Timber Matching Speakers

[Teetertotter?]

Is it important to, "Timber Match," your Home Theatre Speakers?
speaker timber matching - Search (bing.com)

I do have other mains and centers, but fall back to Klipsch for more DD MOVIE action enjoyment.

 

[ryanosaur]

Yes and no. There are arguments for both sides as it regards Timbre Matching.

I get the cause more for Mains and Center. Not so much for Surrounds and Atmos. Unless you are really into true multi-channel audio mixes purpose made for discrete channels.

Truth be told, I would advocate for buying a more capable Center than choosing a lesser quality one simply because it matches your Mains. Getting something voiced similarly can be tough, but will aid in the suspension of disbelief when listening to sounds pan across your Front 3.
That said, it would have to be a pretty significant difference in audio quality to be so audible that it became a distraction.
In the end, if you enjoy what you are experiencing then you're good!

 

[lovinthehd]

Ah, but how do you properly pronounce timbre?

 

[j_garcia]

No, you don't need to match the wood for your speakers

IMO, you should timbre match the front 3. The rest have a lot less of an effect. In an IDEAL world, they would all be matched, but the reality is, you can get it pretty close and it will work fine. As mentioned, if you are into multichannel music critical listening, it might matter and has a benefit. For movies, not so much.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Is it important to, "Timber Match," your Home Theatre Speakers?
speaker timber matching - Search (bing.com)

I do have other mains and centers, but fall back to Klipsch for more DD MOVIE action enjoyment.

Personally I don’t worry about timbre matching in my HT systems. I try to get the most accurate neutral speakers for the budget I set for myself.

Buying identical speakers would eliminate possible timbre issues but I’d rather spend more on front speakers and less on the surrounds even if it means going to completely different speakers.

As a general matter I tend to notice poor sound from individual speakers than I do timbre differences. For example, in one system I have a pair of BMR Philharmonitors in front with a cheaper center. The flaws in the center are readily apparent in comparison to the BMRs but it’s not a timbre issue (as far as I can tell, I don’t have golden ears).

This topic is debated endlessly and I doubt that there’s one objectively “correct” answer.

 

[j_garcia]

My mains and center don't match either and they blend fine to my ears. All of them employ ribbon tweeters and all are pretty neutral, so they blend well enough.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If you’re OCD like me, then hells yeah it’s important to “match” speakers.

If I visit someone’s house and I find out their speakers don’t “match”, I would have to leave ASAP. That’s OCD.

 

[dlaloum]

I think it important to inherently match the Mains (L/R) to the center....

After that, with surrounds and heights, timbre matching can be achieved fairly easily using the RoomEQ target curves that most mid market and up AVR's have built in

Whether it is Dirac or Audyssey (or other) - the application of a universal target curve for your speakers will timbre match them!

Having said that, if you like the sound of your mains (and why would you choose them if you didn't!?) - then above 500Hz, us the measured response of the matched LCR speakers, as the target for the rest of the speakers - that way you timbre match them without any fuss.

 

[dolynick]

I also think it's best to timbre match when feasible. I went to the hassle of tracking down some used matching speakers for the heights (the retail price of current versions was prohibitive) to do so.'

That being said, I mismatched with a very inexpensive set in my more casual living room system. Maybe I was just lucky but they blend well enough with the mains that I can't tell anything is amiss. They also make a big enough impact (even with their less than ideal setup) that I'm quite glad that I did add them when the opportunity was there.

 

[ryanosaur]

FWIW, I went to the extreme of being completely surrounded with Raal Tweets on the bed layer. I also built the Rig primarily for Multi-channel Audio. And I engage in critical listening.

But there is a key balance to whether a person can tell if their system is sounding off or not, beyond knowing the Speakers are not the same brand or model, etc.

Truly I think it is important to do up front but also recognize the flip side that in some ways it might not matter.

*shrugs

Realistically, this is once again what I would refer to as a Personal Values decision.

If one is creating a budget and planning a purchase, Absolutely should they plan to get matching Speakers as much as possibly.

If somebody has multiple Speakers and is perhaps cobbling together an HT Rig from different gear and doesn't mind it... Is that "Wrong?"

 

[TLS Guy]

Is it important to, "Timber Match," your Home Theatre Speakers?
speaker timber matching - Search (bing.com)

I do have other mains and centers, but fall back to Klipsch for more DD MOVIE action enjoyment.

Yes, the word is timbre and not timber, which you get at the lumber yard.

