Towers as Surrounds / Rears for Home Theater | Towers vs Bookshelves | Home Theater Gurus Setup

Home Theater Gurus Q&A. Are Towers overkill in a Home Theater Setup? Towers vs bookshelves for surrounds and rears. Home Theater Setup . Towers all around for Home Theater. For room plan layout service contact me @
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[@ronsenzel9056]

I have to say that I was at a friend's last week listening to the changes he made in his theater. He had the Polk audio LS800's up front, an L600 for center and 2 pairs of LSIM 702's for surrounds. I've listened to it a number of times, sounds fantastic. But this time he added towers for front wides as well as towers for side and rear surrounds. It absolutely took his theater to another level. It made movies I've watched in his theater before a whole new experience. Total game changer in his theater, absolutely.

[@hometheatergurus]

Man You talking about PJ.. 😀. Yeah they can be great when done right. If the seats are placed right and you have towers or MTMs (inwall preferably for increased midbass efficiency ) they can awesome.

[@ronsenzel9056]

@@hometheatergurus yes, he has his towers for surrounds pointed right at the sweet spot share and it makes hand incredible difference. I know full towers is not an option for everybody but if it is for some it can be one way that a person can make a big impact in what their theater deliverance

[@taseti4803]

I concur with your opinion on this topic. Large towers around the box really make the home theater sound like a public theater, if not better because your closer to the speakers and you can feel and hear the sound moving from speaker to speaker.

[@happyfisch1033]

The original bookshelf vs tower video pushed me in the right direction back then. At least for my room and my conditions. For my second setup I was going for as many Towers (just two lol) as I could afford. Because "bigger must always be better". Thanks to videos (especially your videos) I learned a lot and saved a lot money vor my 3rd setup (still working in it). Thanks

[@loukeeper1421]

Thanks for the great consultation! Really appreciated ALL of the information AND EXTRA email comms with added information! Keep up the great work and videos.

[@hometheatergurus]

I'm guessing this is Chuck... You're very welcome!!

[@Echo-jg8is]

My 3 step plan to the perfect system ... 1 find the best full range CLRs speaker your budget will allow... 2 carefully match it to a monoblock power amplifier... 3 repeat steps 1 & 2 on every channel... 🔊🎶😂😂

[@CrimsonJR83]

Glad you're going over this...

[@hometheatergurus]

Thanks. It's definitely something many just don't think about.

[@CrimsonJR83]

@@hometheatergurus, it's one thing when you're on a tight budget and you're trying to make do with what you already have but it's a whole other thing to purposely cram towers in a small room bc "bigger is better".

[@shaolin95]

There is no issue with towers IF your setup allows you to "see" the woofers. So it depends indeed. I love my jbl 590s all around

[@hometheatergurus]

That's pretty much the idea of the video. As long as they are lifted up to accommodate proper height you're good to go.

[@danielj.glowny4108]

I use four tower speakers for the left and right surrounds and two tower speakers for the left and right rear speakers plus five 12inch powered subs .

[@petesingh1465]

Thank you for great videos. What are your thoughts on using bookshelves or bi-pole speakers for rears? Thanks again! It appears you may not have understood my question, let me elaborate: for my three row multi-seating home theater, I have 9.4.6 SVS ultra system with AVM90 and Levinson amps. Speakers configuration is SVS Ultra tower fronts, ultra center, ultra top front and rear (bookshelves projected down), ultra bookshelves wides, ultra bi-poles surround sound, ultra bi-pole rear surrounds, and 4-SB16s subs. In my opinion, I may have made a mistake with installing ultra bi-poles for rears. Should I go with ultra bookshelves for rear?...I know it's subjective, but what works the best for surrounds ...bi-pole or bookshelves. Thank you I'm advance for your input!

[@SanandanDA]

Can I use side heights instead of top middle speakers? Planning on running a 7.2.6 setup

[@TheVideohans]

I like to connect 2 rear speakers with WISA to a lg tv or soundbar. if I use a usb dongle than the tv sound is disconnected what is the better option? Thanks.

[@reggiemurphy7028]

Perfect video. I've been running dev tech towers 9060s in the rear and 9080s in the front, just sold my 9060s. Been thinking for a month about this same topic. I'm debating about D11s or in wall speakers for the rears. Maybe Kef bookshelves ? uni Q?

