" I’m simply shooting at birds a bit higher on the tree in my next system.." I wish I can say the same, but upcoming retirement and money flow issues clipped my wings.
Good luck and let audiophile gods be with you!
Are HT speakers best for primary audio listening or not?
Short answer: no. Speakers that have been designed with a view to their being used primarily in a HT system, will, typically, have been voiced differently. In my experience they often have a "technicolor" quality that makes soundtracks sound very impressive... But... if you play some honestly recorded acoustic music over them, that too will acquire some of that technicolor quality, rather than having the purity that we really want from our speakers. |
Twoleftears, Wrong completely wrong, I am a trainded Theater Designer and there is no special voicing for a Home Theater speaker, they are not brighter or duller than a Music Speaker. As Shadorne said ATC make excellent Home Theater Speakers so do KEF it comes down to these factors: 1: Power Handling and efficiency. A good Theater speaker has the ability to play loud so efficiency and power handling are inportant. 2: Controlled Dispersion, you want to have a wide Horizontal dispersion and Limited Vertical dispersion so not to bounce sound off of the ceiling, the D'Appolito configuration was designed to do just this. 3: Timberally accurate a good Theater speaker will sound as accurate as possible with an even frequency response. 4: Dynamic capabilities: A good Theater speaker can track highly dynamic passages without distortion. One of the biggest difference is the concept of imaging which is not really important in a Theater design but very important in a Music System. So when you place speakers against a wall you are not going to get the kind of depth of field in image that will happen when you do so, so in reality that is one of the biggest differences between the world of Theater and Music systems. Also a Theater room is going to have much greater damping to control reflections then a pure two channel Music Room. Check out our Theater we built for DIY Network Rev Run's Rennovation https://www.flickr.com/photos/58319891@N08/albums/72157650239108910 https://www.flickr.com/photos/58319891@N08/albums/72157650233548529 You will notice that we use KEF THX speakers which hit all the criteria required for a good Theater, high power handling, wide dispersion, low distortion, tonally accurate,wide dynamic range. Dave owner chief designer Audio Doctor NJ |
De gustibus no est... etc. etc. Not saying audio speakers can't be used for home theatre, many very successfully. And some audio speakers are similarly voiced in that "technicolor" way: e.g. the Sonus Faber Venere's, which sounded very impressive for the first three minutes or so, but then just started to overdo things. Mutatis mutandis, listening to B&W CM10's right after some GE Tritons, there was no contest in capturing the full, rounded, and specific timbre of acoustic orchestral instruments; timbres were smushed by comparison in the Tritons. As always, YMMV. |