what would you do?

[martino]

I'll be upgrading my speakers next month and have narrowed the choices down to two...I need your help in deciding which make the most sense..

My room is approx. 17'X13'
My kit..Rotel 1095+1098+Marantz DV9500
I currently have 704 mains, HTM2 ctr and 602 rears
My delema is...

A) Replace all speakers with..804S+HTM3+805s
or
B) keep 602's and go with 803S+HTM3

A) is only $1K more..so price is neutral.

going with A) but using 803S would be nice but slightly out of my price range.

Your knowlegable feedback is appreciated.

Cheers

Martin

[georgev]

Depends on uour taste in music.
Multi channel or stereo.
If mainly movies and stereo then I would go with option B. The amount of information that comes through the surrounds is very little, hence get the better front speakers. Will not matter too much if the surrounds are very different.
If you listen a lot to multichannel music then it will be good to get the same sound all round.
Go for the 803/HTM3 combo now and later change the 602's. Then you will never regret not getting the 803's which are definitely better than the 804's.
Enjoy.
Hows the DV 9500?

[martino]

George; Thank you for taking time to respond (the only one in 89 views!). I do listen to multi-channel but I agree with your assesment of the importance of the main soundstage compared to the surrounds. This is great feedback.
803's have always been my target.
The DV9500 is great! I'm only using for audio at this point...the sound is neutral and well defined, the build is solid..very happy!

Cheers

Martin

[csuzor]

If you think you will be able to buy better surrounds in a foreseable future, get the best individual items you can afford now (the 803S is a choice only you can make). If this should be a final purchase (notice I say "should be"), you'll be disappointed with choice B for any real surround music.

I have 602 size speakers as surrounds, with 704 fronts, and it's OK for multichannel music, but I know I am missing a lot. To realise just what is missing (later of course), try the surrounds as fronts and the fronts as surrounds, with some real surround music... even after balancing the outputs with pink noise, you may find (like I did) that you can hardly hear the fronts anymore! The center channel overpowers the fronts, and the surrounds become much more important. They you can start saving money again!

Have fun choosing!
Christophe