How important is timber matching to you? (1 Viewer)

[HienD]

When looking for a set of rear speaker to go with my jamo e410 speakers, A salesmen in a higher end audio store told me I should try to match all my five speakers, Even if that meant buying used, or off the net. I have the matching center already. He said I would enjoy the sound so much more. Even better then having rears that were 10x better. I listen to alot of 5.1 DD encoded concerts and was told the sound from different set of speakers would just mess thing up. Espically for music.

How important is it to you to have a 5 speakers timber matched. The biggest reason I bought all my stuff at once, except for the sub, was to make sure I had matching speakers. That what happens when you buy speakers that are discounted, but also discountued. I ended up going over my initial budget and had to buy a demo model from the sony store cause they had the only pair left in town. Good thing the speaker were kept high on the display shelf so no kids could polk holes in them.

 

[Andy Goldstein]

i have been using a pair of new large advents since i bought them in 1977. timbre matching is important enough to me that i am building the rest of the 6.1 system into custom cabinets using original smaller advent components bought on ebay.

andy g.

 

[Scott Oliver]

I prefer the darker and lighter woods like rosewood and maple for example in my living room. Cherrywood and timbers of its ilk just don't do it for me aesthetically.

What?
Oh timbre.

Timbre truthfulness is important to me in my front speakers, because I want them to be able to reproduce the subtlest nuances of real instruments in a real space and in my listening experience this is where a lot of speakers fail.

For surrounds, personally I am not picky. If budget were not a concern, I would probably match all my speakers for aesthetics and timbre matching, but since it is a concern, surround matching is low on my totem pole of concerns, for that matter having surrounds is low to. Actually right now I don't even have surround speakers, nor a center. So what am I doing responding to such a question? *shrug*

BTW, just make sure you don't end up with surrounds that are 10x better than your fronts.

 

[John Garcia]

Damn, you beat me to that one. I have medium cherry myself, for the livingroom, but my other stuff is all med and light pine

Timbre matching is VERY important to me. The front stage should be as closely matched as possible, for a continuous "single speaker" effect across the front.

The surrounds are much less significant. However, having them at least somewhat matched, DOES make a difference. Having decent surrounds, which are from the same manufacturer, even if not perfectly timbre matched to your mains, should still yeild good results.

 

[Mike Sloan]

Timber matching.....being a hometheater snob...I mean buff...I have always pushed the concept of timber matching. I recently changed out my rear speakers (2 centers/2rears) to the DefTech BPVX's. The front speakers I am currently using are the Newton T-500's and the Newton MC500 center. I ran the Chesky HT set-up disc and it was easily discernible that there was a "timber" mis-match from front to rear (the front array,however, was spot on.) To my surprise, when I played numerous SACD's and DVD-Audio's....I could not detect the mis-match....it sounded great. Have watched lot's of action films with front to rear panning with great results! I think as long as you run high quality speakers in the rear...you should be fine....but then again...I have a hard time telling the difference between the "top of the line" Radio Shack interconnect and the boutique stuff...go figure? :b

 

[Guy Robinson]

I can't comment. I have the same match all around. All Polks which I am really impressed with. Their newer series is much better than the stuff they were putting out 10 years ago. I can't hear any flaw in them and I am picky. Same 1" silk tweeters and the same 2 x 6.5" drivers in every cabinet. Sounds fantastic with the Polk subwoofer. I would definately say that it would be better to have everything matched down to the exact driver compliment than to mix them.

 

[Guy Robinson]

To add to my previous post:
And I should also note that my main use for my system is for SACD and DVD-A with possibly the odd movie thrown in.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Using timbre-(voice)-matched speakers has and will always be my recommendation for Home Theater.

timbre : The perceived quality of a sound, unrelated to pitch or amplitude. Timbre is determined by how many harmonics are present in the sound, their frequencies, and how loud each is in relation to the fundamental frequency, and how the relative amplitudes of those harmonics change over time. The initial and ending transients of a tone have more to do with the timbre of a tone than its harmonic content. Also referred to as tone color.

Speaker manufactures will designate which speaker lines in their lineup are timbre-matched. If you examine that designated line, the common denominator will be the high frequency driver = tweeter.

But for me, I recommend going at least one step further if HT is their PRIORITY, ... get, ... at the very least IDENTICAL Fronts & Surrounds Speakers w/timbre-matched Center Speakers.

