Importance of Matched Rear Speakers

[JackVa1]

Can anyone explain the pupose of having a matches Surround system? Particularly when it comes ot the rear speakers?

I am able to meter my speakers to create good sound balance . With the rears, I hear horns honking, bullits whizzing, other noises in a movie.
What is wrong with placing a good pair of old stereo speakers in the rear of my room?

(My old Sansui 2500's do a great job)
Thanks

 

[TLS Guy]

Can anyone explain the pupose of having a matches Surround system? Particularly when it comes ot the rear speakers?

I am able to meter my speakers to create good sound balance . With the rears, I hear horns honking, bullits whizzing, other noises in a movie.
What is wrong with placing a good pair of old stereo speakers in the rear of my room?

(My old Sansui 2500's do a great job)
Thanks

If it's just bullets and horns nothing. I note that the people mixing in Hollywood don't generally place much demands on the rears. I suspect so they don't upset people, as a huge number of people use in wall or in ceiling surrounds. Many of them would not take kindly to significant power demands.

However in a movie like La Vie en Rose, the quality of the surround mixing is of a much higher order than is what is offered in most Hollywood productions that I'm familiar with. In that movie there are scenes where the perspective of the sounds other than front is quite uncanny. Only first class speakers all the way round will produce those effects.

In some classical SACDs enormous demands are made of the rear speakers.
If the ambient field is going to be reproduced accurately, then the surround speakers in my view need to be of comparable quality and tonal balance to the rest. So it really comes down to the program material you are going to listen to. I happen to listen to a good deal of music where the good reproduction of the ambient field is important. If the recording is in a large cathedral, with a big organ and choir and may orchestra as well, then there is a lot of power in ambient field. Bottom line, small wall mounts or ceiling speakers won't cut it for that.

 

[Pyrrho]

Can anyone explain the pupose of having a matches Surround system?

The purpose of matched speakers is to keep the tonal quality of the sounds the same regardless of where the sound is coming from. This is particularly relevant when a sound "pans" across the front from one side, to the center, to the other side, as when a car drives by. A change in tonal quality will alter the sound in a strange way that will be quite unnatural.

Now, if speakers were perfect, they would all sound alike, and would all match. But they are not, so it often is good to have the same virtues and vices in them all so at least it the sound is not strangely altered when panning from one channel to the next.

Particularly when it comes ot the rear speakers?

It is much less important for the rear channels to match than the front, for two reasons. First, they are used less, and generally for less important sounds, than the front, so if they are not the same, it will not matter as much.

And second, people's hearing is directional, such that they hear better in front of them than behind them. This is one of the reasons why people tend to naturally turn in the direction of a sound when they want to hear it better. Because of this, defects in the rear are less noticeable.

I am able to meter my speakers to create good sound balance . With the rears, I hear horns honking, bullits whizzing, other noises in a movie.
What is wrong with placing a good pair of old stereo speakers in the rear of my room?

(My old Sansui 2500's do a great job)
Thanks

If you are happy with what you have, there is no need for change.

 

[3db]

Can anyone explain the pupose of having a matches Surround system? Particularly when it comes ot the rear speakers?

I am able to meter my speakers to create good sound balance . With the rears, I hear horns honking, bullits whizzing, other noises in a movie.
What is wrong with placing a good pair of old stereo speakers in the rear of my room?

(My old Sansui 2500's do a great job)
Thanks

For Home Theater, one does not have to match the rear/surrounds but if you are doing multichannel audio like DVD-A or SACD, then one should match the surrounds/rears to the exisitng set-up.

 

[Exit]

I t is important that the front three speakers be of the same manufacturer (i.e. same tonal quality) because they handle most of the sound movement between channels. They also handle the human vocal range, of which we are particularly sensitive to changes in the sound (such as would be made with unmatched speakers).

For the surrounds a lot of people choose a different sounding speakers for a variety of reasons, such as they have existing speakers, they want dipoles, etc. I think what you want to look for in surrounds is low end frequency response that is at least a little below the subwoofer crossover point, which often is 80Hz. Then if the rear channels are driven hard the bulk of the bass, which is the most demanding for the speaker, will be handled by the subwoofer. My surrounds and front presence channels are different from the front speakers and they work out well. They are Klipsch 180 degree radiating speakers, each of which uses two side horns and a 4” speaker on the front center. They generate a wide sound field down to 70 Hz and work good as surrounds and presence channels. You would not want to use them for main front channels because the sound field is too spread out to hear the directionality provided by the main speakers. You can hear special effects in the surround channels once in awhile, but mostly it is spatial effects where the diverse sound field works out well.

 

[JackVa1]

This is all great information.

I tend to listen to Surround Movies on Direct Tv and music via Direct TV's XFM stations. I believe that my ONKYO receiver mentions switching it to stereo and just utilizing my fronts for music.

The enhanced music cd sourse mentioned in the posts seem to take advantage of the rears which is very interesting. I guess I always think of concerts where the sound is in front.

Thanks for the education

Jack

 

[chadnliz]

I didnt match my surrounds simply because what I wanted wasnt available from the company my mains and center were made by. I listen to alot of SACD and DVD-A along with movies so I bought Di-poles but with a small twist, I can flick a switch to take them from Di-Pole to standard 2 way for music for the best performance for both considerations.

 

[Exit]

I think most music listeners skip the surround sound and just use the stereo main speakers and possibliy the subwoofer. Music DVDs are in 5.1 surround sound and sound good played in that mode. The 5.1 (or 6.1 or 7.1) surround sound is mostly used for TV and movie sound. I however am still experimenting with 5.1 and presence channels for music. I don't get the opportunity to listen to music through the system very often, otherwise I would probably make up my mind on preferences by now.