First my main question: If my main goal is to listen to music in 5.1 surround, and HT is only a distant second in importance, do I still need to go out and purchase closely matched speakers? Or will it be fine to cobble together various pairs of speakers large and small that I already have on hand?
Here is what I have available to work with (only the first 2 items are currently being used):
- A pair of EQed subwoofers in 70-liter sealed cabs
- A pair of 3-ways in 70-liter sealed cabs
- A second pair of the above
- A pair of high-end 12cm fullrange drivers in 40-liter ported cabs
- A pair of high-end 16cm fullrange drivers in 40-liter ported cabs
- A pair of tiny (2 liter?) 2-ways in sealed cabs (sound surprisingly good)
- 4 bare fullrange drivers (Technics 12cm, 8 ohm)
- 8 bare fullrange drivers (Fostex 10cm, 16 ohm)
- 9 amplifiers (25W x 2) based on Tripath chips
- LynxTwo soundcard with 6 analog outputs (5.1 surround capable)
My listening room has a standard height ceiling and measures about 4 meters by 8 meters; however, it is not a dedicated listening room and it is already rather cramped. The sound system is placed at one end of the room and the main listening position is near the middle, with a secondary listening position at the far end of the room. In my current setup, I have a pair of subwoofers lying on their sides and doing double duty as stands for both my main speakers (the 70-liter 3-ways) and also my television. The amplifier and CD/DVD player sit above the television and main speakers.
If at all possible, because of space constraints, I would prefer to use small speakers for the center and rear L/R channels. It would be easy enough to get small enclosures for the bare fullranges listed above. Making dipole speakers would be possible if that is important with Dolby 5.1.
If necessary I could replace the two subwoofers with the second pair of 3-ways on their sides as the center channel, but that strikes this newbie as a rather large center channel. In this case, the subwoofers would have to be eliminated or perhaps placed beneath the sofa at the listening position. The 3-ways are 6dB down at 25Hz so for music I could live without the subs if I had to -- I got the subs mostly for use with my high-end fullranges, which only go down to about 50-40Hz.
Anyway, I see that for HT, people seem to be concerned about timbre matching among the loudspeakers because sounds move, but obviously sounds rarely move around with classical music. I would be very grateful for any speaker suggestions that more experienced users could make!
Thanks very much,
Christopher Witmer
Tokyo
P.S. Here is some more background: I once thought I would never be interested in surround sound. My overwhelming interest is in music rather than in film (and the film I watch tends to be low on effects). For years no music I liked was available in surround format. But recently several of my favorite classical musicians have begun releasing their recordings on hybrid SACD discs, and with reasonably priced digital output for SACD on the near horizon, it makes me think that finally, after all these years, SACD may be getting a new lease on life as a medium for surround sound recordings. However, what really got me hooked on the concept was the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound I get from my new Sony DCR-DVD403 Handycam. I purchased this camera mainly to record live performances by my kids, who are music majors, and so my kids can have the camcorder as an easy-to-use diagnostic tool in their daily practices. Anyway, I was totally blown away by the fact that these recordings sound infinitely better on a friend's $1,000 computer-based surround sound system than on my $15,000 stereo system. It probably isn't a strictly fair comparison because there is an element of forcing a square peg into a round hole by playing the 5.1 recording in stereo, but the experience was enough to make me seriously interested in pursuing 5.1 further.
Here is what I have available to work with (only the first 2 items are currently being used):
- A pair of EQed subwoofers in 70-liter sealed cabs
- A pair of 3-ways in 70-liter sealed cabs
- A second pair of the above
- A pair of high-end 12cm fullrange drivers in 40-liter ported cabs
- A pair of high-end 16cm fullrange drivers in 40-liter ported cabs
- A pair of tiny (2 liter?) 2-ways in sealed cabs (sound surprisingly good)
- 4 bare fullrange drivers (Technics 12cm, 8 ohm)
- 8 bare fullrange drivers (Fostex 10cm, 16 ohm)
- 9 amplifiers (25W x 2) based on Tripath chips
- LynxTwo soundcard with 6 analog outputs (5.1 surround capable)
My listening room has a standard height ceiling and measures about 4 meters by 8 meters; however, it is not a dedicated listening room and it is already rather cramped. The sound system is placed at one end of the room and the main listening position is near the middle, with a secondary listening position at the far end of the room. In my current setup, I have a pair of subwoofers lying on their sides and doing double duty as stands for both my main speakers (the 70-liter 3-ways) and also my television. The amplifier and CD/DVD player sit above the television and main speakers.
If at all possible, because of space constraints, I would prefer to use small speakers for the center and rear L/R channels. It would be easy enough to get small enclosures for the bare fullranges listed above. Making dipole speakers would be possible if that is important with Dolby 5.1.
If necessary I could replace the two subwoofers with the second pair of 3-ways on their sides as the center channel, but that strikes this newbie as a rather large center channel. In this case, the subwoofers would have to be eliminated or perhaps placed beneath the sofa at the listening position. The 3-ways are 6dB down at 25Hz so for music I could live without the subs if I had to -- I got the subs mostly for use with my high-end fullranges, which only go down to about 50-40Hz.
Anyway, I see that for HT, people seem to be concerned about timbre matching among the loudspeakers because sounds move, but obviously sounds rarely move around with classical music. I would be very grateful for any speaker suggestions that more experienced users could make!
Thanks very much,
Christopher Witmer
Tokyo
P.S. Here is some more background: I once thought I would never be interested in surround sound. My overwhelming interest is in music rather than in film (and the film I watch tends to be low on effects). For years no music I liked was available in surround format. But recently several of my favorite classical musicians have begun releasing their recordings on hybrid SACD discs, and with reasonably priced digital output for SACD on the near horizon, it makes me think that finally, after all these years, SACD may be getting a new lease on life as a medium for surround sound recordings. However, what really got me hooked on the concept was the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound I get from my new Sony DCR-DVD403 Handycam. I purchased this camera mainly to record live performances by my kids, who are music majors, and so my kids can have the camcorder as an easy-to-use diagnostic tool in their daily practices. Anyway, I was totally blown away by the fact that these recordings sound infinitely better on a friend's $1,000 computer-based surround sound system than on my $15,000 stereo system. It probably isn't a strictly fair comparison because there is an element of forcing a square peg into a round hole by playing the 5.1 recording in stereo, but the experience was enough to make me seriously interested in pursuing 5.1 further.