[@Tearial311]

I have towers for surrounds. I upgraded my LCRs and used the old towers and moved them back. The old surrounds only had a frequency response down to 90hz and there was no way I was gonna set them to 100hz because they were the weakest link. So… towers it was. Plus, they look so much cooler

[@Tearial311]

I upgraded from Klipsch R26F towers to Arendal 1719 THX. I do like horns on the side, It makes the surrounds a bit more “lively”

[@Finn-McCool]

Good to know, I am currently in the midst of replacing my old Polk RT55s with Klipsch speakers. I naturally started with LCR and so I bought their RP-800F towers and "matching" RP-504C center channel. I was thinking about the RP-6000 and RP-5000 towers for the sides and rears respectively. After seeing this I think I will just get two pair of RP-600M or even RP-500M for the rest of the bed layer. Then finish off with 4 RP-500SA Atmos speakers for the FR heights. Keeping the 4 JBL PB10 subs for now as they sound just fine. Thanks for the insight.

[@hometheatergurus]

Sounds like I saved you some $$.. :).

[@Finn-McCool]

@@hometheatergurus If I hadn't decided to upgrade because of your channel I might agree 😏

[@jeremyj.]

I wanted to buy the rp500m for my rear surround but ended up getting the rp600m as a free upgrade because the store screwed up. I heard from multiple sources that the 500 was a better built/measuring speaker. Yet when testing in practical usage, there hasn’t been any content (so far) that is hugely active in those rear surround channels. I’m using an Anthem MRX-1140 with ARC applied. I guess the only difference you might see is with the air displacement of a larger woofer (5.25” vs 6.5”). More impact. But that will depend on the power you’re feeding the speaker as well. Depending on your setup, you might want to save your money and get the 500’s. Unless you’re an avid music listener in ‘All Channel Stereo’ mode. Then maybe get the bigger woofer?

[@Finn-McCool]

@@jeremyj. That's an astute observation. I listen to music in my theater about as much as I do through my 2 channel set-up. Speaking of that (rear right) surround channel, I was watching a movie recently, maybe "Better Call Saul" and the entire audio came through that channel for almost a minute! It was as strange as it was impactful to the movie. But it made me turn my head, I think that is the aim sometimes. Surround is a sublime way to break the fourth wall.

[@aPlateOfGrapes]

Great stuff! You talked about raising the sides to ensure they are above the seat backs. If you do that, should you angle the speakers down a bit to compensate?

[@Failor82]

Always point the good stuff at you if possible. Some speakers even need to be angled in to your direction to do a better phantom imaging. Depends on your room symetry to the sides and can differ left/right. Most speakers need to cross in front of your sweet spot, some a bit behind the head (coaxial ones). Floor standing speakers shouldn't be raised, as they are intended to stand on the ground. Lifting them so far that the woofers are higher then the seat backs will mess up the tweeter and mid range vertical off axis response. You also shouldn't put floor standing speakers sideways for the same reason. You certainly can lift a stand mounted bookshelf speaker. I have a pretty low couch seat back und build two wooden boxes with the same height with spiked mounted bookshelfs. For both front and front wides I got towers, as my couch is not between me and the woofers.

[@hometheatergurus]

It depends on how far off vertical axis you are. Usually you'll be less than 10 degrees off vertical axis so it's not required. As for toe in, yes you should toe them in especially if they are a narrow dispersion.

[@yogabyaakaash]

With Atmos coming in, Dolby now recommends surrounds at ear level vs 2-3ft above ear level, as it was earlier recommended. If the surrounds now need to be at ear level, then I guess towers may be a good idea?

[@hometheatergurus]

Towers usually place the tweeters too low for an optimal bedlayer. Dolby doesn't recommend them 2-3 feet above head level and hasn't since legacy formats. Atmos is what brought the need to lower them. They should be raised some but you must maintain separation from the atmos and must stay in the speakers vertical window of good sound before drivers come out of alignment.

[@gman1087]

I think the centre chanel carrys most of the dialogue ...so i got 2 cv AT 12's runing of 350w yamaha p3500 .......L and R , an AT 12 also running of 350w.....it sounds fab with a little eq.......processed by denon 4500.....surrounds n atmos by infinity oreus.....subs x 3.....luv it!

[@patrickmiller4987]

try listening for how little the L and R channels are working during playback, when the center is employed it shifts nearly everything to that speaker, maybe over 80% thats why its highly recommended that it be at LEAST as capable as the L and R!

[@taseti4803]

Thanks for answering the question. The Towers I have is SVS Ultra Towers. I have them on risers. Six Towers with an Ultra Center and 4, subs. 2 in the back and 2, up front. I have 4 night speakers as well. The room size is 26 × 26. I was pondering do I splurge on the surround backs or just keep it simple. I went ahead and pulled the trigger. I will be setting up the surround backs on Monday and then run room correction again. I will let you know if it makes a nice quality difference.

