Timbre Matched Rear Channels? (1 Viewer)

[RyanW]

How important is it to have your rear channels timbre matched with your mains and center?

I am trying to appease my wife with the rear channels that will be wall mounted, she does not want any black box hanging on the wall. She likes the Boston Acoustic Bravo speakers for their ability to be mounted in the corner of the ceiling. I was leaning toward the B&W or Axiom bookshelves, but they do not offer a pure white surround. Would matching these speakers with the BA Bravo's be a mistake? PSB Speakers have a decent looking surround that is all white, are these speakers OK?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and ideas.

 

[Jose G]

My .02 cents: The Bravos are very good speakers. I know nothing of the PSB, but would go to AudioReview.com to check it out. Others who know more will chime in, also. As far as matching the Bravos to your mains, the purest would say match them all around if possible, but I know of many people who say- matching the fronts and center is a must, the rears an option. Personally I match them all but I also use my surrounds for music from time to time. If you are not going to use the surrounds for music, I don't think matching the surrounds to the fronts are a real problem. However, it is probably best that all the speakers be close in terms of timbre quality, and that can only be determined by listening to the different speakers. This will minimize any differences when the sound travels from the surrounds to the main to the center and allow an eveness to the sound. Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

 

[Martin Rendall]

Not what you want to hear, but I think that placement is far more important that timbre matching, for the surrounds. I would never put a speaker in the corner. :frowning:
Martin.

 

[RichardH]

Timbre matching is much less critical for the surrounds than it is across the front. IMO get whatever looks good to the missus, calibrate, and enjoy.

 

[Rob Rodier]

Timbre matching is much less critical for the surrounds than it is across the front. IMO get whatever looks good to the missus, calibrate, and enjoy.

Agreed


-rob

 

[Philip Hamm]

Timbre matching on the rears is not very important IMO for movies, where the surround information is often complimentary to the main front LCR array. Actually, dipole rears are great for movies and not so gret for fronts IMO.

However, for multichannel music such as DVD-Audio, DTS CDs, and SACD timbre matched rears are a necessity. This is especially evident with the DTS CDs that came out of 70s Quadrophonic mixes.