dbarry said:
What is the true sensibility of timbre matching fronts to surrounds? Some DVD sequences are obviously enhanced by matched speakers but other sequences seem not to have timbre-matching requirements. For example: I really love the surround sound of movies; the big boom of explosions, echo’s, trains passing from left to right; background sounds of all kinds are wonderful. But most of these sounds are imitations of the real thing or the imagined thing. Even a true reproduction of orchestrated sound will include diffused sounds that are reflected from the concert hall walls; the echoed musical sounds are of-course surround sounds but they do the replicate the true sound that the musical instrument originally produced. So here again is my question, why am I so concerned with a complete timbre matched speaker system?
Timbre doesn't matter when you only have stereo pairs to deal with. Those stereo pairs are always timbre matched. It becomes a serious consideration with the onset of multichannel systems, whether HT or multich audio, that started requiring more than 1 pair of speakers.
With a mere stereo pair, a corvette careening from left to right on the TV screen will sound the same from left to right channels in a stereo VHS. But if that corvette would move in a circle in a 5.1 DVD, it should sound like a corvette from left to center to right to rear right to rear left. You can get that if all the speakers are timbre matched. Otherwise, there's a good chance the corvette will sound like a 1.5-liter toyota when it reaches the back, or the front, if the two are not timbre-matched.
Timbre connotes sonic coloration or signature that is unique to a speaker in one series in a brand over another. The differences can range from subtle to dramatic. Only so-called uncolored, neutral and transparent speakers don't have timbre. They're often stratospherically priced. So if two different speaker brands claim their speakers to be neutral and uncolored, you should have no timbre matching issues mixing them together.
Otherwise, with most affordable commercial speakers out there, timbre becomes a consideration when using multiple speakers. If you were using a B&W stereo pair, timbre doesn't matter. But if you are now moving into multichannel, it's always a good thing to have the center and the rear timbre-martched with your front mains. Or you could change the front mains to timbre-match with you desired center and rears. It's up to you. Bottomline, a 747 coming in from front to back in a DVD should sound like a 747 when it reaches the back. And not transform to sound like a Cessna becasue the rear speakers are not timber matched with the fronts.
Having said that, I agree that in many situations, timbre matching between front and rear may not be as important as timbre-matching between front and center. In fact, many audiophiles skip the center altogether, preferring to phantom the center, especially if the AV room isn't that large or the viewers not that many. In some DVD titles, chirping birds, echoes or ambient sounds at the rear may not require timbre matching at all. In fact, those small speakers often consigned at the back are never perfectly matched with the bigger fronts common in the early prologic days. But having timbrally matches speakers is a STARTING point in a proper multichannel set-up.
These days, with discrete multichannel SACD, DVD-A and DTS-CD, having identical speakers all around is often an advantage. And many movie titles in DVD are starting to demand a similar arrangement. Those stampeding herds in Lion King demands similar full-range speakers at the back. And if they are not timbre-matched, you lose out on the supposed seamless enveloping or immersive sound that the DTS or DD mix was meant to create. Let's not forget that timbre-matching is not the only quality required in a multi-channel set-up. There's also such a thing as level-matching and delay compensation to ensure that the immersive sound quality is there at your listening chair similar to getting the proper stereo depth and imaging in a stereo set-up. Setting up the right multichannel speakers to effect seamless immersive sound is a real challenge to begin with, no less daunting as seting the right stereo pair positining to effect the best solundstage imaging in a stereo set-up.. Let's not complicate it farther by using timbrally unmatched speakers. Afterall, those recording engineers laying the track mix on DD or DTS were using timbre-matched speakers at the studio. Not using timbre-matched speakers in a multichannel set-up for home playback is like using a wharfedale at the left and a JBl at the right in a stereo set-up.
