Mixing speaker brands

[Musicman61]

I recently bought some martinlogan motion 40s for my main and a matching center. I currently have all polk rti speakers. I'm using a external 275 3channel amp for the front stage and my yamaha aventage 2080 is only powering my surround and height speakers. The logans are 4ohm the polks are 8ohm. I'm wondering if I need to buy the martinlogan surrounds or can I just keep using my polk surrounds with the logans up front? Being the logans use a ribbin tweeter and the polk a soft dome im hoping the surround sound isn't all wonky.

 

[Tachead7075]

Polk RTi's use a harsh/bright fabric dome tweeter that will likely not blend well with the ribbons. If it were me I would sell the Polks and get the matching ML's or something with a similar driver design/sound signature.

 

[Verdinut]

I recently bought some martinlogan motion 40s for my main and a matching center. I currently have all polk rti speakers. I'm using a external 275 3channel amp for the front stage and my yamaha aventage 2080 is only powering my surround and height speakers. The logans are 4ohm the polks are 8ohm. I'm wondering if I need to buy the martinlogan surrounds or can I just keep using my polk surrounds with the logans up front? Being the logans use a ribbin tweeter and the polk a soft dome im hoping the surround sound isn't all wonky.

Your current setup is adequate. As long as the three front speakers are of the same brand, it's not necessary for the surround and Atmos speakers to be of the same brand.
Bear in mind that the required amp power used for surrounds is a lot less than that required for the front speakers. You wouldn't notice any obvious improvement in getting ML loudspeakers for surround duty.

 

[carlthess40]

Question, how does it sound to you?


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[Tachead7075]

Your current setup is adequate. As long as the three front speakers are the same brand, it's not necessary for the surround and Atmos speakers to be of the same brand. You wouldn't notice any obvious improvement in getting ML loudspeakers for surround duty.

I disagree completely. With completely different driver designs and brand sound signatures it will definitely degrade sound particularly during pans from the front stage to the surrounds or heights. If he is a gamer it will be even more obvious. Also, he may see some weird attributes during multichannel music playback as well.

While mismatched speakers definitely still work, the further they are apart in design and sound signature the worse the surround degradation will be. I have heard a lot of systems over the years and the ones with matching drivers always sound better. Now, whether the OP wants to spend the money for the level of improvement achieved is another issue. I would suggest he does some listening texts and goes from there...

 

[lovinthehd]

I'd go ahead and try the ML with the current speakers and see if any obvious issues with surround sound pop up before worrying too much about it. Why did you mention the impedance, tho?

 

[Teetertotter?]

I disagree and mismatch bookshelf has worked for me. L/R JBL Stage A 130, Center is psb Imagine XC, 2 surround speakers are POLK S-15, Subwoofer is Klipsch R-100sw. My area size is 10 X 12 with front listening/viewing distance at 7 feet. The 2 surround tweeters are 22" above ear level and slightly behind my ears. I watch a lot of DD movies and when I listen to streaming MP3 music, the AVR audio is switched to "Virtual" Front speakers are 7 feet apart as are the surrounds. Would my ears be that acute if all the speakers were same mfg matched? You be the judge. I am engulfed in SOUND all around. The JBL and Polk have pretty similar specs and weight. I matched all with similar specs, but the center channel being special.

 

[Pogre]

I disagree completely. With completely different driver designs and brand sound signatures it will definitely degrade sound particularly during pans from the front stage to the surrounds or heights. If he is a gamer it will be even more obvious. Also, he may see some weird attributes during multichannel music playback as well.

While mismatched speakers definitely still work, the further they are apart in design and sound signature the worse the surround degradation will be. I have heard a lot of systems over the years and the ones with matching drivers always sound better. Now, whether the OP wants to spend the money for the level of improvement achieved is another issue. I would suggest he does some listening texts and goes from there...

I'm using speakers with soft dome tweeters for surrounds right now and have ribbons on my front stage. I think it's more than adequate and for all the more my surround speakers play is not noticeable to me at all. It's not like a whizzing bullet or quick pan to the side speakers is going to stand out. Now that said, it's nice to have them match just for the sake of having them matched, sure, but I wouldn't expect any real audible improvements anywhere unless...

The only argument I can see would be if your main use is stricty 5.1 or multi channel stereo music. Then you'd want a closer timbre match, but for home theater I think it's fine.

 

[Musicman61]

Question, how does it sound to you?


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Well I guess I'll find out the answer to that question when I get them hooked up. I purchased but won't be getting them until later this week, possibly Thursday/Friday. I'm hoping they will sound ok together.

 

[Musicman61]

I disagree completely. With completely different driver designs and brand sound signatures it will definitely degrade sound particularly during pans from the front stage to the surrounds or heights. If he is a gamer it will be even more obvious. Also, he may see some weird attributes during multichannel music playback as well.

While mismatched speakers definitely still work, the further they are apart in design and sound signature the worse the surround degradation will be. I have heard a lot of systems over the years and the ones with matching drivers always sound better. Now, whether the OP wants to spend the money for the level of improvement achieved is another issue. I would suggest he does some listening texts and goes from there...

Yeah you are probably right on that. Getting a lot of mixed feedback on the subject. I won't know how everything will sound together until i actually hooked them up and have a listen for my self. Next weekend, provided if ups gets them to me by then. I will say this.. I am a musician with 50 years playing experience and self taught by ear and have a fair amount of experience with sound in general like multi tracking recording in the likes and have a good ear when it comes to things like this. So if anything is off I most likely will hear it right off the bat. Appreciate everyone's input. I will post how everything turns out some time next week.

