Matching front speakers

[Duncan4c]

I'm fitting out my family/media room, having to go with in-wall speakers to get the wife approval, so ordered 5.2 setup from Monitor Audio (W250 LCR, W280, W265 and C165) plus an SVS sub and Denon 2700.

Would I be better to match the front 3 channels with the the W250 LCR (I can use the W280s in another room), or as they are all from the same series are they likely to match ok anyway? Will the sub make up for the smaller main drivers of the W250LCRs?

I'll have a TV for day time and likely to add a drop down AT screen and PJ later on. Viewing is a mix of kids stuff in the day and films at night, revelry used for music

Thanks

 

[Mr Wolf]

In theory, the W250s have sufficient low end extension that a typical 80-100Hz crossover setting could be used and the SVS will fill in the bass.

Personally I would want the front three speakers to have identical drivers to ensure that side to side pans across the centre (which are very common) were as seamless as possible. That said, ideally I'd also want the LCRs speaker to have larger drivers than the 5" ones in the W250-LCR. I do however confess to being somewhat size-ist when it comes to speakers, it's just that I usually find I prefer the sound signature of larger ones.

 

[Duncan4c]

Thanks Mr Wolf. I had positioning constraints that meant I could only fit a ~5" driver centre speaker under the screen. I'll test out some side to side pans once ice them wired up temporarily and see if I can pick up the transition between the different driver sizes.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Good idea. Try and find a movie scene where the character is talking on and off the screen. If they sound like they're in a different room then the match is no good.

Another technique (based on tests I've done at AV dealers to best match different LCR speakers) is to wire up the W250 and W280 to the L/R speaker terminals of a stereo amp and fade the sound from left to right using the balance control. This test might be possible with an AVR but probably a bit trickier to implement.

 

[MarkHarris81]

The White Council scene in Hobbit part 1 is pretty good as you can hear Saruman talking from center to right and in between.
Gravity also has many scenes where characters switch speakers