[@hometheatergurus]

Perfect. Those have a midrange as as long as they're up high enough (which it sounds like you'll have them raised) they will work fantastic.

[@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001]

Looking to replace my surrounds and centre to towers and run them Full Band. Love your setup. Any challenges having towers for all speakers?

[@taseti4803]

@@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001 No challenges at all. The best thing about it is having matching speakers around the box. Sonically, it sounds amazing.

[@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001]

@@taseti4803 totally agree and yet many do not recommend it, wonder why! 🤔

[@taseti4803]

@@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001 update: Man on man does having large tower speakers around the box sounds great. My system sounds like one big speaker now. It's well balanced and I have headroom for days. I was thinking spending another 2,800 for another pair of Ultra Towers for surround backs would've been money waisted. There's a great amount of base that comes through your surround backs. You wouldn't notice it if you don't have the equipment to hear the difference. Loud gun shots, screams and quick bursts of base really gets you moving in your seat. If you could afford it, I will definitely say go for it.

[@kevinmontello5234]

I understand that ideally side surrounds should be one foot above listening position…. But where do you measure up to the bottom of cabinet, to the mid driver or the tweeter horn or the top of cabinet I have the Klipsch RP 502S surround speakers

[@hometheatergurus]

The acoustic center of the speaker so for your Klipsch would be around the bottom of the waveguide.

[@bryanguest2807]

I would say normally yes its overkill EXCEPT for the introduction of Apples ATMOS music. Home theater audio mixing generally sends bass to the sub or front array, so the surrounds really only need to handle above 80 hz, perfect for bookshelves which are easy to position.

[@TechinaSec101]

Simply the most informative channel out there. Q: For a home theater set-up 7.2.6, Would you buy surround speakers that could dig deep into the 65hz or 75hz would be enough ( as you will cross over the low Hz to the sub ) Any benefit of having surround speakers that could dig deep. Regards.

[@TechinaSec101]

Personally, I thought having them crossed over at higher Hz will give me more clarity on the high-end notes. especially for surrounds. Or am I missing something by doing that?

[@hometheatergurus]

If you the subs are all up front where localization is less of an issue, yes you could cross a little higher than the standard 80hz. Whatever crossover you choose you need speakers that can easily extend to the demand asked of them. If they extend to 70hz and you cross over at 80 you're fine as an 80hz crossover is a gradual slope.

[@TechinaSec101]

@@hometheatergurus Hi, Thank you for your reply. Basically, if i cross over the surrounds at 80hz, Am i missing anything ( talking about movie watching only ) What's your input on this topic? Personally, what did you do that sounded the best?

[@roccofilippi1418]

Do you have an email I could send some pictures to? My subs come in on Tuesday and I have a very specific situation. Let me know please. And thank you again for these videos!!!

[@obi1cannoli777]

How is the Tonewinner amp treating you? I was looking at reviews and yours popped up. Starting to follow you.

[@hometheatergurus]

Thanks! I've been loving them. I'm actually about to do an update video for them.

[@obi1cannoli777]

@@hometheatergurus Awesome!!! Just like in your video, I keep looking at them and they just look so good.

[@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001]

Hi, I actually was thinking of replacing my surrounds for towers. Earlier Dolby would recommend surrounds town be place above ear level. However with Atmos, they now recommend surrounds at ear level. AURO 3D also looks at ear level surrounds. Keeping that in mind, wouldn't towers work just as well, if not better? Yes, I was also going to run them Full Band. In fact also thinking of getting a tower for the front channel, your views?

[@shaolin95]

Dolby still allows for surrounds to be over like 1.25 or something room height..that has not changed. I do love my towers all 7 speakers though (JBL 590)

[@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001]

@@shaolin95 great to know it's working for you. I would like to work on getting all towers for all speakers, strongly believe running them all full band can totally change the overall experience. Do you run them Full Band or crossover to the sub?

[@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001]

@@shaolin95 did u face any challenges with all 7 towers, in terms of calibration, setup, etc?

[@patrickmiller4987]

@@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001 If you have a capable sub(s) you are creating issues at the shared freq. not to mention losing headroom and dynamics and increasing distortion. Listen to the experts! Let your subs do their job, they are much better at it! No sub then go for it.

[@sutraleticsssutraleticss5001]

@@patrickmiller4987 totally get it! What about having towers for all speakers?

