I am looking to upgrade my surround speakers, not the rears.

I may be mistaken but thought i read on the dolby website that full range surrounds are the recommendation for atmos, at ear level with an spl meter reading from 79db to 82db.

I need help as my dealer recommended upgrading my reciever to an Anthem Mrx720 as he feels my Onkyo 818 is the weakest link in my system. (T2's, SCXL,Mirage omnisats OS1x4 SLR, Mirage Prestige SHLR and rears are monoprice 4102's which are there because of space and budget at time of build, SW-PSA XS30).

Looking to go with a 7.2.4 atmos in future and am having a hard time deciding between speakers or receiver?

I spent 3 1/2 hours at my Goldenear dealer and listened to the T5's (outstanding) and the Aon 3's (excellent) and the SS3's (very good) all within my budget. The Anthem MRX 720 is also within my budget. I do have the space for towers as surrounds.

I can only do 1 and don't want to make a mistake.

1. My questions are full range speakers needed for surround duty, with more of the audio these days for movies having full range capability or can excellent results be obtained from say SS3's with bass routed to the sub?

2. As music is also integral to my listening, I am wondering if anything less than T5's would not be as satisfying?

Thanks...twotooneadam12

Hi twotooneadam12,
Hope I got that right.
Good questions, and ultimately only you can say what is worth the most to you. I think you are really on the right track, and will end up with a wonderful system.
I DEFINITELY agree with towers as full range as possible as surround speakers. Take it from me who has the T Ones up front and the T 2s as surrounds, with T 3s as the rears.
I LOVE the full range speakers for movies and music. So the T 5s would be wonderful!!!!
I also agree with your dealer that the Onkyo is the weak point in your system. So that is a place you can easily upgrade and make a big improvement.
Up to whatever your priorities are.
Those are the two moves I would make first, surround towers and better processor.
Hope this helps, have fun with it, happy listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

twotooneadam12 wrote: 1. My questions are full range speakers needed for surround duty, with more of the audio these days for movies having full range capability or can excellent results be obtained from say SS3's with bass routed to the sub?

2. As music is also integral to my listening, I am wondering if anything less than T5's would not be as satisfying?

Hi,

In answer to your questions:

1) Excellent results can be achieved with SuperSat 3s and appropriate bass management - notwithstanding the ongoing debate regarding the need for full-range speakers for all channels.

2) The Triton Fives are a "magic" point in the lineup where you get the most performance-value (best sound for the least dollars). That said, Triton Sevens are still a wonderful choice if you're stretching dollars (also, I would opt for a 5.1.4 and use the saved dollars accordingly).

Hi twotooneadam12,
Hope I got that right.
Good questions, and ultimately only you can say what is worth the most to you. I think you are really on the right track, and will end up with a wonderful system.
I DEFINITELY agree with towers as full range as possible as surround speakers. Take it from me who has the T Ones up front and the T 2s as surrounds, with T 3s as the rears.
I LOVE the full range speakers for movies and music. So the T 5s would be wonderful!!!!
I also agree with your dealer that the Onkyo is the weak point in your system. So that is a place you can easily upgrade and make a big improvement.
Up to whatever your priorities are.
Those are the two moves I would make first, surround towers and better processor.
Hope this helps, have fun with it, happy listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

If you could only do one towers before processor??

2:1Adam12
As the Moderator Dude has said, you could go with the T 7s (I did for a while) but there is more magic in the T 5s.
It is your call as to what is first, your priorities, but I am gonna say, if it were me, I would go with the processor first. But there are two reasons for that in my mind, one is that I have a soft spot for Mirages in my heart, they do not suck! With a sub, you can get a lot of good sound outta them, not close to a T 5 sound, but they are better than a LOT of people have.
And later, you can move them to the rears, I do like 7.1 a LOT more than the Moderator Dude does! Not Atmos, but 7.1 surround. And there are more and more good movies coming out with 7 discrete channels (plus one).
My other reason to say processor first is that I do agree your Onkyo is the weak link in your system, IMHO, same as your dealer said.
But ultimately you have to weigh all your options and make the call. I know how that goes, most of us here do, we cannot just plunk down cold hard cash for a whole system, we have to build these things piece by piece, through time. I have visited pawn shops in my quest. ha ha
Have fun with it, God Bless,
Wayne

Based upon my own experience over the last 2 years:

Decision number one might be: Are you more interested in multi-channel movie sound, or in high-quality 2-channel music? Or, are both equally important to you?

Having recently added a Cambridge Audio 851A 2-channel amplifier to my system, I can report that a dedicated high-quality 2-channel amplifier will significantly improve music - especially when driving GE Triton speakers.

Being able to use your Triton Fronts for both music and movie watching, while employing a separate 2-channel amplifier, will depend upon being able to pass the front channel outputs from your multi-channel receiver to your dedicated 2-channel amplifier. This capability permits connecting your front speakers to the dedicated 2-channel amplifier for music, and then passing the front L/R signals from your multi-channel receiver to the 2-channel amp when watching movies.

The above is a very cursory explanation of this possibility. You need to research this situation so that you understand the details.

Bottom line: Use this forum to ask for details, consult with your dealer if you trust him to provide unbiased information, or use the Web to research the details.

In my case, I have separate front speakers employed with my multi-channel Onkyo for movies because I don't particularly care whether or not I have the best sound for movies, but I care very much about what my music sounds like.

I recommend you carefully consider what your listening priorities are before you explore options and make decisions.

Art