Centre & Surrounds suggestion?

[pupupuchi28]

- Current possessions: Yamaha RX V371 + Yamaha NS 8390 floor stands (35hz to 20khz, 89db @ 8 ohms)
- Looking for: Good Centre channel speaker, mid and high should be good, preferably 8 ohms, more than or equal to 88 dbl sensitivity
Surrounds: confused between bipole / bookshelves. I may not have the space for bipole, that too with a rear port. Bookshelves will typically have narrow axis and hence a tight sweet spot. If BS are rear ported then its an added pain. Typically, both of them will have poor low frequency performance. I need something which will perform 55-60hz with ease however the mids and highs should be great. Preferably 8 ohms, more than or equal to 88 dbl sensitivity with a 'bigger' drive.

I don't intend to purchase a sub anytime soon, hence the need for a decent low end performance of speakers. Even when the sub is there, I intend to cross over at 55-65hz. These will be played in hall of 21' x 12'.

Total budget - 20-25 (max) = centre + surrounds

I'm fine with pre-owned speakers provided they meet my specifications.

NOTE: In general will a 8" driver sound better than 5" driver, everything else remaining same (brand, series, impedence, spl, freq response etc)?

Thank you!

 

[marsilians]

There is not much mid/high through center channel as its mainly for voice reproduction. you can get one more of the floor standers if you can manage otherwise get something from the same family of speakers for timbre matching. Look for NS B750 or 700 as possible candidates.

 

[corElement]

- Current possessions: Yamaha RX V371 + Yamaha NS 8390 floor stands (35hz to 20khz, 89db @ 8 ohms)
- Looking for: Good Centre channel speaker, mid and high should be good, preferably 8 ohms, more than or equal to 88 dbl sensitivity

Dynamic Power per Channel (8/6/4/2 ohms) 110/130/160/180W
Dont restrict yourself to 8ohms and 88dbl

Surrounds: confused between bipole / bookshelves. I may not have the space for bipole, that too with a rear port. Bookshelves will typically have narrow axis and hence a tight sweet spot. If BS are rear ported then its an added pain. Typically, both of them will have poor low frequency performance. I need something which will perform 55-60hz with ease however the mids and highs should be great. Preferably 8 ohms, more than or equal to 88 dbl sensitivity with a 'bigger' drive.

I wouldnt touch any sub30k INR bookshelf that says it goes below 70hz because it's just a lie.
Bookshelves can be used to make a future stereo setup, bipoles cannot.
Bigger driver will not warrant better sound.
Lows are the easiest thing to produce.
Meds are the most important thing but the hardest to produce.

Front or rear port does not matter for these as they will never receive any signal forcing them to push themselves unless you set front and rears to all channel stereo (which by itself will again kill sound quality)

I don't intend to purchase a sub anytime soon, hence the need for a decent low end performance of speakers. Even when the sub is there, I intend to cross over at 55-65hz. These will be played in hall of 21' x 12'.

Total budget - 20-25 (max) = centre + surrounds

I'm fine with pre-owned speakers provided they meet my specifications.

NOTE: In general will a 8" driver sound better than 5" driver, everything else remaining same (brand, series, impedence, spl, freq response etc)?

Thank you!

Even if you dont have a sub center and rears will not receive a content pushing them anywhere near 50hz as it will always be sent to fronts.

8" driver will be quite horrible for midrange, 8" is used for subwoofers. 3-5" is what youre looking for.

 

[pupupuchi28]

Dynamic Power per Channel (8/6/4/2 ohms) 110/130/160/180W
Dont restrict yourself to 8ohms and 88dbl.

Currently I'm playing speakers from 2.1 setup as rears. They are 6 ohms and to me they sound ok. I normally play movies at 'comparatively high volume' (-5dbl, range -60dbl to 16dbl, 85w @ 8ohms, speaker level volume at 0 dbl). My only concern is, other members of my family are not aware of these technicalities and they may crank the volume and blow out my amp with a lower impedence speaker. I'm not aware if internally a AVR has 'individial channel management' (for lack of word) to power each channel differently or is it central management. Does one single part of amp distribute the power into multichannel then I guess there is a problem with 6 ohms paired with 8 ohms fronts. Or is it that the amp has 'partitions' for each channel and they work independently. I did some internet research, just to get more confused. Seems there are not many favourable opinions to pair speakers with different impedence.

Bookshelves can be used to make a future stereo setup, bipoles cannot.

