the thread is for general speaker discussions and recommendations.

[knucklehead]

I'll vouch for the sound of the RS-52's - my nephew has the RF-52/RC-52/RS-52 setup with my old Yamaha HTR-7065 and they sound great for movies - and not bad for music either. And with those speakers you don't need big amps to drive them.