"front effect speakers"

trubluluc

Hi all,

In pursuit of the answer to the question:
"How many freaking speakers do you need?"
The Yamaha RX-V1 receiver has 6.1, but they go further by adding two additional "front L/R effect speakers", with 35 watts to drive them.

My question is:

Would the CS-175 center channel speakers work well here. I got a couple of them free, when I bought my other speakers.
My front speakers are rt-1000's,
my center the cs-1000, my rears fx-500's

thanks,

-Luc

hoosier21

Yamaha has these extra front effects, I had a RX995(I think) if I remember correctly these have only need to be small speakers and if you have two identical speakers I would think they would work ok, hell try it it won't cost much. I know that didn't answer "how many speakers do you need"

Aaron

Those speakers should work fine for the front effects speakers. Remember, the front effects speakers should be positioned high above the front sound stage, if I remember correctly. I think this is the key to making it work well.

Aaron

trubluluc

I think you're right, as long as they're the same
should sound ok, even if they have a different sized drivers than my front mains.

I think the answer to "How many speakers does one need?" is the same as when they asked Rockafeller "how much money does a man need to live well?"

answer "a little more"

trubluluc

Aaron
I think you're right about placing them high.
I had planned on just putting them atop the tv,
on either side of the center channel, but higher would be better.

thanks,
-Luc

Aaron

I think the idea of the front effects speakers is for filler. My guess is they serve primarily for ambience effects. Such effects would work best when the speakers are placed high. My dad's Yamaha has the front effects channels, but he doesn't use them. It seems kinda pointless to me, but if you have the extra speakers I'd give it a whirl. Report back with your findings. I'm curious. I've heard mixed reviews in the past.

Aaron

slack56

The centers might sound ok, doesn't hurt to try. The speakers definitely go way above and behind your main front speakers. They add depth to your front sound field.

Polk Dog

trubluluc

Yes, I will hang 'em high.
Which leads me to my next question about suspending speakers.
As I will have to either build a shelf to hold them or fabricate some type of bracket, or suspend them from the ceiling. Being a rock climber, I have all manner of cordage and slings, so at this point, whether or not there is an accoustic advantage, I will probably suspend them.

-luc

rmh1

I have the Yamaha RX-V2095 which has the front effects 35 watt outputs. I used a pair of Monitor 3's and through experimentation determined that the proper place for me is all the way to the top of the room and all the way out to the corners. There I found the speakers obtain some bass extension (not much is required because the frequncy's sent are not much in the lower registers). The other thing it did was to open the spacial effects up and out. I cannot truely describe on this reply what it does. I can say for certainty that there is a distinct difference that is better than blending in the front effects in with the front mains. My speaker line up for music is Polk SDA 1.2's for the front mains, the f/x 500's for the rear and the Monitor 3's for the front effects. As the 1.2's have 18" subs in each cabinet, I do not run a powered sub-woofer.

The Yamaha people went to several top concert halls in the world and recorded the room characteristics such as first, second, third order reflections, phase shifts, liveness, etc. They then placed the rooms in the digital domain and so when one sends a two channel reproduction into the unit, the processor drops it through the room calculations and then converts it to analog and outputs the sound to the speakers. The result is quite realistic. Because of this, and I can only speak for Yamaha, if you have a unit that has the output for the front effects, use them. Try experimenting with placement of the speakers. Again, my personal preference is to try them in the upper corners of the room. The Yamaha has the ability to swap from 5 channels to 7 channels on the fly so you can compare the difference.

Aaron

Yamaha's DSP's are supposed to be the best in the receiver world. From my experience I would tend to agree with that. I never have experimented with the front effects speakers mainly due to the inconvenience. Thanks for the review! Cool.

Aaron

trubluluc

Thanks for the advice. I am picking up my rxv1 on Friday. Can't wait to try it and the effect speakers out.

-luc