OK to mix and match home theatre speakers???????

[Magic79]

Hi, I'm a newbie when it comes to Home Audio.
Just wondering if it is ok to mix and match front, rear, center and subwoofer.
Already have David 302 D-Box sub, Infinity cc-1 center channel, Couple low quality rear channel. Was looking to maybe get 2 Bose Acoustimass double cube speakers for the front and maybe another Acoustimass double cube to replace my center channel. Is this ok or not.
Hope you can help.

Mark

 

[Johnd]

Hi, I'm a newbie when it comes to Home Audio.
Just wondering if it is ok to mix and match front, rear, center and subwoofer.
Already have David 302 D-Box sub, Infinity cc-1 center channel, Couple low quality rear channel. Was looking to maybe get 2 Bose Acoustimass double cube speakers for the front and maybe another Acoustimass double cube to replace my center channel. Is this ok or not.
Hope you can help.

Mark

Hmmm. Why Bose?

Mixing and matching are fine provided their timbre is close.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

The front three need to match. The surrounds can be different, but a similar sound is preferable. The sub can be anything.
Infinity fronts would not only match your center, but would be vastly better than anything from Bose.

 

[Magic79]

Don't know, thought they were good. Just looking for a good pair of speakers that i can mount on the wall beside my new Panasonic 50" PLasma.
Any suggestions. Don't have much left with budget though.

 

[Johnd]

What have you got driving the speakers? And what's the budget?

 

[Magic79]

Have a Pioneer dolby digital 5.1 receiver 80wx5. Don't know model number as i am at work. Probably have a budget of around $300.00. So i guess i will be looking used.

 

[Johnd]

$300 will get you these two mains...with a free at home trial. Save a little more for the center would be my advice.

http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=80.1

 

[highfihoney]

Don't know, thought they were good.

Sorry to say but bose is not good,people think they are good because of in your face marketing & salesmen BS,in reality you could get just as good sound by going to radio shack,picking up a pair of small $5 tweeters & putting them in little cardboard box'es,or just steal 2 speakers from the drive in theater,remember the one's you hang on your car window.Anything & i mean anyhing would be a better match than bose injection molded plastic speakers.


BTW,does anybody know when plastic became a speaker building material ?

 

[jcPanny]

Wall mount speakers

These EMP speakers would look great next to your plasma and are designed to be mounted on the wall:
http://store.audioholics.com/product/783/66189/emp-ew30-on-wall-speaker--january-special---buy-one-get-the-second-free--

Also check out their satellite speaker system:
http://store.audioholics.com/product/780/0/emp-eca-4-compact-satellite-speakers---white--pair-

 

[wyllisx1]

BTW,does anybody know when plastic became a speaker building material ?

I don't know when, but BA has started using plastic for their new line of speakers. I checked them out at CC & I wouldn't buy them. I couldn't even bring myself to audition them.

 

[Highbar]

Along with the EMP's that jcPanny suggested I'd also take a look at the Cinema series from Paradigm. The 110's list for under $300. The center's that match list for around $150, those three as a front sound stage would be much better then Bose. I wouldn't mix the Infinity cc though.

T

 

[sparky77]

My brother inlaw bought these after he blew up the little cubes that came with his yamaha htib, they sound ok for a little 8 x 12 livingroom with the yamaha sub. A lot better than any bose system I've heard in the last 20 years.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=300-680

 

[3db]

Hi, I'm a newbie when it comes to Home Audio.
Just wondering if it is ok to mix and match front, rear, center and subwoofer.
Already have David 302 D-Box sub, Infinity cc-1 center channel, Couple low quality rear channel. Was looking to maybe get 2 Bose Acoustimass double cube speakers for the front and maybe another Acoustimass double cube to replace my center channel. Is this ok or not.
Hope you can help.

Mark

Welcome aboard.

My 1st piece of advice is stay away from Bose. People get drawn in quickly to the fact that such a small speaker can produce what 1st appears to be big full range sound. But thats just not the case. If you did a side by side comparion of Bose to any other bookshelf speaker, you would notice alot wrong with the Bose. Bose is very very good at marketing but short on delivering quality sound.

As mentioned by a couple of others in here, its crucial to match your left right and center channel. Its important to match the surrounds to the other speakers if you ever plan on having mulitchannel audio. Its not important for home theater.

You say you have a budget of $300 dollars. There are a couple of options you have.

a.) match your left/right speaker to your existing center if you can find a pair that match. I don't know the infinity lines

b.) start from scratch and get yourself a decent pair of left/right speakers and save up for a matching centre channel .

 

[Thaedium]

Agreed, match the L/C/R for sure. The rest when you get the chance.

BTW,does anybody know when plastic became a speaker building material ?

Hehe, it seems obvious to us but not to so many people out there. The big companies with the HTiB solutions know it, and feed off of it. Dirt cheap and easy to make speakers selling for high dollars, all at the expense of the avg uniformed consumer. Its a sham.

Amusingly, I have a friend who claims his Panasonic HTiB surround sound is as good as my setup. Even when he blasts it to the point of clipping he is happier then a pig in a mud bath. He even thinks the crumby little subwoofer in the plastic box sounds almost as good as my Velodyne DD-15. I often wonder if all the time on ranges has ruined his hearing.

 

[highfihoney]

Agreed, match the L/C/R for sure. The rest when you get the chance.

BTW,does anybody know when plastic became a speaker building material ?

Hehe, it seems obvious to us but not to so many people out there. The big companies with the HTiB solutions know it, and feed off of it. Dirt cheap and easy to make speakers selling for high dollars, all at the expense of the avg uniformed consumer. Its a sham.

Amusingly, I have a friend who claims his Panasonic HTiB surround sound is as good as my setup. Even when he blasts it to the point of clipping he is happier then a pig in a mud bath. He even thinks the crumby little subwoofer in the plastic box sounds almost as good as my Velodyne DD-15. I often wonder if all the time on ranges has ruined his hearing.

Nah,i doubt his hearing is the culprit,most non audio people ive met just really enjoy what they have,in some case's they even know it's low end sound at best, as long as they can tap their toe's & feel some bass their satisfied & happy.

My oldest brother is a Bose owner with 901's,i loaned him a pair of Altec 14's that i wasn't using so he could compare the 901's against a decent speaker,that was like 3 or 4 years ago,every time i ask about getting them back he jokes that he's allmost done with them

He also claims that his junk speakers sound just as good,funny thing is that only the Altecs get played,the 901's just sit there lookin stupid

 

[Halon451]

For your budget I would maybe suggest doing what I almost did, as I feel it would have been a fantastic setup:

Get 2 AV123 x-cs's - for the L/R for now, save up for another x-cs for the center channel. You can't get better matching than that.

http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=91.1

Right now they're $159 each - would be within your $300 range (well, just a mere few bucks more) for start. You can get the other one later.

OR -

Check out the SVS line - SBS-01's/SCS-01's. For the price, these things would rock circles around any Bose speaker.

http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-sbs01.cfm

As you may notice, these are what I am using at the moment, so I can personally vouche for their fantastic quality as I am extremely happy with them.

Hope it helps.

 

[AVRat]

Altec 14's

Glad to hear there are still some of them out there still going strong. I remember a few guys purchasing them when we were stationed in Germany in the early '80s.