New Suround speakers required for HT system

[Fat Tone]

Hi

My naff rear's are finally going Woohoo! So, I need an inexpensive (<£100) replacement.

What do people think of the Wharfedale Loudpanel? Being flat would be an advantage in my room, where at the height I would ideally put them I would sometimes want to fold a door fairly flat in their place (not when using them of course!). Anything deeper would need to be mounted high.

System: Yamaha RX420RDS AV amp, Yamaha YST105 Sub, Keff Coda 7 fronts, Keff Cresta Center + ???? rears.


TIA

T.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Would the Altec Lansing ATP3 do it? What about the Altec Lansing 2100?

[Chrono_Wanderer]

But then you do have some nice speakers so putting Altecs will be spoilers anyways nvm

[Fat Tone]

Thanks CW.
Those are both low-powered PC speaker systems. I'm looking for something that will handle around 70WPC (the HT amp is 5*70W RMS + line out for the sub).

Cheers

T.

[K6-III]

Just get some more KEFs to go with the existing system....

[KvHagedorn]

Yes, it's kinda a waste to even think this is an open question. Get the very closest match to your front speakers that you can. That is, don't look at anything that isn't KEF.. unless you just WANT to bollocks it.

[K6-III]

Well, matching front and rear is of less improtance than fronts and center, but it makes sense to if you can....

[Fat Tone]

Cheers. Any opinions on the Loudpanel's as rears? Jammy?

[dave m]

Guess what?

I'm using them as fronts and rears, thus getting around compatability problems

With my room layout it was impossible to set up any sort of sweet spot, one sofa is under front left, another under right rear. Being NXT panels the diffuse nature of the sound field allows everyone in the room to get a reasonably good surround effect, while if you're as close to the sweet spot as possible they're directional enough to give a good sound stage, all being anchored to a mission centre. Compared to a pair of mission 760i speakers as front left and right the panels sounded much better (caveat: this of course is in our room layout).

The Downside, they have a passive subwoofer that handles most stuff below about 120Hz so even set on small speakers you still need the sub so there's another box to hide somewhere (two in my case). Also if you just want to play stereo music through them they can sound a little thin without the centre speaker handling much of the mid range, so are better for background music where you get a throughout the room sound.

Having said that the DTS sound track of Queens Video hits is quite an eye opener (or is that ear?)

Dave

[Fat Tone]

Good old Dave. Hi Dave. How ya doin Dave? Thanks Dave.

Well I haven't read anything on the web to put me off using these as rears, particularly given my room geometry. I don't think I'd try them at the front though. Anything is gonna be better than what I had (surrounds from a Hitachi TV) so I guess I'd be happy I'll try and give them a listen in Richer Sounds tomorrow.

Cheers

T.

PS www.flat-speaker.co.uk for anyone who is interested. Its a bit broken but there is still plenty there.

[dave m]

Happy New Year Tony, and all...

These things cost £249.99 when launched, as mainstream hifi speakers they were never going to make it. But I needed something discrete for front speakers, and when the price dropped a lot it was worth the risk.

I was sufficiently pleased to pick another set up as rears when the price dropped again (still more than £75 though).

We're very happy, better sound than the local Cinema and discrete.

Left front Speaker: Photo is a private Joke...

Least it would be if I attached it...

[dave m]

Maybe here?

Edit:

A small donation to the Ant fund if anyone gets the joke

[Fat Tone]

Do you see yourself as a lone tree in the wilderness? Or is that dark triangle towards the bottom-centre supposed to be a thong?



Anyway, glad you are happy with your picture frames.

T.

[WyWyWyWy]

Are flatspeakers really any good comparing to traditional speakers?

[dave m]

They're different, I wouldn't replace my hifi speakers with them if that was all I was going to use, but as part of a package they do a grand job, particularly if placement has to be sub-optimal. As I said, in our set up/configuration they sound better than equivelant conventional speakers.

Dave