Timber matching

[jaw]

Every thing I am told in stores says its SOOOOOOOOO important to timber match. If so, why after reading many article are there so many un-matched speaker sets??

 

[jaxvon]

Which speaker sets are you talking about? Most people's systems on this forum are matched, or in the process of getting there.

 

[corysmith01]

Also, just for clarification, I think you'll find that most people suggest you timbre match the front 3 as opposed to the entire set up... in terms of matching all around, I think you find less of that. But the front three are thought of as critical as they receive the majority of sound information. Surrounds less so, and you certainly don't need to match the sub...just get one that goes loud and low and you're set. There's lots of forums on here for sub suggestions if you're looking. Hope that helps.

 

[silversurfer]

I will add that I think it is becoming more worthwhile to timbre match the surrounds as well. There are more and more movies that are employing panning between the front soundstage and surrounds. Along with ambient sounds, I think timbre matching provides a more immersive/involving experience.

Add to that multi-channel music, and I think argument for matching surrounds gets even stronger.

 

[markw]

Yep... More for multi channel music than movies.

I will add that I think it is becoming more worthwhile to timbre match the surrounds as well. There are more and more movies that are employing panning between the front soundstage and surrounds. Along with ambient sounds, I think timbre matching provides a more immersive/involving experience.

Add to that multi-channel music, and I think argument for matching surrounds gets even stronger.

With movies, it's fairly important (IMNSHO) that the front three match. That way, when a character or a sound is traversing hte screen, the voices sound pretty much the same across the front spread.

With movies, it's mostly sound effects, ambiance and the like that are channeled to the rear surrounds. For music, the insturments could be anywhere the mixmaster deciders so it's better if they all match. Nothing like panning a tenor sax from the front to the rear and it magicaly becomes an alto sax.

 

[Porcupine]

I think timbre matching is important but like you I've noticed many HT speaker sets that obviously can't be timber-matched perfectly due to differences in design between the speakers.

I think voice matching is more important than timbre matching, and I think voice matching is not the same thing at all as timbre matching. I'm not exactly sure what the actual terminology is.

At home right now I have 2 different speakers, Bohlender-Graebener and Infinity Kappa, both with similar ribbon/cone hybrid designs. They have VERY similar timbre qualities. Voices and constant notes sound the same. However when I try to play them simultaneously they sound awful. I think the drivers are out of phase or something. And the crossovers are different. I think this is the main thing with voice-matching. The raw drivers used should all be the same for equal transient response, and the crossovers better make sure all the speakers are phase-aligned or else when you play them together it will sound weird and awful.

But timbre matching is desirable also but I would say it is much more critical to have all your speakers operating in phase, etc.

 

[JerryElbow]

I had a pair of classic Klipsch Heresy's for many years and had a very hard time getting a center channel speaker that sounded much like them. I finally got the Klipsch RC-7 a couple of years ago and it was a pretty good match. For rears, I had some tiny Boston Acoustics "microbox" speakers that didn't sound too bad and kind of visually disappeared into the wall.

That all changed earlier this week when I took delivery of a pair of AV123 Onix Rocket RS850s for the mains, an RSC200 for the center and a pair of RS250 MK IIs for the rears (I can't put towers in the rear in my home theater room). All five speakers have identical Vifa ring tweeters, the RS850s and the RSC200 share the same midrange and the RSC200 and RS250 MK IIs appear to share the same woofer. The tonal match between the mains and the center is phenomenal and the rears sound so much more like the fronts than what I had before that it nearly brings tears to my eyes when I listen to a well-made DVD-Audio. I'm now a BIG believer in timbre matching, both across the fronts and front-to-rear whenever possible! But then, it took me a LOT of years to manage to do it!