HT Speaker Frequency Response

[Teetertotter?]

My mains, my center channel, and the side surrounds, are all having different mfgs frequency responses. I listen to DD movies. My AVR has calibrated all five speakers plus the woofer. Is it important that their frequency responses be closely matched, or not? What are your thoughts on speaker frequency response being miss matching? A concern? As long as they are closely matched in frequency response?

 

[TLS Guy]

My mains, my center channel, and the side surrounds, are all having different mfgs frequency responses. I listen to DD movies. My AVR has calibrated all five speakers plus the woofer. Is it important that their frequency responses be closely matched, or not? What are your thoughts on speaker frequency response being miss matching? A concern? As long as they are closely matched in frequency response?

You have asked a question that has no precise answer, as there are variables. Frequency response errors are often related to significant underlying problems NOT correctable by EQ.

However there are some rules. The front three should match closely. However if they match in frequency response errors, then they are all equally lousy.
That is what timbre matching actually is. It means making sure the front three are equally lousy.

The other issue in addition to FR, is lobing. This is a serous problem as the ubiquitous center horizontal MTM configuration has precisely the wrong lobing pattern, and will by design have uneven distribution and only a good FR right in front of it. That is a design approach that really needs to stop.

As far as the others are concerned it is less of any issue. But having all speakers good neutral speakers with good on and off axis response really does make a superior system. This is especially true if you are using any multichannel format recorded in larger and especially ambient spaces. The ear is not fooled when the reverberant field does not match the direct field. I am absolutely certain of that.

 

[lovinthehd]

Perhaps depends some on what you mean by frequency response, just the range of frequencies +/- 3dB? Or actual accuracy within that response? Or ? Is the avr's calibration simply level/delay or is including eq? Are you concerned with the eq part if so?

 

[ski2xblack]

However there are some rules. The front three should match closely. However if they match in frequency response errors, then they are all equally lousy.
That is what timbre matching actually is. It means making sure the front three are equally lousy

Slightly OT, but uniform lousiness isn't without merit. Or perhaps uniformity is influential enough to counter some lousiness. The first time I tried using identical speakers for all three L, C, and R mains was an ear opener. While not inherently compromised horizontal mtm types, they were indeed lousy on the Doc Carter scale, but I had three of them. There were undeniable dividends. Three identical non-lousy speakers are even better, and something I'm comfortable recommending to folks whose ht can accommodate it.

 

[Teetertotter?]

I thought I'd would ask the question. I was looking at the manufactures published Frequency responses for closeness of match for all 5 speakers, less subwoofer, but there is more to it, as previously mentioned.
Appreciate the replies!

 

[ski2xblack]

Stay curious. There are no bad questions. The answer to yours is that it's more complex than comparing one narrow, singular slice (on axis response) from a much more complex acoustic pie, and that in making a more comprehensive comparison you run into certain harsh* realities (such as the lobing in horizontally oriented m-t-m designs).

*it may not be that bad in practice, from your spot, on your couch, in your room.

 

[Eppie]

Don't be afraid to rely on your ears as well. If the three front speakers do not match well, you will likely notice. I originally had v5 Paradigms for mains but a v2 centre. While we enjoyed the system like that for a while, the mismatch was noticeable to me and getting the matching centre became a priority. I am much happier with the v5 centre now, and that is coming from a company whose speakers lines tend to match fairly well. The v2 was an MTM design and the v5 is a 3-way, so that helped as well.

I have different rear speakers but as I listen to mostly 2-channel music it has not been a big enough issue for me to address it yet. I don't mind if the movie surround effects are a little different. If I get more into multi-channel music that may change. If you sense that something seems off when vocals pan across the front or when there is a lot of rear channel content, then it might be worth looking more closely at how the various speakers measure and match with each other. You can always address it one speaker or one pair at a time and take a staged approach as opposed to examining the system as a whole.

 

[Pogre]

I'm not entirely clear on what you mean by frequency response. Do you mean your speakers have different -3 dB points, where the bass starts rolling off and that's what you're questioning? For example my old main speakers were +/- 3 dB from 28 hz to 30 khz and my center was +/- 3 dB from 48 hz to 30 khz. Is that what you mean?

I use a crossover of 80 hz for everything so no, it's not important that the frequency responses all match in that way. You should be able to set a different crossover for each speaker if you want, but I just go with 80 for everything. That's well above my smallest speaker's f3, not localizable and it works well across the board. I will say that in my experience most AVRs don't get it right and tend to set it either too low or set speakers to large when they should be small, so I always go behind after setup and check that.