 

[Pogre]

Yeah you are probably right on that. Getting a lot of mixed feedback on the subject. I won't know how everything will sound together until i actually hooked them up and have a listen for my self. Next weekend, provided if ups gets them to me by then. I will say this.. I am a musician with 50 years playing experience and self taught by ear and have a fair amount of experience with sound in general like multi tracking recording in the likes and have a good ear when it comes to things like this. So if anything is off I most likely will hear it right off the bat. Appreciate everyone's input. I will post how everything turns out some time next week.

It depends on your usage. If you listen to mostly music in 5.1 or multi channel stereo then you might pick it out. Otherwise surround speakers don't really see much action outside of effects. Timbre matching for dialogue and music are important tho, so that's why you'll see the front 3 matching recommended the most. I listen to a lot of music. I have a couple of Blu Ray concert discs but by far most of my music is recorded in stereo so that's how I play it back. There are days my surrounds don't see any action at all.

 

[Musicman61]

I like to mix it up. So I listen to music in 2 channel as well as 5.1 surround. I have a decent amount of music on sacd plus DVD audio and bluray music audio. I use my oppo player for all my super audio stuff and a Sony digital music player with hard drive that I rip all my disks to. No mp3 garbage. Bad enough cds are compressed as it is. I would love to go back to my old days of vinyl and mono block tube amps, but it wouldn't be wife approved. I also do a fair amount of gaming via ps5 as well so that is another thing I need to take into consideration. I'm sure at some point even if I do keep the polks for surrounds if by some weird reason they mesh well with the other speakers, at some point I know it will drive me nuts knowing I don't have a matching set and push the button on the martinlogan surrounds. The logans will be approximately the 20th set of speakers I've owned over the years. Yes I get bored easily. Lol

 

[Pogre]

... at some point I know it will drive me nuts knowing I don't have a matching set and push the button on the martinlogan surrounds. The logans will be approximately the 20th set of speakers I've owned over the years. Yes I get bored easily. Lol

I can totally relate to just wanting them to match. Mine will all be matched hopefully by the end of the month.

I think I've had 20 sets of speakers in the last 2 years... lol

 

[lovinthehd]

I like to mix it up. So I listen to music in 2 channel as well as 5.1 surround. I have a decent amount of music on sacd plus DVD audio and bluray music audio. I use my oppo player for all my super audio stuff and a Sony digital music player with hard drive that I rip all my disks to. No mp3 garbage. Bad enough cds are compressed as it is. I would love to go back to my old days of vinyl and mono block tube amps, but it wouldn't be wife approved. I also do a fair amount of gaming via ps5 as well so that is another thing I need to take into consideration. I'm sure at some point even if I do keep the polks for surrounds if by some weird reason they mesh well with the other speakers, at some point I know it will drive me nuts knowing I don't have a matching set and push the button on the martinlogan surrounds. The logans will be approximately the 20th set of speakers I've owned over the years. Yes I get bored easily. Lol

mp3 at a high bitrate can work, or the variations like AAC or OggVorbis, too. I mostly play my cds as flac ripped versions and can mix them with 320mp3 (and not one of the "better regarded" encoders) and don't identify them particularly in playback (as when I just put the library in a random mode). Maybe if I'm really listening for differences....but I'd prefer to listen to the music and not the gear in that respect, my brain can easily smooth over the differences). I've mixed plenty of different speakers, it's generally not a problem as far as panning sounds go IME.

 

[Musicman61]

I can totally relate to just wanting them to match. Mine will all be matched hopefully by the end of the month.

I think I've had 20 sets of speakers in the last 2 years... lol

Thats pretty bad man. Lol

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I disagree completely. With completely different driver designs and brand sound signatures it will definitely degrade sound particularly during pans from the front stage to the surrounds or heights. If he is a gamer it will be even more obvious. Also, he may see some weird attributes during multichannel music playback as well.

While mismatched speakers definitely still work, the further they are apart in design and sound signature the worse the surround degradation will be. I have heard a lot of systems over the years and the ones with matching drivers always sound better. Now, whether the OP wants to spend the money for the level of improvement achieved is another issue. I would suggest he does some listening texts and goes from there...

I’m exactly right here. I have had Frankenstein setups with mismatched speakers, and also setups with speakers form the same line and IME, the matched sets are always better.
Of course the focus would be money on the LCR, but in the long run that will only last so long.

 

[Trell]

I can totally relate to just wanting them to match. Mine will all be matched hopefully by the end of the month.

I think I've had 20 sets of speakers in the last 2 years... lol

That should give you some nice practice using REW and room correction

 

[NINaudio]

I can totally relate to just wanting them to match. Mine will all be matched hopefully by the end of the month.

I think I've had 20 sets of speakers in the last 2 years... lol

Hmm, I've had 2 sets of speakers in the last 20 years!

 

[Pogre]

Hmm, I've had 2 sets of speakers in the last 20 years!

Well, that's just boring! I know you've seen my Craigslist thread... I have issues, lol.

 

[NINaudio]

Well, that's just boring! I know you've seen my Craigslist thread... I have issues, lol.

I have a bunch of expensive hobbies. I spread the money around on them. LOL