Advice for upgrading rear surrounds & atmos speakers

Rolph77

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Hi,
We are about to begin re-decorating the living room and I have the opportunity to upgrade some of my speakers.

My current (old) setup is:

LG CX 65" OLED
Opposition 203 UHD player
PS5
Marantz SR-7013 AVR
B&W 684 tower speakers for front left & right
B&W equivalent centre channel
B&W 686 bookshelf speakers for rear surrounds
PSB XA Imagine up firing atmos speakers placed on top of the four B&W speakers
SVS SB4000 sub

so a 5.1.4 system. used for films, music, tv and gaming.

The 686s and PSBs are all up for sale in the classifieds so they are all going (cheap plug!).

I am ditching the speaker stands for the rears so I am after wall mounted surrounds, something that ideally sounds better than the 686s.
I have looked at (but not been able to test) the Monitor Audio Bronze FX 6G speakers, they are currently £330 on Richer Sounds.

I have looked (again not been able to test) at the SVS Prime Elevation speakers for front and back atmos, these would be mounted on the wall, just underneath the coving.

In-ceiling is not an option.

The living room is rectangular, 6m x 3.5m.
The TV is on a unit at one end of the room, centre channel underneath, left and right fronts in either corner, sub in-between TV unit and right front. Rear surrounds will go on the back wall behind the smaller sofa. The bigger sofa is along the right hand long side wall. I do not really have any viable wall space for side surround speakers, that the missus would agree to anyway..

So my questions... are the MA Bronze FX 6Gs at least as good, if not better than the B&Ws? Should I save a bit more and go for the new Silver 7Gs?
These only seem to come in a gloss black finish, which is a little annoying as I would prefer black ash. Although they are quite a bit more money at £600.

The SVS are not cheap at £500 a pair, are there any alternatives to these? I am hoping to get an upgrade in atmos effect having them wall mounted at ceiling level rather than relying on a ceiling bounce as i have done previously.

If I have left any valuable information out please let me know.

Thanks for reading :)
 
I have the eve prime and yes there are a few alternatives, but for the spec. Svs are much better. These match well with my kef speakers and worth every penny
 
I have the eve prime and yes there are a few alternatives, but for the spec. Svs are much better. These match well with my kef speakers and worth every penny
Thanks, where did you order them from? Suppliers seem to be quite limited.
 
Hifix, just had a look and they do appear to have gone up a bit.
 
Christ isn't everything at the moment? 🙄
 
I got the gloss blacks at 499 last year and now the appear to 649.
 
Hi,
We are about to begin re-decorating the living room and I have the opportunity to upgrade some of my speakers.

My current (old) setup is:

LG CX 65" OLED
Opposition 203 UHD player
PS5
Marantz SR-7013 AVR
B&W 684 tower speakers for front left & right
B&W equivalent centre channel
B&W 686 bookshelf speakers for rear surrounds
PSB XA Imagine up firing atmos speakers placed on top of the four B&W speakers
SVS SB4000 sub

so a 5.1.4 system. used for films, music, tv and gaming.

The 686s and PSBs are all up for sale in the classifieds so they are all going (cheap plug!).

I am ditching the speaker stands for the rears so I am after wall mounted surrounds, something that ideally sounds better than the 686s.
I have looked at (but not been able to test) the Monitor Audio Bronze FX 6G speakers, they are currently £330 on Richer Sounds.

I have looked (again not been able to test) at the SVS Prime Elevation speakers for front and back atmos, these would be mounted on the wall, just underneath the coving.

In-ceiling is not an option.

The living room is rectangular, 6m x 3.5m.
The TV is on a unit at one end of the room, centre channel underneath, left and right fronts in either corner, sub in-between TV unit and right front. Rear surrounds will go on the back wall behind the smaller sofa. The bigger sofa is along the right hand long side wall. I do not really have any viable wall space for side surround speakers, that the missus would agree to anyway..

So my questions... are the MA Bronze FX 6Gs at least as good, if not better than the B&Ws? Should I save a bit more and go for the new Silver 7Gs?
These only seem to come in a gloss black finish, which is a little annoying as I would prefer black ash. Although they are quite a bit more money at £600.

The SVS are not cheap at £500 a pair, are there any alternatives to these? I am hoping to get an upgrade in atmos effect having them wall mounted at ceiling level rather than relying on a ceiling bounce as i have done previously.

If I have left any valuable information out please let me know.

Thanks for reading :)

Damn you just missed the Silver FX 6G which went for 299£. Someone selling gloss black pair same price you could show the PT link and ask how low he could sell them. But if you can´t live with the gloss then the Bronze FX which should be on similar level to your B&Ws. Mount them 1-2feet from side walls so don´t put them too close to corners as they shoot each direction, also don´t mount them much higher than seated ear height as you have atmos so you want the height separation between these channels.





There is one open box pair of Bronze FXs going 250£.
 
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Damn you just missed the Silver FX 6G which went for 299£. Someone selling gloss black pair same price you could show the PT link and ask how low he could sell them. But if you can´t live with the gloss then the Bronze FX which should be on similar level to your B&Ws. Mount them 1-2feet from side walls so don´t put them too close to corners as they shoot each direction, also don´t mount them much higher than seated ear height as you have atmos so you want the height separation between these channels.





