B&W 700 series.

[rman01138]

Hello, I'm new to HT guide.com. I am thinking about buying a set of B&W speakers. The speakers I want are the 703's and HTM7 and 705's my question is Should I get the 705's for the rears? or am I better off buying something cheap for the rears. I understand that the front speakers are very important, the 703's and the HTM7 are a lock for me, its the 705's that I am debating. I need some opinions please.

Thanks.

Using: Yamaha Reciever, Rotel RMB-1095, Ultralink Cables

[Briz vegas]

You need to ask yourself
- what will my listening habits be (2 channel music, multi channel music or HT)
- what sort of movies do I like (lots of surround action or talk/music)
- What am I prepared to spend (maybe this should be first)

The ideal 703 based HT system would be 5 703s driven by equal amplification.

Second best would be 3 703s across the front and a good clean sounding pair of bookshelf speakers at the rear (705 first then 685 etc would all work well)

Third gets tricky, but whether it is 704 & HTM7 or a set of CMs is hard to say. Your 703 & HTM7 gives priority to 2 channel audio over ultimate HT performance. It will sound very good but it lacks seamless integration across the front 3 speakers.

What is best for you will depend on how you will use the system most of the time and your own personal preference.

To outline my personal bias, I run 804 with my "old" HTM7 and 705s filling in the gaps. I watched a talky arthouse flick and Die Hard 4.0 (I call that balance) on Wednesday. At no point did any element of this "mismatched" system draw attention to itself. Only problem I had was with Die Hard - there were moments when I started to think( :E ) about the plot :roll:

HOWEVER - If you are a nut about films like Lord of the Rings then definitely put 3 identical speakers across the front as a priority. Those panning vocals just sounded plain odd on my system and would have similar (but slightly less) issue with the 703 HTM7 setup.

[beden1]

I had the 703s with the HTM7 as the center, and felt the center channel was a mis-match. I switched it for a used HTM1 and found this to be an excellent match.

Keep looking on Ebay or Audiogon to get a clean used HTM1 for your center, and I think you will be pleased you did.

[NMG]

Your 703 & HTM7 gives priority to 2 channel audio over ultimate HT performance

I would agree with this. I have the HTM7 paired with my 703's and I don't find it to be a problem at all. Now that being said, I also don't listen to multichannel music, just 2 channel. For movies, I haven't found it to be an issue. Many people don't like this combo though, so if you can demo it first, definitely do it.

Good luck!

[rman01138]

Thank you for your replies.