Mismatch speakers/sub-woofers

[Asif1980]

Many of us might have bought 2/3/5.1 speakers of same brand and many might added additional speakers over the time. With all speakers from same brand it will aesthetically match and other audio characteristics match each others.

What care should be taken when replacing either of speakers (i.e., speakers not working) or when we planning to add additional speakers of different brand? Also when Front L&R are power towers(built-in sub-woofer) can we add additional sub-woofer of different brand?

My AVR has 2-LFE output and i've setup as Large speakers with Sub-woofer yes, if I add additional sub-woofer i will be unplugging 2 LFE from front towers and connect one of LFE to new dedicated sub-woofer (SVSPB13 ultra) or I can connect other LFE output to either of the tower.

Front and Center: Def tech BP8060ST, BP8040C and BP8040SR, no dedicated sub-woofer!

What are the pros and cons of the above?

 

[shadyJ]

Yes, you can add another subwoofer brand without a problem, in fact you should try another subwoofer brand since the Deftech subs are very performance compromised for the sake of size. What you want to do is use the Deftech tower subs along with another sub. Get two of these, use them at the subwoofer outputs on your AVR. Use both tower subs and a real subwoofer. I would be looking at Hsu, Outlaw Audio, RBH, SVS, or Rythmik subwoofer brands. One thing I would do is use a high subwoofer crossover point in the AVR, maybe 120 Hz to 160 Hz. Send that range to the tower speakers. Use the regular subwoofer's low-pass filter at 80 Hz, so it isn't trying to play back bass that high. Make sure you use room correction like Audyssey or YPAO or MCACC.

 

[lovinthehd]

Many of us might have bought 2/3/5.1 speakers of same brand and many might added additional speakers over the time. With all speakers from same brand it will aesthetically match and other audio characteristics match each others.

What care should be taken when replacing either of speakers (i.e., speakers not working) or when we planning to add additional speakers of different brand? Also when Front L&R are power towers(built-in sub-woofer) can we add additional sub-woofer of different brand?

My AVR has 2-LFE output and i've setup as Large speakers with Sub-woofer yes, if I add additional sub-woofer i will be unplugging 2 LFE from front towers and connect one of LFE to new dedicated sub-woofer (SVSPB13 ultra) or I can connect other LFE output to either of the tower.

Front and Center: Def tech BP8060ST, BP8040C and BP8040SR, no dedicated sub-woofer!

What are the pros and cons of the above?

Also keep in mind many avrs with two sub pre-outs simply have an internal splitter for the same signal, a few can separately apply distance/level settings. In either case you can split the signal several times without issue. I wouldn't even consider DefTec subs in any case, aesthetics or not, would look to the sub specialists shadyj mentions....

 

[Pogre]

All the brands Shady mentioned are very solid. SVS probably has some of the prettiest subs and you should be able to find a good aesthetic match for everything else you have. They have quite a few that come with a piano gloss finish.