Selecting Rear Surrounds for 5.1 system

I’m not of the opinion that you need to go nuts for rear surrounds (unless you’re serious about multichannel music) as they only reproduce ambient sounds.  I think decent wireless monitors are really all you need, and you don’t have to go through the hassle of running wires.  I’d think something like these would be fine…

https://audioengine.com/shop/wirelessspeakers/a5-wireless/

Just one thought, and best of luck. 

I needed to ceiling mount my rears, so I bought a pair of PSB C500 speakers. I Bluetooth the rear channel to a Denon integrated amp that I already owned.

You could Bluetooth to amplified speakers like @soix mentioned. You'll need to run power to them. 

Thank you Soix ans sis883 for your suggestions.  I went over the Best Buy meantime and asked the Magnolia room person the same. He said its best to balance the room with B&W 704 or 705.  He was against using KEFs or Polks or Martin Logans in the back when 702s were in front. He said that they perform quite differently. They sell KEFs and MLs also.

Just for kicks, I asked if I could put B&W 803s in front and move the 702s to the back - he said that would be way overkill.

I'm a 2-channel guy.  My system is set up such that none of the HT gear is in the chain when listening to music. 

I don't have room for floor standers in the rear.  I do, but the location would be less than Ideal. 

Did you buy the B&W rears?  You could try an inexpensive option and see if you like it.   B&W floor standers seem expensive for rears.  IDK.  I'm not a home theatre expert.  Tonally matching the center channel and mains makes sense.  I'm not so sure about the rears.  There isn't much dialog going on in the rears.

I have two REL subs in front and a larger SVS in the rear.  The SVS only runs when doing HT. 

the rear content is for Video, primarily for directional cues, helicoptors flying in, gunshots, audience noise ...., characters approaching from the rear/side ..... the most important thing is to match the efficiency with your fronts and center, and I expect you can refine the volume with test tones in your AVR. Perfect frequency blend is not an issue IME

I am currently replacing a center because the Klipsch center I bought is much too efficient, I have the fronts boosted and it cut, I just bought a Jamo from Denmark, and made an offer on a Polk center, both in real Cherry Wood cases, both with similar efficiency to my DBX FL & FR.

Here’s the Klipsch, fits within the riser I built, looks cool with the magnetic cover off, but poor volume blend

I’ll mess with all 3, keep whatever sounds best, sell or give the others away.

here's the Polk I made an offer on

and the Jamo I bought

I just looked at your Polk 700, IMO that is way too much speaker for rear surround use.

I’m talking about 5.1, small, not a real home theater, yours will be bigger than mine but you mentioned one chair.

I am going across the 14’ width, my small rears are laying on their back, shooting up, using the space between the back of the high back sofa and the wall 8" behind sort of like a channel or horn, volume adjusted with the AVR. This is where my feet are

Many, perhaps most people boost their rear too high, it is best when you are generally unaware of the rear, until you turn them off, then the image collapses forward.

A sense of space, but not generally aware of them unless specific content put there by the director for a REASON.

I have many Movies and Music DVDs, and I often watch streamed Music Video, the Voice (it’s all over the world, hop about on YouTube, search Voice, Voice Battles, Knockouts ... American Idol, America’s Got Talent, Donna watches Dancing with the Stars.

Sometimes whatever it comes on with is good, but often I change to Direct, or try 2 Channel Stereo and it sounds better. I don’t know what the original was, what a station or cable company or AVR or TV might have decided to do, so get in the habit of occasionally going for ’Direct’, you might find it turns some pseudo surround off.

Atmos sends full bandwidth to all speaker channels. So there is justification in using good speakers on all channels. If you highpass to a sub you only need to get down to the crossover point (normally 80hz). 
 

it is just a matter of how much you care. Rear speaker quality does matter, I find I just don’t care if surround is accurate. I just want it not to break up and be pretty flat   

Honestly I would looked for a used pair that more or less matches your fronts. Keep it cheap and replace that Polk sub. A good sub matters a lot more. 

@sls883 

I have not bought the B&W for rear.  I just went to Best Buy and spoke with the Magnolia room person and got a demo.

I've got JM Labs, now Focal, Electra's. They do a great job. 

