Better Quality Speakers for Surround or Surround Back?
You are a person divided. You want great quality speakers but only if it will make an audible difference. Spending money isn’t a problem, but you hate the thought of wasting it. You’ve found and purchased your “dream” speakers for your front three. Now you are shopping for your surround and surround back speakers. Where would your money be best spent? What will make the most audible difference? Better quality surround or surround back speakers? Let’s discuss!
Surround Speaker Quality
When shopping for surround and surround back speakers, most people are looking at speakers in the same family as their main speakers. They generally aren’t looking for speakers from completely different companies. They are simply wondering which models would be the best for their room. While surround speakers generally don’t have to match your main speakers, most people want speakers from the same line. This might be because of timbre matching purposes, aesthetic reasons, or to save on shipping charges. Regardless, they are usually looking at different sizes of speakers and wondering which would be the best.
Audibility is Key
As you might expect from a site that doesn’t think your surround speakers need to be from the same company as your mains, we don’t really think it will matter. Your ears aren’t very sensitive and discerning of sounds that come from your sides or behind you (much less overhead). If a speaker fits your definition of “good enough” for surround or surround back, then it is high enough quality for both locations. We’ve tested out surround and surround back speakers of various quality. We’ve very rarely noticed any audible difference unless the speakers were broken, extremely far away, or had a very obvious mismatch.
When people ask about which surround speakers to buy, they are usually worried about small differences. While people online will claim that they can hear the differences, normally they are liars. They have exceedingly little experience (usually only with one or two sets of speakers) and didn’t do any sort of rigorous testing. Plus, people online want you to buy the same speakers as them so they can feel better about their purchase.
Take Away
Too many purchases in home theater come from people worried about differences that either don’t exist or they’ll never hear. The “FOMO” in home theater is a very real reason people buy speakers that are too big, overpowered, and overpriced. We understand. You don’t want to make a mistake that you’ll regret. Spending a little more for that piece of mind will be worth it. Hey, we’ve done it before.
The easy way to decide on your surround and surround back speaker purchase is to remember if the quality is good enough for one, it is good enough for the other. The only reason we’d consider a different speaker for one of those is if the placement was so much farther away that the speaker couldn’t get loud enough. But that’s a rare situation in most rooms.