There is one open box pair of Bronze FXs going 250£.
Thanks, good advice on placement.
Distance from side walls should be fine.
I will bear in mind the separation between them at the Atmos Speakers. Only concern is a long radiator running along that back wall so worried about putting them too low down where they could be affected by the heat.

Damn these normal family houses.
 
-- As an eBay Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases --
Have just finished installing the new stuff,
Went with Monitor Audio FX 7G for the rear surrounds and two pairs of SVS Prime Elevation for front and rear height channels.
All in gloss black, which I used to think looked tacky, but I love the finish, especially the SVS, just gorgeous.
I don't know why people say they are finger print magnets, just don't touch them!
 
Have just finished installing the new stuff,
Went with Monitor Audio FX 7G for the rear surrounds and two pairs of SVS Prime Elevation for front and rear height channels.
All in gloss black, which I used to think looked tacky, but I love the finish, especially the SVS, just gorgeous.
I don't know why people say they are finger print magnets, just don't touch them!
Great stuff..

I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to see some customary pictures though 🤣🤣😉😉👍🏼
 
You will have to excuse my rather poor phone camera...
IMG20220625065016.jpg
IMG20220625065031.jpg
IMG20220625065111.jpg
IMG20220625065137.jpg
 
I re-ran Audyssey set up, tweaked the distances, changed everything to small as Audyssey set the fronts to large, changed all the crossovers to 80hz, slightly upped the sub volume to -14db and have watched Hans Zimmer Live In Prague and The Batman.
Sounds pretty damn good.
With my upfirings before I constantly played with the speaker levels, usually upping the dB level and fiddling with the crossover, but these height speakers sound good straight away. That doesn't mean I won't have a little fiddle...
Although, I doubt I'm alone in this, but whenever you upgrade something or buy something new, after you've set it up and heard/seen it, you think to yourself 'that's brilliant, but is it as good as it could be? Is there anything I can do to make it sound/look even better?'
And do you ever get a definitive answer?!
 
Setup looks fab mate. I see what you mean re the gloss fin8sh looking the "Bees Knees"

Although, I doubt I'm alone in this, but whenever you upgrade something or buy something new, after you've set it up and heard/seen it, you think to yourself 'that's brilliant, but is it as good as it could be? Is there anything I can do to make it sound/look even better?'
And do you ever get a definitive answer?!

On this very subject/Holly grail - see my comments below:

I re-ran Audyssey set up, tweaked the distances, changed everything to small as Audyssey set the fronts to large, changed all the crossovers to 80hz, slightly upped the sub volume to -14db and have watched Hans Zimmer Live In Prague and The Batman.

What did Audessey calibrate the sub level to (before you did this)? -14dB seems quite low to me, unless I missing something obvious! For context I run dual SVS SB2000 Pro's, which were set to -7.5dB by audessey. I then upped them to -5.5dB. At this level they provide more than enough bass!

Having said the above, it's not clear what sub you have (but it does look like an SVS model).

If it were me, I'd be looking to get the subs volume in the range of -4dB to -8dB after Audessey calibration (can be adjusted to taste in the AVR settings after)

Unfortunately, this does/will mean rerunning Audessey (and setting the physical volume on the sub itself lower before hand). But I think it'll be worth it in the end.

Also, I'd try setting the crossovers for the rear FX's to 90Hz and the Prime Elevations to 120Hz. Leave the front 3 @ 80Hz though. It's certainly worth experimenting with the crossovers. Just don't set them lower than what Audessey set. Use a scene/material you know the audio well on to compare the difference in sound each time. Remember to exit out of the settings n order for any changes you make to take effect.

But....

Most importantly enjoy your system! The advice above is just that. It's your ears, so it doesn't really matter what I think! 🤣
 
Thanks for the comments, I totally get it, each to their own!

It's an SVS SB4000.

When you run Audyssey on the Marantz AVR it initially says to set sub volume at 50%, then it runs sub volume matching or something and asks you to adjust the volume to hit the green 75Db level, I think was around -18db on the SVS app volume control.
I then upped it afterwards to -14.
I haven't tried it any higher to be honest, when the Batmobile fired up the doors were rattling as it is 😀
 
I will experiment on the crossovers, I think Audyssey set the front 3 channels to 40hz and to 'large'.
I'll be leaving those at 80 but will try changing the rears and heights to see what sounds better to me.
I think a lot of Atmos is heavily room dependant, my room is a lot longer than it is wide for example.
 
I agree that -14 seems low. My Monolith 10 THX is set to -6dB, Audessey set the AVR to -9.5dB after calibration and I have increased the level to -5dB. This is in a room roughly 4mx3m.
 
We watched Ready Player One last night, sounded very very good.
Will keep the crossovers at 90 and 120 as mentioned above.
I certainly did not think at any point that it wasn't bassy enough, but I'll watch a few scenes again on my next day off on Tuesday and play with the sub volume and see what difference it makes.
 

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