Should I use small height and rear speakers?

[soundwave628]

I'm new to the site and have been trying to read up on all sorts of things and maybe I missed the discussion on this.
I bought an onkyo HT-s6200 HTiB and have since upgraded my fronts to Polk monitor 70s, polk cs20 center and monitor 60s for surrounds. Would it improve my movie experience if I used the original onkyo fronts as my rear speakers even though my couch is up against the wall? Or will it defeat the whole purpose because the sound will be going right over my head. Should I mount them and angle them down?
Also if I do that would it make any difference if I used two of the onkyo surround speakers as front height speakers? Or will they just be drowned out by the monitor 70s because the onkyo surrounds only have one 3" driver I believe.
If the onkyos with only one 3" driver aren't worth using where would the two "front" channel onkyos be put to best use.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by soundwave628

I'm new to the site and have been trying to read up on all sorts of things and maybe I missed the discussion on this.
I bought an onkyo HT-s6200 HTiB and have since upgraded my fronts to Polk monitor 70s, polk cs20 center and monitor 60s for surrounds. Would it improve my movie experience if I used the original onkyo fronts as my rear speakers even though my couch is up against the wall? Or will it defeat the whole purpose because the sound will be going right over my head. Should I mount them and angle them down?
Also if I do that would it make any difference if I used two of the onkyo surround speakers as front height speakers? Or will they just be drowned out by the monitor 70s because the onkyo surrounds only have one 3" driver I believe.
If the onkyos with only one 3" driver aren't worth using where would the two "front" channel onkyos be put to best use.

1. As far as home theater is concerned, sitting against the walls is a bad idea for a couple of reasons:
   1. The bass will be too loud, boomy, and tiring.
   2. Placing the side surround and rear surround speakers becomes difficult.
2. The size of the surround or height speakers is not that important. However, it is much easier to mount smaller speakers on the walls or attach them to the ceiling.
3. The side surround and rear surround speakers can be from another speaker line. Matching the timbre of surround speakers with the front speakers is not very important. However, it is highly recommended that for front height and front wide speakers, they are timbre matched with the other front speakers.
4. For side surround and rear surround speakers, bipole/dipole speakers may be a better option. However, Audyssey recommends that you use direct-radiating monopole front height and front wide speakers.
5. For mounting direct-radiating monopole rear surround speakers, you have several options. Pointing them down slightly may be helpful, but you should not point them directly toward your ears. For movie applications, the rear surround speakers are meant to create a diffuse sound. You do not want the surround sound to be in your face.
6. Check https://forum.blu-ray.com/speakers/1...s-part-ii.html for helpful diagrams and discussions on different options for mounting surround speakers. Part I of the thread may also be helpful.

[soundwave628]

I checked out the dipole bipole thread but it doesn't really touch on my specific problem it seems. I guess I should get into paint or something and draw a diagram of my room its about 12x24x7 or I think and because of the opening to the kitchen, front hall a door to the basement and a small gas fireplace(I live in a townhouse) I had to set the room up the short way as opposed to the long way.
What I'm really asking is, is it even worth mounting my little onkyo speakers to the wall the couch is against? Or should I just mount them as front height channel, though they wont match my monitor 70s at all. I plan on getting bipole/dipole speakers eventually but I'm on a very tight budget and the girlfriend doesn't even know about the monitor 60s yet lol. I'm trying to make the best with what I have for speakers so I can get a nicer sub, but thats a whole different topic I guess lol. Because of furniture etc I'm also very limited on subwoofer placement, though there is an end table I could convert to a sub riser lol

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by soundwave628

I checked out the dipole bipole thread but it doesn't really touch on my specific problem it seems. I guess I should get into paint or something and draw a diagram of my room its about 12x24x7 or I think and because of the opening to the kitchen, front hall a door to the basement and a small gas fireplace(I live in a townhouse) I had to set the room up the short way as opposed to the long way.
What I'm really asking is, is it even worth mounting my little onkyo speakers to the wall the couch is against? Or should I just mount them as front height channel, though they wont match my monitor 70s at all. I plan on getting bipole/dipole speakers eventually but I'm on a very tight budget and the girlfriend doesn't even know about the monitor 60s yet lol. I'm trying to make the best with what I have for speakers so I can get a nicer sub, but thats a whole different topic I guess lol. Because of furniture etc I'm also very limited on subwoofer placement, though there is an end table I could convert to a sub riser lol

Use the small speakers as front height. Run Audyssey and calibrate the speakers. According to Audyssey, the front sound stage is more important than the rear. In their numerous studies, they found front wide speakers are the most important followed by front height and finally rear surround.

[soundwave628]

what are front wide speakers? i'm assuming my onkyo receiver doesn't even support that.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by soundwave628

what are front wide speakers? i'm assuming my onkyo receiver doesn't even support that.

Dolby PLIIz supports only front height speakers.

