Floorstanders as rear speakers

[Bluecube]

I'm using a couple of Eltax floorstanders as rear speakers in my surround sound setup. Are there any advantages/ disadvantages of using floorstanders this way?

Also, I've bought a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s to use as front speakers (unrelated to post - reasons for topsy turvy setup below) and while I'm very pleased with them I was wondering if there are any possible issues in pairing them with aforementioned floorstanders.



REASONS
Previously I had surround sound speakers at rear on stands but as they were top heavy they had a tendency to fall over, not something you want to happen when a 4 year old sprog is sitting underneath. Hence the use of floorstanders which are much more stable.
Diamond 9.1s were purchased as front speakers as I couldn't afford a decent set of floorstanders for the front. I've got a subwoofer so don't need any low down grunt from front speakers.

[dave87]

I'd say you were best of having the speakers the other way round - purely because most of the bass & mid range will come through the front speakers in a 5.1 setup. The rears are really used for ambient sounds to give the surround sound side of things, as far as I understand it, so will not benefit from being floorstanders. Conversely using bookshelf speakers for the fronts will limit the amount of mid range and bass that you get from them - leaving perhaps a less impressive solution.

Have you considered medium (sand usually) filled speaker stands for the rear? They should be a lot more stable, especially if mounted on spikes into carpet.

[royi]

I guess you just need to make sure the bass of the back speakers does not cancel the bass of the front speakers. It's been known to happen when one sound wave cancels the other.
That's one of the reasons they use smaller surround speakers.

[Bluecube]

The thing is, the Diamonds are far better speakers than the Eltax floorstanders. When I'm listening to music this is really noticeable! Also the Diamonds go down to 50Hz which is only 10Hz less than the Eltaxs.

I've rerun the auto setup for my AV amp so am just about to settle down and see how things go.

[Barakka]

As stated by others you'd be better with the floorstanders as front L/R.

I've got a subwoofer so don't need any low down grunt from front speakers.

In surround sound configurations (like Dolby Digital for example) the L/R/C/Ls/Rs outputs are full range (20Hz - 20KHz) and the LFE (Sub) channel is a separate restricted range (20-Hz - 120Hz) channel. It's easy to think with having a sub and the frequencies being non-directional the sub will handle all the bass for the system, but that's not the case*, the bass for the L/R/C/Ls/Rs channels is handled by those speakers - the sub just takes the sound from the LFE channel. Also the LFE channel is only ever used to compliment the sound in the other channels (you don't get sounds coming out of the LFE only) so having floorstanders at the rear and not at front may make the system bass heavy to the rear. It's not just that the floorstanders go to a lower frequency, the cabinets may also be increasing the volume in those frequency ranges.

How noticeable this will be debatable though, mostly with surround rumbling noises, music panned to full surround, scenes with immersive sound.

*some all-in-one surround systems with tiny L/R/C/Ls/Rs speakers may use crossovers in the amp to direct all bass to the sub. Not aware if you can do this in any "proper" surround amps.

[Lowe]

Yes you can Barraka. AV amps typically have a Large/Small option for each speaker. This determines if a crossover is activated on that channel with the low end being sent to the sub to mix with the LFE. Some amps will let you specify this frequency too.

[Barakka]

Yes you can Barraka. AV amps typically have a Large/Small option for each speaker. This determines if a crossover is activated on that channel with the low end being sent to the sub to mix with the LFE. Some amps will let you specify this frequency too.

Cool, I had a feeling you would be able to... I only have a naff Sony all-in-one Surround system in the lounge, new build mid terrace no point in anything bigger.

..so to the OP I would set them all to Small on the amp (at 60Hz if specified) to direct bass to the sub and no problem with using floorstanders at the rear

[Bluecube]

All speakers are automatically set to small by the amp when a subwoofer is detected so I just went with that. I've been running this vice versa configuration for just over a week now and I can't see myself changing it. Everything seems to sound OK so hey ho...

[vrykyl]

All speakers are automatically set to small by the amp when a subwoofer is detected so I just went with that. I've been running this vice versa configuration for just over a week now and I can't see myself changing it. Everything seems to sound OK so hey ho...

I was under the impression that they had to be set to 'small' in order for the amp to send the sub an LFE signal? Unless Ive completely misunderstood something somewhere

[Bluecube]

My amp (an Onkyo 509) has an option to send the bass to both front speakers (whether setting is large or small) and the subwoofer.

For reference, and to clarify a possibly confusing issue, the large and small settings apply to the size of the speaker cone and not how tall it is. This initially threw me until it was explained in the manual.

[Barakka]

I was under the impression that they had to be set to 'small' in order for the amp to send the sub an LFE signal? Unless Ive completely misunderstood something somewhere

5.1 is 6 discreet audio channels, so if there is data in the LFE channel coming from the DVD the amp will send it to the sub. I would assume the Small setting on the amp will simply put a crossover on the 5 main channels cutting off the low frequencies and sending them to the sub, combined with any LFE signal from the audio stream.