Well I have hooked up the new 990, solved a few problems and so far sounds great. Now the upgrade cycle continues. I have Vienna Acoustics - Beethoven grands for the mains, Maestro for center and Waltz for the surrounds. I really like the speakers very warm and musical. The Waltz is about $850.00 ea. So would seem pricey for the rears. The question is to what degree does the quality of the rears influence the sound in a 7.1 setup when they would seem to be used for fill in only. Thoughts on a bi-pole set up for the rears? Looking for sub as well. I have an old 500 watt carver sub that is starting to rattle. Have looked at the SVS subs (not the tubes) and the Outlaw subs. Thoughts? Thanks for everything.

I love Vienna Acoustics, and if I could afford them it would be definately a choice I could make.

The rears don't influence the musicality as much as you may think, however, with the newer formats coming out in the next year or so, I suspect they will play a bigger influence in musicality (especially if newer 7.1 HiRez music only formats come into play). Now, the side channels definately make a difference in 5.1 SACD/DVD-A recordings.

As for dynamics of movies, etc. I believe the rears are critical. Especially in IIx and other 7.1 formats that do extensive processing for the rears.

Personally, I wouldn't change the thing. The speakers you have are wonderful sounding, especially those Beethovens.

-Rob

When listening to music in surround, the rears add envelopment (mostly to frequencies above 1kHz to 2kHz). You can hear this effect for yourself. Raising the volume of the rear speakers will make the front soundstage appear louder, bringing it into the room. (Interestingly, if you raise the volume of the side speakers, the front soundstage will appear wider.)

With movies, the rears speakers can often play back as much sound as the side speakers. A good chunk of correlated content in the surround channels is cancelled from the side speakers and sent to the rear speakers (which is where it would have phantom imaged anyway).

To answer your question, I wouldn't skimp on the rear speakers any more than I would for the side speakers. Both surrounds pairs have to blend in with the front soundstage (the sides moreso than the rears). The one place I would save money is on bass response: get the smallest rear speakers that match the sound of the rest of your speakers. If you're going to use PLIIx to create a 7.1-channel soundfield, then I would use monopoles for the rear speakers. PLIIx extracts two surround-back channels, and bipoles could blur the intended stereo-rear effect. As it is our human hearing is not so hot behind our heads, so it helps to have monopoles back there in order to better hear the left-vs-right imaging.

The surround speakers are used for effect or impact on a scene to set mood enhance action or what ever. Bottom line you need to thing of your speakers almost like you would a band. If you have one weak player (speaker) in the group you are going to know it. If your front and center speakers are strong the surrounds have got to be able to keep pace with them or you will have a disjointed sound stage. Don't chimp out on the back half of the system. you will regret it later.