stick with speaker brand or move on?

[Tommunist]

I'm currently running 2.1 in my AV setup. 2 sonus faber concertinos and a REL sub (one of the small but accurate 10" ones) hooked up to a Denon 2803. I'm quite happy with this for music as I don't have a very large room to fill and I don't crank it up super loud. I'd like to move towards a surround setup (probably 5.1) but I'm not sure if I should stick with sonus fabor or mix and match or buy a whole diff set of speakers for the 5.1 setup (probably use the sub regardless). for reference I'd have to spend another ~$1800 on the center and 2 rear speakers plus the cost of stands/cables. would i be better off doing something else? sonus speakers are excellent for music but it seems that this level of fidelity might be wasted on most movies....

 

[LeiZaK]

send your speakers to me and start over

 

[crystal]

Stick with same brand. Get the center for 3.1 setup. Save some more, for the last 2 piece.

 

[Tommunist]

Originally posted by: crystal
Stick with same brand. Get the center for 3.1 setup. Save some more, for the last 2 piece.

is there a 3.1 setting on most receivers? how does this decode when watching movies? thanks.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tommunist

Originally posted by: crystal
Stick with same brand. Get the center for 3.1 setup. Save some more, for the last 2 piece.

is there a 3.1 setting on most receivers? how does this decode when watching movies? thanks.

I know my HK had Dolby 3 stereo. I never used it, but I think that would work.

If you just set it to 5.1 everything should sound fine. Not a whole ton comes out the surrounds anyways... you wont miss anything important.

 

[Tommunist]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tommunist

Originally posted by: crystal
Stick with same brand. Get the center for 3.1 setup. Save some more, for the last 2 piece.

is there a 3.1 setting on most receivers? how does this decode when watching movies? thanks.

I know my HK had Dolby 3 stereo. I never used it, but I think that would work.

If you just set it to 5.1 everything should sound fine. Not a whole ton comes out the surrounds anyways... you wont miss anything important.

good to know - and to that point is buying matching surround worth it? I suppose I can certainly see the center matching being worth it but since so little comes out of the rears should I perhaps consider a cheaper (and much smaller) alternative to the sonus faber home rears (the rears are almost as big as the fronts)? you guys are being very helpful thanks

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tommunist

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tommunist

Originally posted by: crystal
Stick with same brand. Get the center for 3.1 setup. Save some more, for the last 2 piece.

is there a 3.1 setting on most receivers? how does this decode when watching movies? thanks.

I know my HK had Dolby 3 stereo. I never used it, but I think that would work.

If you just set it to 5.1 everything should sound fine. Not a whole ton comes out the surrounds anyways... you wont miss anything important.

good to know - and to that point is buying matching surround worth it? I suppose I can certainly see the center matching being worth it but since so little comes out of the rears should I perhaps consider a cheaper (and much smaller) alternative to the sonus faber home rears (the rears are almost as big as the fronts)? you guys are being very helpful thanks

Matching the center is a great idea.

Going with cheaper surrounds would definately be a good idea for you if the surrounds would end up being anywhere near $2000 or something.

Matching on the surrounds is not really worth it unless you listend to DVD-A or something where you want really good music out the surrounds.

Something like 70% of the sound from DVDs comes out the center channel.

btw, don't pay attention to what I bought ... I kind of didn't follow my own advice but it was kind of special circumstances where buying matching surrounds to my fronts was only going to be $100 more than the bookshelf equivalent of my floorstanders so it ended up even being cheaper than buying some quality stands was going to cost.

 

[Tommunist]

the surrounds would cost about another grand (almost as much as my fronts). It's good to know I haven't to some degree locked myself into the very expensive surrounds. :thumbsup:

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I got in on a deal where basically they were discontinuing the speakers I was getting for fronts so they had a package deal for two sets of $999 pairs and a $599 center was only $1699 total, so it was almost like getting the second pair for free.

Link if you care http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=21.1

It would be nice to get some matching speakers for times when there are effects that move from front to back or back to front (like a plane flying over your head), but it's not a big deal.

I just looked at sonus faber's site... what speakers do you have already?

 

[Tommunist]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I got in on a deal where basically they were discontinuing the speakers I was getting for fronts so they had a package deal for two sets of $999 pairs and a $599 center was only $1699 total, so it was almost like getting the second pair for free.

Link if you care http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=21.1

It would be nice to get some matching speakers for times when there are effects that move from front to back or back to front (like a plane flying over your head), but it's not a big deal.

I just looked at sonus faber's site... what speakers do you have already?

the concertinos (the smallest of the home series) and a 10" rel sub.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tommunist

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I got in on a deal where basically they were discontinuing the speakers I was getting for fronts so they had a package deal for two sets of $999 pairs and a $599 center was only $1699 total, so it was almost like getting the second pair for free.

Link if you care http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=21.1

It would be nice to get some matching speakers for times when there are effects that move from front to back or back to front (like a plane flying over your head), but it's not a big deal.

I just looked at sonus faber's site... what speakers do you have already?

the concertinos (the smallest of the home series) and a 10" rel sub.

Oh duh, you said that in the OP. I'm a moron.

 

[EvilYoda]

Well it's up to you in terms of how picky you are...my next step in speakers will be probably the Dynaudio Contour S1.4's with the matching SC center but only Audience 42 or 52's for the surrounds. I wouldn't skimp on the center, as vocals in movies and multi-channel formats usually are mixed through the center, but the surrounds do far less work. I'll have a similar problem if I buy JMlab-Focal Electra 907 Be's for my mains as they simply don't do surround...I'd have to find a third speaker somehow and then buy older Electra's for the rears.

 

[Tommunist]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tommunist

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I got in on a deal where basically they were discontinuing the speakers I was getting for fronts so they had a package deal for two sets of $999 pairs and a $599 center was only $1699 total, so it was almost like getting the second pair for free.

Link if you care http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=21.1

It would be nice to get some matching speakers for times when there are effects that move from front to back or back to front (like a plane flying over your head), but it's not a big deal.

I just looked at sonus faber's site... what speakers do you have already?

the concertinos (the smallest of the home series) and a 10" rel sub.

Oh duh, you said that in the OP. I'm a moron.

now i just need to figure out who carries the sonus fabers now since they possibly aren't at tweeter anymore (at least they aren't on the website).