Would new front speakers help my music listening?

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Current system is an Onkyo 605 AV Receiver (to be upgraded this year), feeding the Jamo HCS5 sat/sub 5.1 speaker system. Whilst it is more than adequate for movies, I find listening to music through it somewhat "thin" for my liking.

I was thinking of replacing the front sound stage with Monitor Audio Radius in either of the two following configurations (left, centre, right):

R45HD / R180HD / R45HD

or

R90HD / R180HD / R90HD

Would you be of the opinion that this should improve the musicality of my set-up? Alternatively, given the Onkyo is definitely on the way out (it does not have enough HDMI ports) should I wait to see what changes the new receiver brings?

 

[smuggs]

dont know the jamos well but i have read many that think the r90's are class and im sure will be good. Try and find somewhere to demo a cd you love and know well. but if possible take your left and right of your jamos with you. The dealer will do all he can find you a combo that leaves the jamos for dead and then its all about cost and how they will look in your home.

good luck juzzie

 

[scene]

I think either of the two Monitor solutions would sound great. My only concern would be how well they would integrate with the rears and sub. Now 85% of a surround track typically comes from the L/C/R, so having different speakers for the rears shouldn't make too huge a difference. However, when steering effects around the soundstage there is a possibility that there might be a slight loss of integration making the the effects less smooth. How bad this is depends on how the response of the Jamos and their overall timbre compares to the MAs - though a lot of this can be overcome by good equalisation.

The other issue may be how well the Jamo sub intergrates with the MAs. The MA ASW sub has a really smooth handover to the other speakers, meaning that the response from bass to treble is smooth - particularly important for music. A mismatched sub could leave the system sounding lean and thin, just what you are complaining about now.

I would ensure you audition systems with the equivalent sub / rears you intend to use and try a range of music you typically listen to and film soundtracks that have a good set of steered effects.