Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Matching Atmos Speakers for existing Meridian DSP Speakers

I am in the process of doing a similar thing to you. I have concluded that the height speakers need not be sophisticated as they supply very limited information and one's brain is very distracted by the visual information on screen when they do. Purists may well disagree (and especially people who make or supply loudspeakers) but the reality as far as I am concerned is that sides, rears and height speakers can be much less high fidelity than the fronts. I have 5200SEs at the front and 3300s for sides and rears and some passive Mordaunt Shorts for the 4 ceiling speakers. The 3300s are undoubtedly overkill and are just me being a little purist. In my previous cinema I had (passive) mission dipoles for sides and rears and they were fully adequate for the limited duty they fulfill sonically speaking (the bass signals were being routed to subwoofers).

To have a fully matching system (eg DSP8000SEs front, sides and rears) would give one a very nice feeling (and why shouldn't life be about nice feelings) but my ears and brain absolutely do not justify it - they are just not that good, especially if I am watching a film rather than listening to music and trying to believe I am actually in a concert hall.