Upgrade & Matching Speakers

rjharle

rjharle

Audioholic
AVS 7.2.4 = Anthem MRX 720, Anthem PVA 7, Yamaha XWC 50, Raga P3, Klipsch RF-35, RC-35, RS-35, RP-250S, CDT 5200-CII (4), SVS SB-13 Ultra (2)
Going to upgrade the L/R front speakers to the Focal Aria 926, Focal Aria 936 or B&W 702 S2
Not sure which (no place to audition them side by side.
Music Genres = Chamber to Classic, Rock to Metal.

The Klipsch RF-35 have got to go.

I need the fronts to be better speakers for stereo DSD and Vinyl music. (Driven by the Anthem PVA 7)

The question is how will the new fronts interact with the rest of the speakers when watching video in Dolby Atmos & 5.2 ?
Will I have enough power to drive the new speakers?
 
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M

m0ltar

Audiophyte
Its more important to match your front 3 as that is where most of the audio will be coming from. Will you be able to tell the difference between yoru fronts and surrounds? Maybe, but I think that is an upgrade that can be done a bit at a time after doing the fronts.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
You can't use three identical speakers across the front?
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
AVS 7.2.4 = Anthem MRX 720, Anthem PVA 7, Yamaha XWC 50, Raga P3, Klipsch RF-35, RC-35, RS-35, RP-250S, CDT 5200-CII (4), SVS SB-13 Ultra (2)
Going to upgrade the L/R front speakers to the Focal Aria 926, Focal Aria 936 or B&W 702 S2
Not sure which (no place to audition them side by side.
Music Genres = Chamber to Classic, Rock to Metal.

The Klipsch RF-35 have got to go.

I need the fronts to be better speakers for stereo DSD and Vinyl music. (Driven by the Anthem PVA 7)

The question is how will the new fronts interact with the rest of the speakers when watching video in Dolby Atmos & 5.2 ?
Will I have enough power to drive the new speakers?
For movies I would not be too concerned with the surrounds or Atmos speakers. It might be more of an issue if you often play multi-channel music or have an AVR with Neural-X for simulated surround music, where timbre matching can be more desirable, but many in the forums have surrounds from different manufacturers. You can still take a staged approach and change the front stage first and decide later whether the surrounds will need upgrading too, unless you think any potential mismatch will be very annoying.

In my own system, I don't mind having different surrounds, but I found it annoying to have a mismatched center because the dialogue would change tone moving from L to C to R. Will the dealer let you try the speakers in house? You could consider replacing the mains and saving up for the matching center.

As to power requirements, you can look in terms of sensitivity and volume. The RC-35 is rated at 98dB at 2.83V which is on the high side, so the Klipsch do not need a lot of power to play loud. The Aria 926 is rated at 91.5db (92db for the 936) so will need more power to reach the same SPL. You can use an SPL meter app to measure your typical listening levels and use the web site below to estimate the power needed to drive the speakers to that level:
https://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

92dB is still relatively sensitive and should play pretty loud. Even if you can't listen to the Focals and B&W in the same store, for that kind of money I would want to demo both. Bear in mind that the impedance on the Focals dips down to 2.8 ohms, so check that your amps can handle low impedance loads.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
FWIW, a note about Klipsch sensitivity spec, they use an "in-room" equivalent and in 3rd party testing has proved far less sensitive using conventional methods, so may be more similar to the Focals in reality. I've seen lower measurements, like of 4-5 dB, a few times with various Klipsch and would adjust using the spl calculator accordingly.
 
rjharle

rjharle

Audioholic
For movies I would not be too concerned with the surrounds or Atmos speakers. It might be more of an issue if you often play multi-channel music or have an AVR with Neural-X for simulated surround music, where timbre matching can be more desirable, but many in the forums have surrounds from different manufacturers. You can still take a staged approach and change the front stage first and decide later whether the surrounds will need upgrading too, unless you think any potential mismatch will be very annoying.

In my own system, I don't mind having different surrounds, but I found it annoying to have a mismatched center because the dialogue would change tone moving from L to C to R. Will the dealer let you try the speakers in house? You could consider replacing the mains and saving up for the matching center.

As to power requirements, you can look in terms of sensitivity and volume. The RC-35 is rated at 98dB at 2.83V which is on the high side, so the Klipsch do not need a lot of power to play loud. The Aria 926 is rated at 91.5db (92db for the 936) so will need more power to reach the same SPL. You can use an SPL meter app to measure your typical listening levels and use the web site below to estimate the power needed to drive the speakers to that level:
https://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

92dB is still relatively sensitive and should play pretty loud. Even if you can't listen to the Focals and B&W in the same store, for that kind of money I would want to demo both. Bear in mind that the impedance on the Focals dips down to 2.8 ohms, so check that your amps can handle low impedance loads.
Thank you for your response. I contacted Focal for their recommended center for the 936.

From what I have read, the Focal has more of the characteristics of a speaker I would enjoy. Whatever speaker I chose, I'll make sure I can return them without penalty.

As far as volume, I usually listen between 75 - 85 db, I'm more concerned with dynamic range. I really like to have a piece blow me away with a short but sustained peak of 60 db. That is why I would be asking about power requirements. Need to avoid clipping and distortion.

The amp driving these speakers would be the Anthem PVA7 140 watts @ two loads, would I have to lower the volume to give me more headroom?
 
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Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Thank you for your response. I contacted Focal for their recommended center for the 936.

From what I have read, the Focal has more of the characteristics of a speaker I would enjoy. Whatever speaker I chose, I'll make sure I can return them without penalty.

As far as volume, I usually listen between 75 - 85 db, I'm more concerned with dynamic range. I really like to have a piece blow me away with a short but sustained peak of 60 db. That is why I would be asking about power requirements. Need to avoid clipping and distortion.

The amp driving these speakers would be the Anthem PVA7 140 watts @ two loads, would I have to lower the volume to give me more headroom?
At a listening distance of 12 ft, if I use a power of 70W for 92dB speakers, max SPL is 105dB, so I think you have plenty of headroom. It does not take much power to produce 85dB, only 5 or 10W, but each extra 3dB requires double the power. I think I'll ask another forum member @PENG to chime in here but I think the PVA7 should have no trouble driving the Focals. PVA7 specs here. They also give a power rating into 2 ohms so it should be able to handle the 2.8 ohm dip in impedance.
 

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