Satellite speakers for surround channels

[CrocoPig]

I am setting up a home theatre room and I have some matching speakers for the LCR and a beefy subs for LFE. but don’t have much space for the surround channels. I was looking online and found some reasonably priced second hand satellite packages with a small sub. I was wondering what people thought about wall mounting the satellites but using the speaker terminals on the small sub to handle the 80 to 120hz range for only the surrounds. And in my receiver setting the surrounds as small with a 80hz(same as LCR) crossover to the main subs. I would also place the small sub behind the couch to offset the locational frequencies. Is this a good idea or a bad one?

 

[bigboss]

What does the entire system comprise of? Which AV receiver and LCR / subwoofer have you got?

 

[CrocoPig]

The LCR are pioneer bs22 the subs will be diy my av receiver is a Sony Dn-1080

 

[bigboss]

It's best to go for small speakers instead of satellite package with a sub, and you can wall mount them. It'll give you greater flexibility to select crossover frequency.

 

[CrocoPig]

Thanks I have some more bs22’s I’ll just have to figure out a way to mount them so they are not too in the way

 

[Arron]

I am setting up a home theatre room and I have some matching speakers for the LCR and a beefy subs for LFE. but don’t have much space for the surround channels. I was looking online and found some reasonably priced second hand satellite packages with a small sub. I was wondering what people thought about wall mounting the satellites but using the speaker terminals on the small sub to handle the 80 to 120hz range for only the surrounds. And in my receiver setting the surrounds as small with a 80hz(same as LCR) crossover to the main subs. I would also place the small sub behind the couch to offset the locational frequencies. Is this a good idea or a bad one?

Wouldn't bother with the sub... most satellite package speakers are available individually if you're patient for a week or two on Ebay. If you want really small, maybe have a look for Mission M-Cubes or Cambridge Audio Minx. You can hook them up directly to your amp and setting them to Small is fine.

Remember, most surround stuff is only to add atmosphere and a lot of movies barely use it. So don't overthink it, go cheap and experiment. Maybe the movies you like don't use it. Or maybe the movies you like really do use it (I'm looking at you LoTR 4K box set) and you'll want to put more effort in.

 

[Messiah]

Remember, most surround stuff is only to add atmosphere and a lot of movies barely use it.

Hmmm. This may have been the case back in the day with older codecs like Dolby Digital but I have found that with Dolby True HD / DTS HD Master Audio and certainly Dolby Atmos, my rear channels are alive and add so much.

 

[Arron]

Hmmm. This may have been the case back in the day with older codecs like Dolby Digital but I have found that with Dolby True HD / DTS HD Master Audio and certainly Dolby Atmos, my rear channels are alive and add so much.

Depends on the production team and expected return. The vast majority of discs are bought by people who will put them through a TV speaker and the teams know that. So if the expected return is low, the concentration will go to the LCR portion of the mix.

You're right that big budget stuff is getting better. But even there the results are pretty varied, hence my shout out to LoTR 4K box set which genuinely uses it well.