I went over the Best Buy meantime and asked the Magnolia room person the same. He said it’s best to balance the room with B&W 704 or 705. He was against using KEFs or Polks or Martin Logans in the back when 702s were in front. He said that they perform quite differently. They sell KEFs and MLs also.

Of course he’s gonna say that because he wants to sell you more speakers and that’s the easy layup answer. I worked at Magnolia briefly and have been to several others, and they are mostly just hacks who have very little personal or real experience in high-end audio. When I cobbled together my HT system I used my wife’s Polk monitors from the 90s that were not in any way matched to my fronts and they worked perfectly fine for creating a very immersive movie experience. If you wanna blow a big wad on the rears have at it, but my opinion and experience is that it is not necessary. Save the money there and put the rest toward getting a better (or second) sub or center speaker where it’ll make a much bigger difference.

i sorta agree that unless you're listening to multichannel music the rears are less critical, but all things being equal i'd stay with b&w for them--their 707 models aren't too expensive and should work well.

OP, I found my way to 2 channel via my love for HT when I was growing up.  I prioritized having a HT right after graduating from College.  Was always told that you had to match your speakers, really buy the same brand, line for things to sound right, correct.  As I got into 2 channel my focus shifted, I prioritized my 2 channel set up over my HT though they share the same space.  That meant shifting away from matching speakers and finding 2 channel fronts that I loved for 2 channel, working for HT was an afterthought.  Guess what, everything still sounds great in my HT.  My fronts are a different brand, different type of tweeter than my center / rears and Atmos speakers.  The rears are my old towers, only because I had them, wasn’t worth the hassle of selling them and was easier to repurpose than store them.  Ceiling Atmos speakers are yet a different brand.  I do think using the room correction on your HT Receiver is key.  I have an Anthem MRX1140 but I did have a Marantz, generations older than your model prior which did a great job blending the hodge podge of speakers together.  Get a descent set of used speakers, I’d roll more with best value, bang for the buck, build quality over trying to brand / voice match.  If you are into 2 channel, I took the opposite approach to that, I built the 2 channel as a separate, stand alone system that doesn’t need to share anything from the HT chain.  I found that approach for 2 channel was key, system matching everything in the chain, pre, streamer, DAC, Amp, speakers.  Polar opposite to how I approached my HT set up once the space morphed into HT and 2 channel listening.  

These will let you stay B&W. They have great mounting options.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186824400881?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1Nalu8J3uRkKDaCvLHW84qA29&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=186824400881&targetid=2320093655185&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1018594&poi=&campaignid=21222258394&mkgroupid=164713660992&rlsatarget=pla-2320093655185&abcId=9408285&merchantid=114759509&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAmrS7BhBJEiwAei59i4PyceoQNwOkv2qLDqiEjAPLO3Ndgd33nkgoaAyUd3jLVo1E2D3xWhoCbtQQAvD_BwE

Hi OP:

The ideal surrounds have a lot to do with the character of the fronts.  If the fronts are very neutral it makes it very easy to pick among neutral surrounds, but B&W have their own sound characteristics.  I find that these traits are not usually damped by room correction so you should stick to B&W in general here to get the most immersive experience possible.

Best,

E

Thank you very much to everyone.  You've all given me much to study and investigate. This is going to be an early 2025 splurge :-)  

Happy holidays and Happy new year to everyone. 

This YT video was very technical for those who like such depth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDXy78auBA

Its 1hr presentation on spectral decay of 18 speakers.

I use floorstanders for both side and rear surrounds.  Big sound if your spouse supports it.

For my AV 5.2 (separate from my 2 channel system) I'm using a set of Bowers and Wilkens towers (683 S2s) center channel HTM6, surrounds (607s) and 2 subwoofers (ASW8s).

I think having the matched set of towers and center channel gives the same tonal quality to voice, music and action sounds.  The rears mostly play only ambient sounds in the 5.2 set up and I haven't noticed much difference if I switch them out with a non B&W option.

BTW the 607s are good enough to use in a bookshelf or bedroom set up as stand alone 2 channel set up.  So probably not taxing their capability much with 5.2 use.

AV amp is a Marantz 5.2  Model 1510