Speaker matching

Knucklehead
Knucklehead Posts: 3,602
edited January 2009 in Speakers
Im fairly new to H/T building. How important is it it to have all the same speakers in your set up. I do understand that the need to be in pairs at least.
Example: 2 pioneer speakers, 2 polk, etc.....
Polk Audio Surround Bar 360
Mirage PS-12
LG BDP-550
Motorola HD FIOS DVR
Panasonic 42" Plasma
XBOX 360[/SIZE]

Office stuff

Allied 395 receiver
Pioneer CDP PD-M430
RT8t's & Wharfedale Diamond II's[/SIZE]

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
Post edited by Knucklehead on
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Comments

  • wutadumsn23
    wutadumsn23 Posts: 3,702
    edited January 2009
    I gave you some information on your other post about your speakers not sounding very well. I dont know how much difference, but you want to closely match them as best you can. For example you don't want 5 different speakers from 5 different manufacturers in the same system. If you system sounds that bad it may not be because they aren't that closely matched. I'm sure the real experts will have better information for you.
    HT Rig
    Receiver- Onkyo TX-SR806
    Mains- Polk Audio Monitor 70
    Center- Polk Audio CS2
    Surrounds- Polk Audio TSi 500's :D
    Sub- Polk Audio PSW125
    Retired- Polk Audio Monitor 40's
    T.V.- 60" Sony SXRD KDS-60A2000 LCoS
    Blu-Ray- 80 GB PS3


    2 CH rig (in progress)
    Polk Audio Monitor 10A's :cool:

    It's not that I'm insensitive, I just don't care.. :D
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited January 2009
    They need to at least be in stereo pairs to sound halfway decent. For example, you wouldn't want one of your front speakers to be a Klipsch, and one a Polk...they just wouldn't blend well together.

    Ideally you want your whole speaker setup to all be voice matched though. Different speakers produce different types of sounds. For example, you wouldn't want to have a pair of LSi15's for your fronts, with a pair of RTi A3's for the surrounds...they have a much different sound, and wouldn't blend as well.

    So if you want to have a good even sound field, you're going to want matching speakers. Which ones did you have in mind?
    The nirvana inducer-
    APC H10 Power Conditioner
    Marantz UD5005 universal player
    Parasound Halo P5 preamp
    Parasound HCA-1200II power amp
    PolkAudio LSi9's/PolkAudio SDA 2A's/PolkAudio Monitor 7A's
    Audioquest Speaker Cables and IC's
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  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 33,020
    edited January 2009
    The front 3 in a HT set up should be the same,surrounds can be different,but I wouldn't stray too far from the sound of the fronts.Say you have POLK's up front,paradigm might work for surrounds,but a JBL wouldn't,get the drift?
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
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  • Face
    Face Posts: 14,340
    edited January 2009
    I found it very important in my setup, but YMMV.
    "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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  • Knucklehead
    Knucklehead Posts: 3,602
    edited January 2009
    well, i like the Polk R-150's that i have in the back, probably swap my pioneers in the fron for another set of R-150's. My center is a Cerwin Vega & I have a sony Sub. I think its sounds pretty good right now but im wondering if the Polk's up front would make a big difference over the Pioneers. I also plan on getting a nicer sub very soon.

    Pioneer VSX D411 Reciever
    Cerwin Vega VE 5C center channel
    pioneer speakers front- SH253BK
    Polk Audio rear speakers- R-150
    Sony 8" sub- SAWM20 100watt- not enough bass for me though
    Maganavox NB500MG9 Blu-Ray
    Siemens 500 gig dvr
    Panasonic 42" plasma
    Xbox 360
    Polk Audio Surround Bar 360
    Mirage PS-12
    LG BDP-550
    Motorola HD FIOS DVR
    Panasonic 42" Plasma
    XBOX 360[/SIZE]

    Office stuff

    Allied 395 receiver
    Pioneer CDP PD-M430
    RT8t's & Wharfedale Diamond II's[/SIZE]

    Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
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  • Knucklehead
    Knucklehead Posts: 3,602
    edited January 2009
    dahh....what the hell does that mean?
    Polk Audio Surround Bar 360
    Mirage PS-12
    LG BDP-550
    Motorola HD FIOS DVR
    Panasonic 42" Plasma
    XBOX 360[/SIZE]

    Office stuff

    Allied 395 receiver
    Pioneer CDP PD-M430
    RT8t's & Wharfedale Diamond II's[/SIZE]

    Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
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