My first timbre-(voiced)-matched set w/IDENTICAL Fronts & Surrounds Speakers was the JBL NSP1 (APR '00 - now up @ my vacation house).

It's no mystery why IDENTICAL speakers all-around would enhanced the near** 100% seamless HT surround Blockbuster DVD Movie experience, ... it's based on Dolby Labs 5.1-Channel Production Guidelines:

One reason why I bought another set of JBL S26s for my REAR Center Channel location, (JBL S26 = Fronts & Surrounds / Yamaha RX-V1300) to maintain that excellent uniform near 100% precise seamless imaging. If it's good enough for the DD/DTS-5.1 / 6.1 Mixing Engineer, ... it's good enough for me!

**100% seamless 360-degree surround = 5 IDENTICAL Speakers

FYI: Read my HTF Yamaha RX-V1300 'Subjective Observation Review' with my JBL S26 (x6), JBL S-Center and SVS 25-31PCi by clicking HERE!. Although the review focuses on the RX-V1300 DD-EX & DTS-EX (matrix/discrete) 6.1 encoded & forced Matrix-6.1 DVD observations, ... it's all based on my six IDENTICAL JBL S26's & timbre-matched JBL S-Center monitoring speakers.

Phil

 

[Arup]

I feel it is quit eimportant to match the timbre. One of the reasons I have used the same series PMD cone Yamaha speakers for my main and surround as well as my center. Mixing most of the times ends up in a disaster in HT setup.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I had five identical speakers in my prior configuration and have gone different models from the same speaker line (using the same components) for my current setup.

For example my center speaker has the same two woofers and the same tweeter as my front speakers. It differs as it has a mid-range driver added (and of course has a three-way crossover) and somewhat less interior volume compared to the front speakers.

Timbre and timber matching I have always considered to be of prime importance.

 

[Martin Rendall]

for HT: matched across the front, while the surrounds (2 or 4 or whatever) don't need to be.

For 5.1 Music: matched all the way around.

Martin.

 

[HienD]

I guess the salesman was right when he recommened 5 matching speakers for music. But he was more of a audiophile then a HT junky. I always thought the rear didn't matter much as long as they were similar to the fronts. Maybe my non audiophile ears might not of notice a difference.

 

[JimmyK]

IMHO, it is much more important to match the front speakers than the surround speakers.

For years I used a small pair of Radio Shack speakers for surrounds which were nowhere near the qualtiy of the ADS L1290's I was using up front. I obtained excellent results from this setup.

Later, I added a center. I tried 5 different centers before I found one that match my L&R well and didn't degrade the sound up front.

I also upgraded the rears. I can tell you the difference by matching the front was much more noticeable than the rears.

IMO, as long as the rears are a reasonable match and of good quality you will get excellent results.

JimmyK

 

[Jason Brent]

I have Paradigm Studio 60's and CC up front, but have atlantic tech 374 dipole surrounds.

I have just started to get into DVD-A, and I am very pleased with the results. I thought I might not like the mis-matched speakers as well as dipole rears for music, but so far it works well.

 

[RobCar]

As a few others have stated, timbre matching rears w/ fronts is VERY important if you use all your speakers for music. A little less so for HT.

 

[Mike Sloan]

In theory I agree with the posts espousing the sonic benefits of "timber matched" speakers in all channels...however, real-world listening has revealed to me that you can have exceptional results even when the rears are not timber matched. Chesky has a demo where the sound of a bell is played in each channel. It is extremely easy to hear tonal and timber changes in speakers that are mis-matched. When listening to numerous DVD-Audio and SACD music selections, it becomes very difficult to hear this same mismatch....especially those that are running Dipole/bipole configurations. With movie material it becomes even more elusive. In the main HT room I run B&W 802's(L&R) and the B&W HTM1 center. I recently purchased the DefTech BPVX's and had the opportunity to listen to them in place of the 805's. I found them to be exceptional performers that sounded great with (SACD/DVD-A) "MUSIC" and so......have become less "puritanical" in this regard.

 

[John Garcia]

TimbRE = The quality or tone distinguishing voices or instruments; tone color; clang tint; as, the timbre of the voice; the timbre of a violin.

TimbER = wood.