Floorstanders as surrounds?
October 7, 2005
I want to use my older floorstanding speakers as surrounds.
All I see in magazines and in stores are wall-mounted surrounds Is it OK to use
floorstanding speakers as surrounds? What are the drawbacks?
Derrick
I can think of two drawbacks: The first is cost; most
floorstanding speakers cost more than their wall-mountable counterparts from the same
manufacturer. The second is lack of placement flexibility; floorstanding speakers need
floor space and some open area around them to perform as designed. A wall-mounted
surround, conversely, can be placed directly above a piece of furniture where a
floorstander won't fit. The floorstander has its own advantages, however. Typically they
play lower in the bass because they are larger. They can also be a better match for large
front speakers from the same company. In fact, five identical floorstanders has always
been the gold-standard arrangement in the best multichannel systems.
Speaker orientation
October 5, 2005
I'm looking at buying some small bookshelf speakers from
either Aperion or Ascend Acoustics. I assume the sound won't be affected if they're laying
on their sides. (Don't ask -- it's a spousal-unit thing.)
Eric
Bookshelf speakers are designed to sit upright, so the
sound will be somewhat affected by laying them on their sides. This will be true of any
speaker and has to do with technical issues involving the way sound is dispersed.
Bookshelf speakers are rather cubical so there really isn't much difference dimensionally
between sitting upright and laying on one side. There are some rather tall bookshelf
speakers on the market, but the smallest models from the companies you mention are just
about as wide as they are tall. Maybe when your wife sees them she'll change her mind.
New disc formats?
October 3, 2005
Do you see Blu-ray or HD-DVD becoming the new disc format
of choice? Is it still safe to buy a DVD player right now?
Kenny
I am disappointed that the public is being presented
with two proposed new disc types instead of one unified format. I would have thought that
the failure of SACD and DVD-Audio in the marketplace would have taught the industry a
lesson: consumers will simply ignore a "format war." That's precisely what
happened with the two competing high-resolution formats. I've often joked that the CD won
the format war between SACD and DVD-A. In the same vein, DVD could win the format war
between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. What really surprises me is that, after a week where we hear
that Sony is laying off 10,000 employees, they are likely to have a second failed format
push in a single decade. Amazing. So to answer your question: I do think it is safe to buy
a DVD player right now, and it will be for the foreseeable future, too.
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