Does quality or high wattage height speakers make a difference?

[tchest77]

I have some old JBL Sat 10 speakers, I was thinking of using four of them to fulfill my 7.1.4, (specs: • Nominal Impedance: 8 ohm • Max Amp Power: 80W • Frequency Response: 150 Hz – 20 kHz (±3 dB) (10/550) 100 Hz – 15 kHz (±3 dB) (10S) • Sensitivity: 88 dB SPL, 1 Watt @ 1 Meter • Crossover Frequency: 3.5 kHz (10/550). I did set up 9.1, and the JBL's seemed to sound pretty good, and I used dollar store speaker wire (really can't believe they still sounded good, this is questioning whether speaker wire quality matters, I'm sure it does but these garbage dollar store wires do the job apparently).

So, I didn't know if these speakers would be good enough or will it make a difference to get something much better, higher wattage, or match my current speaker set-up such as going with satellite Def tech speakers. I don't want to get carried away, was hoping if I had to get new height speakers then I'd just spend like $50 per speaker. Maybe something like Def Tech satellite 600 speakers (8-ohm, up to to 150 watts), but not sure if these would matter much since the external amp I have goes up to 75 watts.


I have a Pioneer LX503 receiver, 9.2 (120 W/ch (8 ohms, 20 Hz-20 kHz, THD 0.08 %, 2ch Driven, FTC; 230 W/ch driven), and got an external amp Russound P75 (60 watts per channel into 8 ohms or 75 watts into 4 ohms). My 7.1 is set-up with 4 Definitive Tech BP7006 (17 Hz- 30Hz, compatible with 8ohms, 20 - 250 Watts/channel), 2 rear surround Def Tech BPX (38-30,000 Hz, 8-ohm, up to 350 watts), a Deftech CLR 2002 (30 – 30 kHz., 4 – 8 ohms,20 – 250 watts), and a SVS Ultra-16 sub.

Thanks for reading!

 

[lovinthehd]

Speaker wire only needs to be of sufficient gauge for the most part, lots of ways to buy it, altho I'd suspect a dollar store might be CCA but still not likely to be an audible difference. One of the biggest bullshitty things in audio is all the fuss over wire. Try this website http://roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Speaker max wattage is an indication of its melting point more than anything useful let alone an indicator of quality of any kind.

This might be useful in estimating what a particular speaker's relationship to power and distance from your seat at the spl you desire is.... http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

Generally more important to match the front three speakers than the surrounds, although a complete matching set might be an advantage for multich music particularly.

 

[tchest77]

Speaker wire only needs to be of sufficient gauge for the most part, lots of ways to buy it, altho I'd suspect a dollar store might be CCA but still not likely to be an audible difference. One of the biggest bullshitty things in audio is all the fuss over wire. Try this website http://roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm

Speaker max wattage is an indication of its melting point more than anything useful let alone an indicator of quality of any kind.

This might be useful in estimating what a particular speaker's relationship to power and distance from your seat at the spl you desire is.... http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

Generally more important to match the front three speakers than the surrounds, although a complete matching set might be an advantage for multich music particularly.

Thank you for your time. I appreciate the links and your thoughts!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Agree with HD.
As far as the speakers, since you have em I’d try them out if it’s not much hassle.