surround and 7.1 speakers

There's hundreds of speaker possibilities. You'll need to start reading threads in this forum to narrow it down, but yes, ideally they should have the same sonic signature (except the sub). Google dolby speaker placement & THX speaker placement for the layout.

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It would be helpful to know what you will be driving your speakers with.
Click here to see the recommendations from Dolby Digital on how to place speakers. The front three are the most critical for timbre matching, the surrounds/rears are not nearly as critical.

These speakers mount on wall not in it, but they sound great and will not stick out much more than an in wall speaker would. Surrounds and rear speakers should be mounted 4-5' high anyway, and these stick out only 5" when mounted. They are quite slim. Some in wall speakers do not disperse the sound properly, some are so poorly made they resonate the walls. Not a good thing. The ERD-1s are a dipole speaker, having 2 tweeters and do not have the dispersion problem.

You might look at setting up a 5.1 for the time being. There aren't too many movies that take advantage of the new sound formats yet, and the jury is out on whether it is better than a good 5.1 setup anyways.

I have a pair of the Emotivas and I'm very impressed with them. You could spend much more for in wall speakers and not get the sound quality these have.

They are 4 ohm so that may play into your decision, which is why I asked what you will be using for powering your speakers. Most THX certified speakers are 4 ohm.

What is your reference for this statement?

Here is a link to an in-wall/ceiling Home Theater that is THX Ultra II certified: http://www.klipsch.com/products/deta...-7800-thx.aspx

That being said, I would consider the KL 650s up front and the rest in wall if you could get away with it. Good Luck.

I wish I could find the article where I read that. Its been some time ago since I read it.I'll keep looking and let you know.

FWIW, if you check the specs on most higher end speakers - those over $1K each - are quite often 4 ohm speakers. Why is this?

See this thread: Why 4ohm speakers?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1110592

Thanks.

I've not seen that thread before now.
The article I referred to was along the lines of what Paul S. outlined. He pretty much said what I had read.

What I do remember from the article was why lower priced speakers are more often 8 ohm, the receivers that consumers will probably buy won't drive 4 ohm speakers very well. Some won't at all without going into protect mode.

I understand that 4 Ohm rated speakers need more current to run efficiently, but I don't think that "most THX speakers are 4 Ohm" rated. In fact, I thought speakers with that low of impedance couldn't qualify as being THX certified.

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Read the thread that was provided by ChrisWiggles. There are some excellent examples of why this is so. Generally speaking, the more a speaker cost, the more likely it is to be THX certified by the manufacturer. Also more likely is it will be a 4 ohm load.

There is no stipulations about how a speaker reaches THX certification, it either reproduces the sound requirements of THX or it doesn't. Same with the electronics that seek THX certs.

Why would the THX testers care about the load the speaker presents?

I participated in that thread. ;-) http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...x#post15630038

I realize that this is way off topic for this thread but to reach THX Certification speakers do have impedance requirements as well as other criteria to reach those proprietary numbers. Insofar as the AVRS that seek THX Ultra II certification, they MUST be able to drive loads down to 3.2 Ohms.

I am not saying that THX is the standard for quality speakers but it is my understanding that speakers that can't be driven with THX ultra II AVRs in a 3,000 cu ft room would not pass the requirement....I can provide you with 2 links that have THX ultra II approved speakers and they are the link in the post above (which are "8 Ohm Compatible) and here is one to the Atlantic Technology speakers which are 6 Ohm: http://www.atlantictechnology.com/de...asp?NodeId=128

I am not trying to be argumentative, but explaining why I don't think most THX certified speakers are 4 Ohm rated speakers. If you had information to the contrary I would be interested in seeing it.

No problem, and I don't participate in arguments.

What I've noticed about speakers is that the higher the price the more likely it it to have lower (4-6 ohm) impedance. Add to that the fact that the maker is more likely to apply for a THX cert to promote the speaker sales. Not all higher priced speakers are 4 ohm, but a majority of them are.

I'm not going to spend a day trying to back up an assertion, its only that, and I don't claim it as fact.

Perhaps I should have been more clear in my first post as to my experience with speaker specs: "in my estimation, most THX speakers *seem* to be 4 ohm speakers".

Its just what I've noticed from my perusal of spec sheets on speakers I am curious about. I never meant to state it as fact. Just personal observation. It is what I've observed.

For more information on speaker THX certs, here is a link that can tell you if a speaker model has that cert.

THX speaker list.

I can appreciate that.

I don't mean to belabor the point, but I did take the time to go to the link and see if what you were saying was true but the fact is that none of the LCR THX Ultra II certified speakers are 4 Ohm: http://www.thx.com/products/home/speakers.html

But you are belaboring the point.

I apologize. You were saying something that I didn't believe to be accurate and wanted to see where you were coming from. You made the assumption that most THX speakers are 4 Ohm and given that I couldn't find any that were, I wanted to give the OP a second opinion. ;-)

I am going to posit that there are no 4 Ohm THX Certified speakers unless you can point me to ONE.

Do these count?

http://www.monstercable.com/speakers...r_speakers.asp

http://www.crmav.com/77/monster_ente...tified_s.shtml

Monster entering speaker market THX Home Theater certified speakers and subwoofers

Now Shipping MSRP

Monitor Speaker 200 THX Select Certified each $500.00
Two 7" Kevlar cone woofers and 1" neodymium tweeter
High power handling: 150 watt RMS - high sensitivity 92dB at 4 Ohms
Base included for horizontal mounting (center channel)
Also: prismatic cabinet, magnetically shielded, electronic tweeter protection

Yes they do, although that is the lower catagory of THX certification. Those are the first ones I've seen and it is interesting that they are rated at 4 Ohm and yet have minimum impedance of 3.4 Ohms...Thanks for posting and I will change my opinion to Most THX rated speakers are not 4 Ohm. ;-) EDIT Note: Are there any 4 Ohm speakers that are THX Ultra II certified?

It is also interesting that Emotiva and Monster both make/sell Amplifiers and rate their speakers as "4 Ohm."

Surrounds
http://www.snellacoustics.com/ProductDetails/3440.asp

In-ceiling
http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/s...ing/lcirts100/

OK, I guess the question now is, "Are there any 4 Ohm bookshelf or floor-standing main or center channel speakers that are THX Ultra II certified

EDIT: Just noticed that this has nothing to do with what the OP asked, so apologies for supporting the OT conversation. I'll stop here.

I appreciate you providing the links and I agree.

My point in this discussion was to show that impedance swings are part of THX certification and because of that, most 4 ohm speakers would not pass certification because they have dips in certain frequencies that go lower than 3.2 Ohms.

I have nothing else to add.