In any event timbre matching is nothing more than trying to make sure that all speakers are equally lousy.

Unfortunately truly neutral accurate speakers are still far too rare.

I deliberately designed my center to be different from the left and right. The function is the center is unique. It is a speaker where it needs a defined dispersion over the listening area with minimum infringement of the left and right speakers. If the center speaker is the ubiquitous MTM then you are in trouble right out of the starting gate.

 

[lsiberian]

Yes, the word is timbre and not timber, which you get at the lumber yard.

In any event timbre matching is nothing more than trying to make sure that all speakers are equally lousy.

Unfortunately truly neutral accurate speakers are still far too rare.

I deliberately designed my center to be different from the left and right. The function is the center is unique. It is a speaker where it needs a defined dispersion over the listening area with minimum infringement of the left and right speakers. If the center speaker is the ubiquitous MTM then you are in trouble right out of the starting gate.

Yeah I remember all the pitfalls of the MTM. I once made a calculator program just so I could get the center the right height for going under my projector screen.

 

[Eppie]

I recommend it across the front 3. When I purchased my main L+R I could not afford the matching centre at the time and went with an older MTM model in the interim. It drove me crazy as it was very evident that the centre dialogue sounded different. Now that I have the matching WMTW centre the system is well balanced. For TV and movies the centre channel gets a lot of content, so unless you watch little TV and play mostly music, I recommend getting the best centre you can afford. I would go so far as to say that a 2-channel phantom centre is better than a mismatched centre. The exception to that might be a situation where you have a lot of family members sitting off to the side outside of the sweet spot, in which case you need that centre speaker to anchor the dialogue to the middle.

 

[Teetertotter?]

Jumping back in, I humbly apologize for mispelling TIMBER, in this case. Please forgive me, and appreciate those for pointing it out. I had to laugh too.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Jumping back in, I humbly apologize for mispelling TIMBER, in this case. Please forgive me, and appreciate those for pointing it out. I had to laugh too.

Way to go eppie…you probably say bow-teek and bow-kay.
No matter how you spell timbur, we know you’re talking about the specific tone of a piece of wood.

 

[DigitalDawn]

I'm a big proponent of keeping the bed layer drivers the same. The reason is simple: suppose you have characters walking and talking on the screen? Going from left to right, for example, you want their voices to sound the same. But how about when those characters walk from the front of the room to the back of the room? You want their voices to sound the same in this situation as well. The only way to properly do this is to have a similar set of drivers for the entire bed layer.

Triad and some other companies make smaller matching speakers for their surrounds in both monopole and bipole configurations. I created a special Triad Speaker Matching Chart that helps to select the matching speakers for each Triad Series. Email me at the address below and I will send it to you.

 

[privateeye]

Is it important to, "Timber Match," your Home Theatre Speakers?
speaker timber matching - Search (bing.com)

I do have other mains and centers, but fall back to Klipsch for more DD MOVIE action enjoyment.

I've mixed and matched in the past and rarely had any issues. For most, there won't be an issue. I think people tend to overemphasize the importance of matching your speakers simply because it's what you're supposed to do.

 

[dlaloum]

I've mixed and matched in the past and rarely had any issues. For most, there won't be an issue. I think people tend to overemphasize the importance of matching your speakers simply because it's what you're supposed to do.

Also, IF there is an issue, most RoomEQ systems, also allow for setting target curves (beyond the bass) - and this, if used, will match timbre. (if you limit RoomEQ to below 500Hz, then you won't have timbre matching)

 

[DigitalDawn]

Room correction systems will absolutely not make dissimilar drivers sound the same,

 

[highfigh]

I'm a big proponent of keeping the bed layer drivers the same. The reason is simple: suppose you have characters walking and talking on the screen? Going from left to right, for example, you want their voices to sound the same. But how about when those characters walk from the front of the room to the back of the room? You want their voices to sound the same in this situation as well. The only way to properly do this is to have a similar set of drivers for the entire bed layer.

Triad and some other companies make smaller matching speakers for their surrounds in both monopole and bipole configurations. I created a special Triad Speaker Matching Chart that helps to select the matching speakers for each Triad Series. Email me at the address below and I will send it to you.

IIRC, the original specs for THX called for identical speakers in the system- while it's not used much/at all now, it makes the sound consistent, rather than trying to use little balls or tiny boxes to create the warmth and fullness of many sounds & voices. Great mid-bass is needed far more than 16Hz, IMO.