Importance of timbre matching?

KiTsuNe

I know that everyone always says that the front sound stage should be timbre matched and the surrounds in the home theater aren't THAT big of an issue if they aren't matched. So I do see many members using say RTi line for their front stage but monitor 30's or 40's for their rears or surrounds.

Now my question is how important is it for the front high and wides speaker positions? Aren't they technically still considered front stage? How important is it that they timbre match the LCR speakers? Or are they more like the surrounds where it's better if they do but not as critical?

mantis

Rule of thumb , all speakers in a home theater system should be timbre matched. There is no reason not to do this.

deronb1

mantis wrote: »

Rule of thumb , all speakers in a home theater system should be timbre matched. There is no reason not to do this.

+1000. Took me awhile to get there, but will never NOT be timbre matched for HT again!

dnoyeB

If your stereo will auto equalize your speakers, you should be fine. I wouldn't not have matched speakers on purpose, or like it does not matter. But I wouldn't pay money to match if I already have speakers and a tuneable audio unit.

Syndil

Personally I have found that having a good quality center speaker is much more important than having a timbre-matched center speaker. Bought an Infinity CC-3 to timbre-match my Overture 1 fronts, which it did, but it just did not sound as good as the CS-350LS that I had been using. Sold the CC-3, kept the Polk center.

While the speakers I have now are definitely not timbre-matched, I would say they are complementary. The Overtures sound great for music, but are a bit too warm for dialog. The Polk center is great for dialog, but a bit too bright for music. Together they complement each other very well, IMO. Still plan to grab an Overture 1-CC if I ever find one to compare, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if it went the same route as the CC-3 and I went back to the Polk.

But for heights and wides... I think I'd want to timbre match those since they will be playing the exact same thing as your fronts.

EndersShadow

I personally would match the entire front stage. The surrounds can be not timbre matched but its just easier if they are.

Most important is to make sure your L/R/C are matched for sure. The Heights/Wides are important as well as you want the sound to be the same as it goes right to left or up to down. Surrounds are not as important to timbre match, but it should be the goal to do so at the end of the day.

I ran my LSi 15, LSiC setup for a long time with some Infinity Primus 162 surrounds and waited till I found a stellar deal on the LSi F/X surrounds before I moved to those.

After having those installed for about 6 months, I wouldnt ever go back unless I had to.

bwest1000

What about matching between lines of the same brand? Like LSiM with LSi25s?

EndersShadow

bwest1000 wrote: »

What about matching between lines of the same brand? Like LSiM with LSi25s?

I wouldnt as the LSi's are 4 ohm and the LSiM's are 8 ohms and both have totally different sound profiles (have heard both side by side and its VERY different).

TroyD

Across the front, yeah, it makes a difference.....Front to back? If you can, fine. However it's not something I'd get wrapped around the axle over.

YMMV

BDT

bwest1000

For the sake of argument, what brands could sound closest to matched to Polk? Axiom makes one hell of a large and very well reviewed center for less than that of the LSiM series. Aperion also makes a very nice center.

F1nut

mantis wrote: »

Rule of thumb , all speakers in a home theater system should be timbre matched. There is no reason not to do this.

This.

tommyt21

bwest1000 wrote: »

For the sake of argument, what brands could sound closest to matched to Polk? Axiom makes one hell of a large and very well reviewed center for less than that of the LSiM series. Aperion also makes a very nice center.

I would think none, as there is some argument to be made that it is difficult to even timbre match well even within a specific line of speakers.

Geoff4rfc

I agree with the rule of thumb. I had Monitor70's as wides to a pair of RTiA9's and the sound was very close. When I replaced the M70's with another pair A9's, I discovered the term "seamless".

brgman

I timbre matched my setup and couldn't be happier.
Went with Oak.
I like that look.

i know- i'm a d*ck,deal with it....

