What speakers for Audyssey DSX Wides and Heights ?

Our recommendation is to use Wides and Heights that are from the same family as your front speakers. This helps with timbre matching. In your case, the fronts are towers so it's not always practical to add towers for Wides. I would recommend using a pair of bookshelf speakers as the fronts for Wides and another for Heights.

Have you tested ceiling speakers for heights? 

Yes, ceiling speakers will work well for Heights.

I also have tower speakers for the fronts. I have 3 options for bookshelf speakers for the wides and heights. A bookshelf with a 6.5" woofer, a smaller bookshelf with a 5.25" woofer, and a Middy compact speaker with dual 2.5" cones. These are all in the same family of speakers. I was thinking of using the 5.25" bookshelf speakers for the wides and the smaller dual 2.5 Middy compact speakers for the nights. Will this be ok or should I opt for the larger bookshelf speakers for the sides?

Hi Chris,

I've got 2 linked questions, I hope you won't mind if the answer are not exactly in the most relevant topic.

I Own a 5.1 Genelec System with three 8050 (120W, 38-20kHz): 2 in Front position and 1 Center; two 8030 (40W, 58-20kHz) for surrounds. The Sub is the 7060B, it has a LFE input, and 6 ins and outs for each speaker. My Preamp is an Onkyo PR-SC 886 with MultiEqXt system.

Before I got my Onkyo (and the Audissey System), I followed the Genelec recommandations, and connected my five Speakers are connected to Sub (5.1 Analogic Sources -> Sub -> 5 XLR outputs to each speaker) : the lowpass filter makes the Sub play every sound under 85 Hz for the speakers, whereever they are. I got the Onkyo and Audissey few months ago, and didn't change my setup. So the speakers signals are still roaming through the Subwoofer, and are still submited to the lowpass filter.

First question, will I  have real benefits in rewiring all my system (...$$ option) for having the speakers directly connected to the PreAmp ? Under 85Hz frequencies are not so directionnal, and I thought that, thanks to the Audissey work, the result between direct or through sub/lowpass wiring would be very, very close...

Second question,  Genelec recommands using exactly the same speaker model for the Center AND Front position. With your Heights Algorythm, is your recommandation the same ? If I could get two 8030 instead of 8050, it would be... really cheaper, if your algorythm doesn't make it sound very different.

Thanks for your help !

Fifou

Hi Fifou,

You will get much better performance from MultEQ XT if you let the bass management system in the Onkyo take care of the bass distribution.  The MultEQ XT filters in the subwoofer channel have 8x more resolution than those in the satellite channels.  This will give you a much smoother bass response.  So, yes, it is much better to connect the speakers to the Onkyo and make sure that they are not set to Full Range after calibration.  Then connect the Sub to the Sub Out.  Make sure you follow the sub setup tips prior to running the calibration: http://ask.audyssey.com/forums/84181/entries/76175.html

As for Heights, it's recommended that they are from the same "family".  They don't have to be the same model.  Smaller speakers are easier to mount.  The bass will be redirected to the sub in the same way that it is from all the other speakers in the system if you follow the recommendation above.