I am curious to hear from
all those who own a surround sound system. Do you find that in your opinion is it worth it having expensive surround sound speakers especially for movies?
For example one could imagine
3 KEF Reference 2- Meta for the front channels and
6 KEF LS50 Meta for surround duties
Please share your opinion and your current setup.
I personally use all KEF LS50s
Movies isn't my interest, rather multichannel music.
My first thought is I would want wider dispersion speakers for surround. Especially if you're closer to one than the other, sounds localize at the speakers. Before height speakers, I would take a KEF or Tannoy coax and point it at the ceiling. So I would not consider LS50 Meta a good surround channel speaker. Technics C700 if you can find them would work a good deal better, if you want a coax standmount. NHT C3 is another good bookshelf for surround.
My second thought is looking at price is a little besides the point. Instead, work from goals and constraints and then see what it would cost to meet them.
In our previous house we used "expensive" sides (Pioneer/TAD S-IW891 with
MSRP of $3800/pr - but did not pay that), and rears (NHT Classic Three). The sides used the same coax as our mains at first, but still worked just fine when we changed the mains for JBL 708i L/R and SCL-3 center. The only coax with wider dispersion than the TAD design is the flat Technics. The rears worked well because they had such wide dispersion, and Classic Three's weakest link (extreme HF) isn't a factor when they're behind you.
In our current system, there is a big placement/form factor constraint - the left side speaker had to be as thin as could be. That, coupled with some of the things in
Sound Reproduction about using CBT arrays as surrounds, and the 2015 JBL Synthesis Atmos demo, led me to spec JBL CBT speakers for the sides (50) and rear (100 - for aesthetic reasons). That is a considerable lower cost speaker than previously used, but again the focus was on goals and constraints rather than cost. They have worked out well. They have wide dispersion where it matters for a side or rear speaker, due to being a column of 2" wideband drivers. The relatively constrained vertical dispersion seems neither especially pro or con. They have sufficient headroom for the job. They blend just fine with the three JBL 708s up front and the 4 Pioneer/TAD S-ic891a ceiling height speakers.