I currently have two 6Ts and a 6C of Aperion speakers and have mixed and matched it with some older towers for surrounds, a Cambridge Soundworks 8" sub, and two small JBL speakers as the surround rears.  As far as the room dimensions, I have a 23x16 for the great room and then the right side is open to the kitchen with about 4ft wall on each side filling up part of the opening to the kitchen (meaning I have corners on the right side).  Anyhow, I was thinking of adding 5Ts as surrounds and 6Bs as the surround rears along with a 12D eventually.  So, to sum it up the HT would become:

Fronts:  6Ts

Center: 6C

Surrounds L/R:  5Ts

Surround Back L/R:  6Bs

Subwoofer:  12D

My question is what do you think of this setup and do you think it will be sonically weird to have more bass from the 6Bs than the 5T surrounds?  Also, I think the 12D is going to be overkill for this room size, but what do you think?  I like bass and I think the 10D would be enough, but the 12D goes lower as far as frequency range.

JonL,

Is the system going to be mainly used for music?  If so, then I can see justification in the 5Ts for the surrounds.  If mainly for movies, I think you'd be better off with bookshelves or, better yet - if you can place them to the sides of your primary viewing position - 5DBs.

If you stick with the towers, I don't think you are going to get any weird sonics going on with the 6B v the 5T even in all channel stereo.  I think they'll blend in nicely.

But if it is mainly movies you are going to watch with the system.  I think going with 5Ts might be overkill since the surround tracks don't get a great deal of sound information in comparison with the fronts.

And you are correct on the 10D/12D.  I think the 10D would work.  The 12D, though, gets a bit deeper than the 10 does.  It's kind of how much you like your bass.  Since you say you do, might want to opt for the 12 then.

Thanks for the reply.  I think that answer helps with my decision.  With the stuff I listen to, I will use all 7.1 speakers.  I listen to multi-channel music, but more importantly, when I'm playing my PS3 games, it sends lots of information to both the surrounds and surround backs.  I think we need to revise our thinking about what a user does with his/her HT setup now as new games are coming out with 7.1 sound.  While I can see movies having less information sent to the surrounds and surround backs, the new games these days have full details of sound going to the back and side speakers.  I can name a few games where the surround speakers add a lot of dimension to the game and are absolutely necessary to know everything around you in the game environment.  For instance, I'm playing this game SoComm where it's an online shoot'em up game and if it weren't for the side and rear speakers, I'd never know if someone was creeping up behind me.  Additionally, if an explosion happens behind you or to the sides, you will hear it there.  So, I think when assessing someone's need, you may want to consider asking him/her if they listen to music, watch movies, or play games more.  Or at least what is the ratio of the three.

But just going back to my thread here, I was even thinking of getting 6Ts for the sides, but after seeing the depth of these speakers, it would look out of place in my great room because of the side profile.  The 5T's depth is almost half of the 6Ts, so it looked more aesthetically pleasing while still giving out good full sound quality.  The surround backs were going to be behind a couch so it did not make sense to get a tower there and that is why I thought of going to the 6Bs and not another set of 5Ts.  If I had room behind the couch, I think I would opt for 5Ts for the balance of everything.  And I didn't think the 5Bs were sufficient for me in this setup having 6 series speakers in the front.  I dunno, maybe I'm over thinking this a bit, but I don't plan on buying speakers for a long time so I want to get it right this first time.  The last time I bought speakers was almost 20yrs ago so you can see I make the most of my purchases.  Anyhow, thanks for the input.  I think I will stick with this setup.  But anyone else want to chime in on this?  I'd just like to hear people's thoughts on it.