[@dmabel85]

Anyone have recommendations on risers for tower speakers? Would need ~15” height, weight tolerance of 50 lbs. Phone books have low WAF lol.

[@hometheatergurus]

Hey phone books are now historic relics, kinda like art.. right?

[@dmabel85]

@@hometheatergurus I’ll let you know how that pitch goes… ;)

[@shaolin95]

Dang I only remember one great looking speaker riser back in the day for the rockets rs 450. I wish there were more

[@taseti4803]

I use the sound addicted vibe boss P12, subwoofer platform for my Ultra Towers. The ran me 70 bucks a piece. The quality is heavy duty and fantastic. They support my ultra towers with no problem.

[@khalid969]

Following the same logic, if you are using bookshelf speakers for your surrounds, what would be the argument for having large tower speakers in the front then? Do they handle more information than your surrounds? Is it because they are farther away that they have to be larger? Or is it just conventional wisdom that front speakers have to be bigger and higher quality than your surrounds? Thank you in advance.

[@mephInc]

Most of the sound in a movie is in front. Most of the vocals are center. Basically, they take more of the load than the surrounds so having those be larger and more capable will always be better.

[@khalid969]

@@mephInc thank you for your reply.

[@taseti4803]

The goal IMO, is to have more than capable speakers around your listening area because the quality of the listening experience is on a whole another level. Bookshelves just can't compete with a large floor standing speaker. There's alot of base that comes from all channels in a home theater setup. If you have the equipment to take advantage of it you will hear scenes from movies in a new light.

[@khalid969]

@@taseti4803 The case has been made that front and center speakers must be of the highest calibre you can afford, but I also agree with you. Even if there isn't as much information coming through the surround speakers, when there is some, you need that audio to be as big, and to go as low, as the front speakers. Even if the couch blocks the woofers on the back surrounds, just boost those speakers up.

[@__the_ufo__8462]

Depends on how loud you listen and the room with most listening rooms having the very bad problem of too low a ceiling at 8 to ten feet where it's IMHO much better to have a 21 foot ceiling. Also bookshelf speakers are point sources vs the much better control directivity of towers. Sources drop at 6db distance vs the 3b and better control of towers. If you want it to sound like a movie theatre then you need the piston area of towers vs the tiny point source bookshelves better suited to music not movie reproduction.

[@hometheatergurus]

Towers are no different in energy loss than bookshelves as both lose energy at a rate of 6db per doubling of distance (anechoic) and around 4db in room. Towers do not have 3db of loss per doubling. They lose at exactly the same rate as bookshelves. Line Source and line arrays lose at half that and likely what you are thinking about. Bass management allows us to get around huge woofers although if you saw in the old theater we actually had cinema speakers with dual 15s. Easily bested by better designed home theater speakers. I currently have Inwall 3 ways with dual 8.5" woofers that actually have more output than many large towers due ot the baffle wall effect. This video however discussed crossover issues so you may wanna try watching the video so you can comment on what the video is actually about.

[@specialformula14]

Q&A. Are you still using the tonewinner ? Good Bad ???

[@hometheatergurus]

Yep the dual TW 7300 amps are doing fantastic and look good while doing it.!

[@totalplonker824]

I've actually been thinking of getting rid of my surrounds, I'm just sick of listening to the distortion and I don't think it's anything to do with my setup, all my components cables etc are all high end, I even tried placing my high-end sonus Faber sonetto's as surrounds and yet there was still distortion, probably because I'm sitting 3 feet away from my left surround, now I know why they say a home theatre room needs to be a miinimum size room!

[@hometheatergurus]

3' is really close but you shouldn't be getting distortion. That's very odd. That close they should have no trouble hitting uncomfortable levels and remain clean as long as you have adequate power.

[@totalplonker824]

@@hometheatergurus this is my setup, I done a 3-minute video of it... kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqfHonxrpr-UbMk I should state it's very subtle, in fact I only hear it when the Silent scenes come in!

[@bingdong8571]

I have yet to see overkill in theaters, just bad design. As long as they are in a good location the floorstanding speakers give you more range and dynamics. If you can do it, do it!

[@bingdong8571]

No, no, no, no. Use all the science, math, and manufacturers recommendations you want, but actually listening to a system setup with all large speakers(set up correctly) will kick the shit out of any standard setup

[@jeqwerty1969]

He’s got things completely backwards at the very last bit. No you don’t want to run full range towers but for completely different reasons. Localization is worse with single sub systems, not with full range towers.