Bookshelves cannot replicate the work done by bipoles. See thats the confusion I'm into

Even if you dont have a sub center and rears will not receive a content pushing them anywhere near 50hz as it will always be sent to fronts.

Not sure if that holds good. Ideally I would want a Harley to sound same across all channels, when its moving, rather then front right/left with the thump and the centre is lean. But thats again my assumption. I will check this tonight and revert if your version holds good.

Thank you for your input!

 

[corElement]

Currently I'm playing speakers from 2.1 setup as rears. They are 6 ohms and to me they sound ok. I normally play movies at 'comparatively high volume' (-5dbl, range -60dbl to 16dbl, 85w @ 8ohms, speaker level volume at 0 dbl). My only concern is, other members of my family are not aware of these technicalities and they may crank the volume and blow out my amp with a lower impedence speaker. I'm not aware if internally a AVR has 'individial channel management' (for lack of word) to power each channel differently or is it central management. Does one single part of amp distribute the power into multichannel then I guess there is a problem with 6 ohms paired with 8 ohms fronts. Or is it that the amp has 'partitions' for each channel and they work independently. I did some internet research, just to get more confused. Seems there are not many favourable opinions to pair speakers with different impedence.

What 2.1 is it? Even if they're rated 6ohm it's highly unlikely any typical (assuming computer) 2.1 can draw anywhere near to 6ohms.
Their real world use is probably around 15ohm or something. These are consumer goods, not professional studio equipment,
exact specifications are never really exact at this price point.

Family members have to respect your effort and equipment at all times so explain not to do sudden volume jumps.

You're getting lost with impedance when there are other more important things that need attention.
Notice the 'dynamic' infront of Dynamic Power per Channel (8/6/4/2 ohms) 110/130/160/180W
AVR's have individual power pathways for each channel so even if you pair 6 with 8 it is dynamic to each channels draw.

Bookshelves cannot replicate the work done by bipoles. See thats the confusion I'm into

The only possibly situation where I'd remotely want to use bi/dipoles is in a 7.1 thx setup.
You're better off with a future investment into bookshelves as potential fronts in some distant future setup or family gift.

Not sure if that holds good. Ideally I would want a Harley to sound same across all channels, when its moving, rather then front right/left with the thump and the centre is lean. But thats again my assumption. I will check this tonight and revert if your version holds good.

Thank you for your input!

Sadly the only scenario where the rears are actually used 100% is when you clone stereo the front channels.
rest of the time it's just used 10-20% maybe 40% in video games. And with bi/dipoles if you want it to sound the same,
then that's even MORE further away from sounding the same.

I've learnt this the hard way the first time around when I wanted to achieve the same thing as you and ended up buying something
that went to waste then did a lot of research and bought jamo e7 center and rears for it's excellent midrange and decoupled tweeters
with high excursion so mids also pack a punch instead of having a larger driver that has more air displacement but lacks punch along with good mids.

Read carefully the above and try and understand the difference between a medium sized midrange driver with high excursion vs a larger sized midrange with medium excursion.

 

[pupupuchi28]

Their real world use is probably around 15ohm or something.

I doubt it would goes till 15 ohms. These are certainly not highly sensitive speakers. And I dont have to crank up the level for rears (compared to other speakers). So they should be fairly close to the specification i.e 6 ohms.

The only possibly situation where I'd remotely want to use bi/dipoles is in a 7.1 thx setup.
You're better off with a future investment into bookshelves as potential fronts in some distant future setup or family gift.

Different people different perspective. I would rather have specialists doing the work rather than 'jack of all trades' with flexibility of future upgrade.

Sadly the only scenario where the rears are actually used 100% is when you clone stereo the front channels.
rest of the time it's just used 10-20% maybe 40% in video games. And with bi/dipoles if you want it to sound the same,
then that's even MORE further away from sounding the same.

I guess I came across differently. I meant the sound (low, mid, high) of a particular sequence should not change across channels. I'm not talking about all channels stereo mode. I meant, when a jet is moving from left of the screen to centre > right front > right rear, the sound should not change. Heavy (front right) > lean (Centre) > heavy (front left) > lean (rear right). I understand with all these I'm thinking off, the rears may be utilised only for 5-10% of time, but for those 5-10% time, I want the sound to remain same. All these assuming, I dont spread low frequencies for centre and rears.

Read carefully the above and try and understand the difference between a medium sized midrange driver with high excursion vs a larger sized midrange with medium excursion.

You are correct, provided the area where the equipment is played is small to mid sized. For a hall of 21" x 12" x 11", you would also need good air displacement, to fill the hall, balanced with excursion (punch).