Is anyone using different speaker combos for your 5.1 setups? What are you using? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin C Brown]

Matt- I *had* all Def Techs around...

 

[Matt Jesty]

Kevin ,can I ask all the reasons you switched off....were the def techs from the same series...are you planing on switching mains...did the surrounds make placement difficult...was money an issue...were you looking for more bass output...etc????

 

[Matt Freeman]

This is what I got... heh...

Mains: Pioneer 4 way 6X9's from my old suburban
Center: 2 Infinity 2 way 4's also from my old suburban
Surrounds: Factory 4's from my new subaru

I plan on upgrading ASAP. All that stands between me and some real sound is money. Donations can be sent to...

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Matt- I may be crazy, but I actually had 20 (!) *matched* 6.5" drivers all around. BP-30's in front with a C/L/R 2000. And BP-20's in back with a C/L/R 1000B. (The 30's, 2000, and 1000 all had the 1" pure Al tweeter, but the older 20's had the silk (?) fabric tweeters.)
And, I've had Def Tech's for going on 10 years. (Different models.)
I just got the "time alignement", "phase coherent" bug, and decided to try Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures for the front 1st. Liked them a lot. I miss the Def Tech's "wall of sound", and ease of set up, but I feel I get better pinpoint imaging, and a little bit more subtleness to the soundstage. Then got a Vandy VCC Sig for the front center to match the mains.
But Vandersteen heavily recommends the VSM for rear(s) and surrounds. But they are wall mounts, and that won't work with my room. So I move the BP-30's to the back, and still get the benefit of the greater diffuseness of a bipolar speaker back there for "ambience."
Do not get me wrong, I will never say that Vandy's sound better than the Def Tech's, just different enough that it was time for a change. You know, upgradeitis!
Bottom line how I think about it: if you have *quality* speakers all around that are really true to how they portray the sound, theoretically, shouldn't really matter *what* brands you use.
Each person just has to judge what works in their system and their room.

 

[Matt Jesty]

VANDY'S ALL AROUND A NEW GOAL?

 

[Louis C]

I have the Denon 2802 and have 2 older Klipsch Heresy IIs as mains. They sound terrific and I do not want to replace them so I am looking for the best-fit surrounds, centers and sub from Klipsch.

I have emailed Klipsch on this, but they have not yet responded. Is the Reference series the right match, and if so does anyone have old Heresy IIs they have matched recently with success?

TIA

 

[Allen Longcor]

It almost feels blasphemous to tell you what I have considering I know the "evils" of not matching speakers When I had lots of money to burn, and knew nothing of HT, I went and bought a stereo system for my room. I bought Eosone speakers and a Technics receiver and cd player. Then I bought some Energy eXL15's for "surrounds" (really just the b speakers). When I finally found this place after hearing my friends system, I tried to find a matching Eosone center channel, but I couldn't find one. Eosone was out of business but since it was a joint venture of Arnie Nudell and Polk I emailed Polk and they recommended a Polk CS400i. So I got that and never looked back. It was an awesome center channel but I recently sold it to pay for my Polk LSiC. I plan to move to an all Polk LSi setup but I dont' have money to do it all at once. I figured since the center was never really matched to begin with, I might as well replace it first while I have some money. So I have 3 different brands of speakers in my system. The funny thing is it didn't sound that bad at all. I can't wait to get a matched system though. I'm sure it will be that much better.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Matt- Naagh. I think I finally distilled down to the best answer for you:
Vandersteen simply does not have a lot of choices for surrounds/rear(s) speakers. So I choose to stick with Def Tech.
I was even looking around for stands to use to put the VSMs on the floor, but Vandersteen said they wouldn't be stable enough. I thought about the 1C's, but I like the idea of bipolars back there instead of direct radiators. (I'm pretty much a stereo 2 channel person for music, and multi-channel for films.)

 

[Matt Jesty]

Kevin, thanks that gives me some underfstanding of you situation..but if placement considerations weren't an issue (or if vanderstein made bipole surrounds that could go in your current location) would you be inclined to match-up the Van's ? Also , more so if you listened to SACD/ DVDA ?

 

[Binh Vu]

n38ii mains
yammy center & rears
svs 20-39pci sub

cheap bastard but AWESOME sounds!!!

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Matt- Yes, if I could get the kind of surround/rear speakers that I think would work as well with my room as my current Def Techs from Vandersteen, I would.
But your 2nd question: me and multi-channel music via SACD and DVD-A? Homey don't play dat. Just give me the best quality *stereo* SACD/DVD-A you can, thank you!