Hometheater question

[Gurm]

Ok yes, if your budget can handle it DEFINITELY get the matched center. The rears aren't so important for current sound standards.

That said, in an ideal world we'd all have two stereos - one for music and one for home theater... 'cuz I'd pick very different components for these two applications.

Unless DVD audio becomes a reality much sooner than anticipated.

- Gurm

[ALBPM]

We've all been at various stages of mixing brands of speakers etc. as we have learned and upgraded.

It is most important to have matching fronts and Center. I had a combo of Bose cubes/subwoofer for Fronts and Rears. Then B&W Fronts with Bose Rears.
Heck even when I finally got to where I had all B&W I didn't like the LCR6 center that was intended for the 600 S2 series. I wasn't too thrilled about the CDM CNT with the CDM 9NT's either (too much midrange)

I did finally pick my speakers and 5 channel Amp for music as the main priority because I love the 5 channel stereo mode and prefer it over 2 channel stereo for music. The HT sound is also fantastic.

Paul

[Maggi]

just to throw something entirely different into the ring ...

I recently got myself a Denon AVR-1802 and ever since Dolby Labs refined their ProLogic standard to ProLogic II, it's an absolut must to have two full range rear speakers, as this new standard does indeed cover to whole frequency range in two seperate channels for the rear signals. (as opposed to a mono signal with only 7kHz bandwidth in the former ProLogic standard)


About matching speakers, I had to find out the hard way that there are no matching boxes to my olden, but golden Infinity RS3000 front speakers.

The reasons are
a.) they were build in the mid 80s and don't get manufactured anymore
b.) I would never buy any audio equipment 2nd hand (used)
c.) Infinity speakers do not get produced in the USofA anymore, but rather they roll from the same band in Denmark as the new JBL speakers
d.) the new Inifinity speakers are not as good as the old were (subjectively spoken)
e.) I had no money to get a complete surround setup

Hence I ended up keeping my Infinity's, kept my handcrafted 2x12" subwoofer and purchased two Canton two-way bass-reflex speakers for rear (forgot model number) plus the Canton VL950 as center speaker. My dealer was kind enough to leave a chance of giving those speakers back in case they wouldn't match at all.

After quite a bit of cabling, tweaking and adjusting my setup, I just got blown away when I I shook my home and raised my roof by not even ceoming close to max levels ...
(volume slider ranges from -60 to +18 and +6 was already starting to hurt physically, but when I used protective frequency neutral earplugs, I heard no distortion or whatsover, meaning my sound was still clean, just way too loud)



I'm a very happy camper now and want to thank everybody in here for their dedicated feedback and inspiration !!!

My advice would be: "ask your dealer for a test bed and hear it for yourself"

[Dogbert]

Thanks !

Thanks a lot guys for all the info.

I guess I'll opt for a center + rears (modus 8 or 16)
Now I just need to find a way how to sneak those into the house without getting killedin the process. (yes, it's my money but there are too many noses plugged into my wallet Grrrr....)