Subwoofer or pair of floor standing speakers

[raulakh]

Hello everyone. I have a lot of trouble setting up hometheatre system. I am setting up mythos st system (5.1) with Gem Xl as rear speakers. I found this is not enough for a large room. Should I add a Subwoofer to the system or Buy a pair of floor standings speakers and make a 7.1. I am using pioneer Sc-27.
Reason I am opting for floor standing rear speakers, because previously I used Mythos St as rear speaker I found them very pleasant in my small room. I thought it will improve the efficacy of the system. options include second hand floor standings Paradigm monitors V.3 or JBL 890, mythos St or sts, Klipsh rf83. Subwoofer I like is Mythos supercube I.
Thanks for your kind advise.

[Mr Peabody]

If you are wanting more bass then go for the second sub. If it's volume or clarity, do you have preamp outs to add an external amp? As rears are only on during a movie a small amount of time and not very many movies are in 7.1, I'd say adding rear floorstanders wouldn't help much. Are your current rears set to "small" inside the receiver? They should be if not. You could try adjusting the crossover point to see if that helps. Setting the rears to small sends the bass below your crossover point to the subwoofer.

[dakatabg]

I will agree with Mr Peabody!

I don't think buying floor speakers will solve your problem especially if you need more bass, just get a sub

[bobsticks]

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_3/images/paradigm-servo-15-subwoofer-front-main.jpg

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=paradigm+servo+15&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I agree with the others, another sub would be in order. It is not good to have bass spread around the room like you would have with four floor standing speakers. It will likely be uneven(each speaker will load the room differently) and require equalization to correct. Having two subwoofers placed in opposite corners in the front of the room will smooth the overall response over a first row of seats, not to mention the added gain.

[Poultrygeist]

Rear speakers in a 5.1 system are not as critical as the front speakers. They are not fed the major signals the front channels receive. Think of the rear speakers as augmenting the fronts. A sub should give you more of what you want.

[phileserver39]

Rear speakers in a 5.1 system are not as critical as the front speakers. They are not fed the major signals the front channels receive. Think of the rear speakers as augmenting the fronts. A sub should give you more of what you want.

While I agree that, given a fixed budget, I would place 60-75% of my speaker budget into my mains, I have recently appreciated how much a good set of rear and side channel speakers can make a difference in movies. Bullet ricochets, planes roaring past, explosions and crowds for example all take on so much more clarity and realism. Make sure, though, that you have a powerful enough amplifier to drive all of your speakers. It is best if you have a separate amp for your rear channels. Even if you don't play your system loudly it can add much needed power, especially if your speakers aren't efficient.