Triangle BR03 5.1 pack

Many surround speaker packages start with a solid pair of floorstanding speakers to go front left and right, then add standmount/bookshelf speakers for the rear. This seems logical enough — those front speakers will get additional use when playing stereo music, so there’s a concentration of your funds on those critical positions, while less can be spent on the rears, which do far less, being out of action entirely when running in stereo for music, and handling only the ‘effects’ channels even when blasting forth a full cinema soundtrack.

But think again. What’s the point of having big front speakers when you’re running a subwoofer to take over the bass element? If you play stereo in 2.1 with the sub, you can not only save money by having standmounters all the way around, you can also enjoy potentially better tonal consistency — it’s often said that the best surround solution is identical speakers all round. You also have a better chance of a centre speaker which isn’t overawed by larger floorstanding speakers to either side.

So that’s the idea here: standmounters front and back, the rears just slightly smaller than the front. And those front standmounts usefully deliver 2022 Sound+Image award-winning performance.

Equipment

So yes, the front standmounts here are Triangle’s Borea