Building new front stage!!!

[Cisko213]

Hi guys and gals. I'm currently in the market for a new front stage system. My room is 21x17. The TV and front stage is set up across the middle of the 21'wall. This room also opens up too an open vaulted kitchen. I have the couch about 12' back. I use a onkyo 818 reciever. I have a JL F112 subwoofer. My surrounds are in the cieling and are generic but sound really good being pushed by the onkyo. My current but broken fronts are B&W dm604 s3's with the same series but smaller center. Bought about 8 years ago. My TV is a Sony XBR 950. I had this place remodeled so when I get home and on my computer I will post a pic so you can see the layout. My question is in upgrading the front stage with three similar speakers. The TV sits about 50" up on the wall so if I wanted I could place three towers in the front. My question has been with the Sub I have and I'm sure people notice this with other good subs. Are towers really needed. Currently I have moved my center over to my left channel. And left my right tower where it's at. (My left tower crossover is no good, but I ordered a new one if I want to sell them). I set the crossover at 80hz. Anyways watching Oblivion. I couldn't notice a huge difference the sub takes over so much of the low end. That the rest is taken care of. Are towers really required. When comparing speakers will the towers compete with the CMT-340's?

[Cisko213]

866

[Blutarsky]

My Security filtered out his attchment!

[davef]

866

I am not able to open the attachment... Please resubmit.

thank you!

[Cisko213]

867

[Cisko213]

Here is a picture of my front stage. I would like to add three similar speakers upfront and remove the horizontal center. I talked with dave and he has assured me the 340's will do the job. The tower to the far left has a burnt crossover on order. So i just moved the center to the left channel and matrixed the the center. That box on the far left is a JL sub.

[DevL]

The mids are better on the towers by a small amount vs. the 340 speakers. Of course the towers have more bass. The tweeter is in a whole other category with the NrT of the tower smoking the tweeter in the 340 by a decent amount. The RAAL is as far beyond the NrT as the Nrt is beyond the tweeter in the 340. A set of RAAL towers and Horizon center with RAAL will make a 340 set up sound like a cheap imitation in comparison. The 340 sounds like a generic speaker sound and the RAAL sounds like you are listening to real life in comparison. It is that different IMO. You will also get slightly better mids and more bass from the tower, but the tweeter is where the real difference is. There is a reason the 3 flagship mains/center cost so much more than the 3 340 series mains/center. The price difference is really what you are getting... speakers that are multiple times better. Will the 340 do the job? Sure. But it is no comparison to the towers with RAALs.