Hello,
I have a theater system (Sony 825 receiver), with 5 channel surround sound. The problem I have is that because of the way the room is, the rear speakers (JBL 5 1/4in. surface mounts)had to be placed about 1 1/2 times as far away from the seating area as the fronts and center channel (JBL bookshelfs). I have turned up the rears level adjustment to the max and set the fronts to the lowest and tried all different sound fields, but the rears just dont seem to be strong enough for what I would like. Are there other speakes that may imporve the situation (more focused to the seating area) or is this just going to be it. I really don't want another amplifier even though I know some are more flexable for this situation.

Jeff,

The best test, and the last adjustment that should be made before hitting 'play', is using your pink-noise channel-balancing mode. Are you sure the delay for the rears is at minimum? You'd be surprised at how much the ear can be fooled by timing.

If you can't compensate for the difference with the processor level settings, amp input levels, etc, then I suggest you invest in a pair of speaker stands to move the surrounds closer. If distance truly is the culprit, then only changing distance can fix it.

Larry

Jeff: I had the Sony DB930. Regardless of what the specs say about power to the speakers, that line of Sony receivers is just very poor with the rears. I don't know why; I do know that my Onkyo, which is "only" 30 W more powerful, provides way, way more surround response in every DSP mode. However, with true DD5.1 and DTS movies, I was able to get lots of action in the rears.

Yes I agree Mike, actually this is for an older customer of ours from back during that series of receivers. I had always noticed that the rear channel outputs was always quite low and often had to max it out (for the customers satisfaction). The newer ones we install do not seem to share this problem. I always had a general rule to not design the rears any further away than the fronts, but in this case it just could not be done because of the room and what the customer wanted.
Ok, I guess there is really not much other to do than suggest a new receiver, but I really dont think the problem is all that bad anyway and he will probably keep it the way it is.
Thank you
Jeff