Audyssey DSX supports both Height and Wide speakers. Only the higher end receivers that have Audyssey DSX can support both Height and Wide at the same time.

There is more information in Post #4 of the Audyssey thread.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/4131380-post4.html

[soundwave628]

Ok thanks a lot, I guess I'll mount the "better" onkyos as front height channels and the lesser ones as rear surrounds. I haven't had the room to set up 7.1 yet and I really would love to have it for movies and more directional awareness in video games. Maybe after I get a nicer subwoofer I'll get around to a better receiver and maybe even amps but money is tight and I'm trying to get as much as I can out of this onkyo HTiB.
Ugh something just dawned on me. When running 9.1 will the lower wattage going to my speakers be noticeable to me? It should come out to just over 100 watts per channel and right now I'm actually running my monitor 70s bi-amped, though I've read that doesn't even make a noticeable difference to most people. Also when I upgrade to a powered subwoofer will that unused power from the receiver automatically go to my speakers?

[srrndhound]

Originally Posted by soundwave628

I bought an onkyo HT-s6200 HTiB and have since upgraded my fronts to Polk monitor 70s, polk cs20 center and monitor 60s for surrounds. Would it improve my movie experience if I used the original onkyo fronts as my rear speakers even though my couch is up against the wall?

Enhancement is tricky business to pin down--it is purely subjective.

Or will it defeat the whole purpose because the sound will be going right over my head. Should I mount them and angle them down?

Maybe the elevation in sound will be an effective benefit. Your Polk surrounds--are they on stands at ear level or a couple of feet above on the side walls? If the former, the benefits may be stronger for the rears than the latter. Best to just try it.

The bigger issue for me would be that despite MultEQ 2EQ, the spectral blend may not be that good with the Polks. That is something that bothers me, but maybe because 90% of my listening is music. For movies/games it would be less of an issue -- or not an issue at all. Best to just try it.

Also if I do that would it make any difference if I used two of the onkyo surround speakers as front height speakers? Or will they just be drowned out by the monitor 70s because the onkyo surrounds only have one 3" driver I believe.

They should not be drowned out after calibration, but indeed they may not blend all that well as I just mentioned.

And considering that DSX height is of minimal value (do you really need proscenium reflections for movies and games?) the cost in spectral smoothness does not seem to be a good tradeoff. IMHO, of course.

Originally Posted by soundwave628

Ok thanks a lot, I guess I'll mount the "better" onkyos as front height channels and the lesser ones as rear surrounds. I haven't had the room to set up 7.1 yet and I really would love to have it for movies and more directional awareness in video games.

There is of course no harm in trying these options to see how it suits you. That's part of fun of home theater exploration.

Ugh something just dawned on me. When running 9.1 will the lower wattage going to my speakers be noticeable to me? It should come out to just over 100 watts per channel and right now I'm actually running my monitor 70s bi-amped, though I've read that doesn't even make a noticeable difference to most people.

If the amps are struggling to drive the woofers of the main speakers, then bi-amping might help the mid/tweet sound a little better. Since you already have them bi-wired, it's easy enough to check the difference. Have a good listen to some familiar content. Then just disconnect the wire to the "mid/tweet" and re-install the jumpers. Listen to the same material again. Do not touch the volume control between before/after. What say you?

Also when I upgrade to a powered subwoofer will that unused power from the receiver automatically go to my speakers?

Sort of, yes. It will ease the load on the receiver.

[soundwave628]

when my extra speaker wire arrives tuesday,hopefully,I'm going to wire up the "better" onkyos as my front height speakers and the lesser above me on the rear wall. my polk fronts and surrounds are tower speakers, the surround ones are monitor 60s so they're slightly shorter than my front 70s but at just about ear level especially when i'm reclined
just feel like all these extra speakers and outputs etc are going to waste not being used.

[drummerboy_2002]

Pictures of your setup would help greatly. Heights may not even be needed in your case, but we can't know unles we know how your soundstage is set up, hense pics. If your couch is against the wall, I wouldn't bother with the back speakers.

[soundwave628]

ya i'll work on getting pictures up. i'm at work at the moment just killing time browsing A/V websites since it seems to be my new obsession of the moment :P I'm gonna try mounting the rears and heights with just a nail and the keyhole slot maybe having the nail stick out a bit so the speakers angle down.
instead of creating another thread I'll ask it here. If I'm watching a blu-ray on my PS3 and have my receiver set to dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD,with the blu-ray case saying only 5.1, will my front heights and rear surrounds play any sound? Will my receiver take over and make it into 9.1 knowing that the speakers are hooked up?

[soundwave628]

So I just realized that my receiver from the onkyo HT-s6200 HTiB only amplifies 7 channels so I couldn't even use the front height and rear surround channels at the same time Is there something I could add to allow this to happen without buying a new receiver? I don't think this receiver has any preouts. Eventually I will get a new receiver but I really want to upgrade subwoofer next.