speaker size selection

[HaldoL]

I am still in the process of selecting speakers for my living room HT. The room is roughly 18x16 (20' ceiling). The rear of the room is open to the kitchen and breakfast area. I was leaning towards micro sized speakers (Paradigm Cinema, Energy Take 5.2, etc). Now I have talked my wife into possibly allowing a nice pair of bookshelfs or even floorstanding mains.

My question (finally, I know) what should I look for in a surround speaker to match with a larger main (Paradigm Monitor 9 for instance). Becuase my mains are larger, do I need larger surrounds? Is a floorstanding speaker overkill for a HT system used for movies 90% of the time?

Thanks for your help.

[Woochifer]

All you really need is something that voice matches the mains pretty well. You don't need surrounds with a lot of bass extension because 1) the surround channels typically doesn't carry a lot of low frequencies, 2) with the bass management on your receiver, you'll likely redirect the lows towards either the mains or a subwoofer anyway, and 3) a surround speaker that's too bulky will be very difficult to place properly.

If you're set on the Monitor series, the surround speakers pairings are pretty simple -- I would just go with the ones that use the same drivers as the mains. This means that if you opt for the floorstanding Monitor 9s, you should pair them with the standmounted Monitor 3s as the surrounds. If you go with either the Monitor 5 or 7 as your mains, then you should use the Mini Monitors as the surrounds.

A floorstanding speaker might be overkill if you also plan to use a subwoofer. If not, then the extra bass extension will come in handy since the deep bass from LFE tracks will get piped in through the mains if you don't use a sub.

[cam]

I hope Sir Terrence doesn't tear a strip into me but you could go for the monitor 7's instead of the monitor 9's and match them with the dipole adp 370's. They all have the matching drivers and they are great for home theater. Okay Sir Terrence, let me have it, I deserve it.

[HaldoL]

Excellent points...thank you.

My next question is if I choose small mains and surrounds (Paradigm cinema for example) could I use a larger center (cc-170 for example) to pick up the range too low for the mains but too high for the sub...ie: male vocals...much like what the Ventriloquist series claims to accomplish.

[cam]

My last system had the cc 170 and I match it with 4 atoms. It sounded fairly good, all had matching drivers. I personally would not consider the cinemas when the atoms will match the cc170 and they don't cost all that much more. Don't forget you will definitly need a sub for home theater.

[Woochifer]

Excellent points...thank you.

My next question is if I choose small mains and surrounds (Paradigm cinema for example) could I use a larger center (cc-170 for example) to pick up the range too low for the mains but too high for the sub...ie: male vocals...much like what the Ventriloquist series claims to accomplish.

You're typically much better served by using a closely matched center speaker. I believe that the Cinema series has its own matched center speaker, and you probably shouldn't mess with that. Even if a center speaker subjectively sounds better, it won't necessarily sound right because of potentially severe tonal mismatches with the mains.

[chimera128]

If you can go with towers I would. Full frequency effects is sent to all channels with dolby digital. But you will be more than happy with satellites if that is the way you have to go. The towers I have only take up a little more room than satellites + stands. I especially like them for when I listen to multi-channel music and scenes with lots of special effects. If you physically have the room/budget to go with tower speakers I would go out and listen to both and then decide which is better for you.

[Aldo WIngate]

Couple of things. First of all, floorstanding is not ever overkill. Secondly, if you get a decent brand of speakers you won't be asking that question. Paradigm is not a terrible brand, but it sure is an overly expensive and relatively weak quality brand. You can get a much better value than any of their lines. And stay away from the their Reference Series which is a joke. Polk Audio, JBLs, and Sony all make a superior product (no, I won't mention Kenwood because I am biased).