do rear speakers need to be voicematched? (1 Viewer)

[Jon K]

hey,

i got the JBL NSP1 set several months back. but now i want to set up another system for music only using 2 speakers and my old receiver. lately i've been leaning toward using two of the N24's for this music only system.

if i do this i will be using my old jensen speakers for the rears in the home theater system. will this be ok? i know for sure the front 3 speakers need to be voicematched but what about the rears? thanks in advance.

 

[Phuong]

I've always used Cambridge Soundworks' little mini-cube speakers for the surround channels (whether with NHT or Paradigm mains) and I don't feel as though I've lost out on the home theater experience. Not everyone will agree with me, but I feel the most obvious difference is cosmetic: it's sure cool to have those matching speakers in the back. But voice-matching is not as relevant as looks are. For the longest time, THX requirements dictated the use of dipole speakers for the surround channel. The sound quality of dipoles is not too similar to the mains, but it was THX gospel. As long as the Jensens can play loud without distortion and strain, then it shouldn't be a major problem. Then again, you might want to spring for another pair of N24 speakers. Most internet dealers sell them for about $100/pair, so they seem cheap enough.

Peace and happy listening.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I'll have to recommend trying it out and listening for the differences. It could be very hard to tell a difference depending on those Jensens.
IMO, the surrounds play the smallest role in a HT as it's not used very often and sometimes it can even distract from the movie. (Sometimes I think that the director is just playing with the surround sound capabilities and adding effects instead of enveloping the viewer into the movie) :frowning:
Some instances was in MIB II and Bourne Identity where they "show off" the surround sound... Icky

 

[Martice]

I used to think that the surrounds didn't play a major part in movie/audio playback but that thought has changed significantly over the past 6 months. I used to own full range speakers and had small surrounds in the rear. I used to experience a full and large front sound field but when the effects would come to the surrounds the sound would 'THIN' in comparison to the front stage. I went to a local audio dealer and found some Technics floor stander speakers on closeout for $80.,00 and put them on some heavy duty speaker stands for rears. Now the surrounds sound more full and realistic and also the ambient sounds are more consistent and convincing.

Speaker size alone won't play as large a part in the quality of surround information as overall speaker quality but matching surrounds speaker really helps in terms of total surround field consistency and if your speakers can go down to at least 60hz you should be in for a treat when watching movies and listening to multi-channel music.

 

[Philip Hamm]

WHen I went from B&W DM302 rears to 601S2s to match my front 602s the difference was pretty dramatic. It depends on how critical you are and if you listen to multichannel music on your system. For multichannel music voice matching is very important. For movies it's not as big an issue.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

When my HT setup were (voice-matched) JBL J-Series fronts (J820) and surrounds (J520), I thought the DVD Movies /Music all-around surround effects sounded great, even though they were not identical speakers anchoring the Fronts & Surrounds. Even my Friday NITE DVD family/friends enjoyed the 'better than local Cinema Theater sounds!'
Then, when I powered up my newly purchased JBL NSP1's (April 2000) and played my first Blockbuster DVD (Tomorrow Never Dies SE), ... I didn't realized what I was missing!!! So, when I had an opportunity to get the JBL S-Series, ... my decision would be to look @ the very least, purchasing four identical bookshelf speakers for my Fronts & Surrounds, so I would continue to get that same neutral, uncolored, detailed, and spatially accurate sound quality all-around me that the NSP1's provided! IMHO, it does make a difference!!!
It turns out that my HT priorities setup is based on Dolby Labs official recommendation found in their 5.1-Channel Production Guidelines:

If it's good enough for the DD/DTS 5.1 Mixing Sound Engineer, then it's good enough for me to try and recreate his mixing sonic DD/DTS 5.1 surround environment.
Phil

 

[Geoff S]

Agreed the surrounds should be timbre matched, or voice matched, whatever you want to call it. Usually when buying speakers, ensure they are good for music, good musical speakers are almost always great for home theater.

Surrounds do more than just ambience and special effects, I've even seen some DVDs that have scenes where voices (dialouge) pan off into the surround, so it's important to match them carefully.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

If you want to reproduce a soundtrack as intended, yes, all speakers should have the same timbre in situ. This is not as easy as merely purchasing 5 identical speakers, however, as circumstances usually dictate radically different local acoustic environments for each one.
I have four JBL N24's for mains and surrounds, but pink noise sweeps change greatly in character as they move from front to back since the surrounds are mounted above the listening position in back corners. Not much choice in the matter, unfortunately. And the set works very well despite this.