KiTsuNe

Oh i understand that everything should be timbre matched especially the LRC because that is "ideal", but i see so many people run monitors for rears and seem ok with it. I was just curious if the highs and wide still count towards the front stage or are they considered more so of a rear surround.

Geoff4rfc

Not so much heights but wides would be considered part of the front stage.

Mike Kozak

So I have Monitor 70s and I think I was told the CC2 would be the choice for my center? I have an Infinity 1 entra and it seems to be fine, or should I get the CC2? I have a Yamaha V571 surround sound receiver

Babber

Hi,

I was actually going to post a similar thread. I appreciate all of the responses here and the rule of thumb to timbre match all speakers in a home theatre setup.....but here is my problem.....

I have RTi A3's for fronts........CSi A6 for centre........will purchase FXi A6's for sides..........then was thinking RTi A1's for the rears. Except my problem is the A1's are too big to mount in my room setup for the rears.

I was thinking about getting the Energy V-Minis for the rears but was wondering if there is a Polk product of the same size that would do the job.

I'm attempting to timbre match as much as possible.

THanks,

KiTsuNe

Ive read about people using the OWM 3/5's for rears and a few use the monitor 30's. Would those be too big for you?

Babber

I looked at the OWM 3's and 5's and I like the look of both of them. They would definitely fit better than the RTi A's in my setup.

I haven't looked at the monitor 30's yet but will do so.

Thanks.

ravaneli

Timbre matching is very difficult to recognize while playing movies. Can anyone here claim to hear the timbre difference coming out of surround speakers of the special effects? No. Add DIPOLE speaker to that, and forget about recognizing timbre differences at all. No way, i tried a klipsch to compare with my fx500 and the FX500 sound bigger, but don't have a clue about which speaker has better highs or lows. Different speakers do make a big difference for surrounds! But timbre matching is not recognizable for surround or rears.

My advice for anyone buying surround or rear speakers is get BIG DIPOLES. Don't you care about timbre matching! A big dipole will always sound better than a timbre matched A1 or A3 as surround. My fx500 just make everything around alive.

Timbre matching between the FL and FR and center is somewhat detectable though, because the FL and FR play some, though not major role in playing the same dialogue that the center play, so you do want the voices to sound the same.

Music is totally different!! Timbre matching easily detectable, and Dipoles cannot be used at all.

boomerfss

I was going to timbre match my front stage, but then a great deal came along on a CSiA6 center. I picked it up thinking I will upgrade my left and right M70's later. So far, it hasn't been a big issue for me. Timbre matching may be better, but a good deal is a good deal and my money only goes so far.

Jim.

P.S. starting to work on my wife to let me move the M70's upstairs so I can upgrade to RTiA 7's or 9's. Of course I'll need to upgrade my Onkyo receiver to one that handles 3D, and a bigger better tv, and so on and so on.

Geoff4rfc

ravaneli wrote: »

Music is totally different!! Timbre matching easily detectable, and Dipoles cannot be used at all.

I agree that the Di/Bipoles make excellent surrounds, but to say they can't be used with music is just plain wrong. In fact, they sound better than bookies with music.

20hz

I dont know I had some older polk ls/fx and they sounded bad w/music probebly nothing below 100hz , so I turned them into a cs350 center .
It may be me but I really am happy if I timber match the center .
I use polk montiter5 on my main/satalites w/sub and in my opinion the best center is a kef 100, the off axis response is great and its just smooth and full .
Someday I will score some kef mains but they are to pricey and for the $$ I really dont think they can make my polks sound bad .

Geoff4rfc wrote: »

I agree that the Di/Bipoles make excellent surrounds, but to say they can't be used with music is just plain wrong. In fact, they sound better than bookies with music.

Geoff4rfc

20hz wrote: »

I dont know I had some older polk ls/fx and they sounded bad w/music probebly nothing below 100hz , so I turned them into a cs350 center .

I have a pair of FXiA6's, in Bipole mode are awesome with music, of course, that's just my opinion.