Mixing different brands of speakers

[hybridauth_Facebook_10208373563123215]

Hi!

I'm new to the whole hi-fi world and have a simple (I quess) question.

I have a HarmanKardon AVR 255 AV-receiver with a 5.1 HKTS 16 speaker set. The subwoofer died a few weeks ago and I replaced the subwoofer with a Klipsch R-110SW. A big upgrade in sound quality if you ask me.

Being all enthousiastic I just orders a pair of B&W 685 S2 speakers to replace the front speakers, which according to several reviews are great. In my opinion 500+ euro are a lot of money for a pear of speaker, although I quess this is relative.

Now, I suddenly wonder... Was it a stupid choice to order B&W instead of Klipsch speakers? Does it matter these are all different brands? Ofcourse I intend to replace the center and surround speakers with B&W brand in time as well...

Thank you for your input!

 

[macdiddy]

about using the B&W's with the Klipsch subwoofer, I used to use a different make of subwoofer from the rest of my speakers, as long as everying is setup ok then no problems.

One thing I would say is you should try to buy the matching centre speaker asap to acheive a more balanced sound across the front soundstage, the matching rears can wait until you can afford them.

*music2*

 

[jmjones]

Hi Maarten,

People will tell you to stick with the same brand, but I would suggest a sub-woofer is the least difficult thing to integrate. I would stick with the same brand for the others though. The B&Ws should work out fine.

 

[Vladimir]

I've read on HT forums that it's preferable to have the LCR speakers from the same model lineup in order to have them timbraly matched. Subs and backs not deemed so crucial. You can do your own research and decide if timbral matching matters to you.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_10208373563123215]

Thank you for the answers, that comforts me!

I know I should replace the center speaker asap, but aside from the costs the B&W center speakers are quite big in size which I don't think will look very nice... These 685 S2's are a lot bigger then my current front-speakers, so I might just need a bit of time to adjust

 

[Al ears]

As Vladimir says it can be a nice-to-have (mine are all Quad) but not necessary. The fronts and centre do most of the work.

If you can find a B&W centre for a reasonable price you're system would be better balanced but I wouldn't worry too much if you cannot.

 

[Vladimir]

If you can find an odd one sold (maybe second hand), the same 685 S2 can be used as your center.

 

[jmjones]

I ran a set of Kef surrounds (centre, rear) with my current stereo set for a while then upgraded. It sounded fine. Some good alternatives from the guys above too. Get a home audition if you can and compare. Speakers is the one component I would refuse to buy "blind".

Good luck with it.

 

[Al ears]

There are some B&W centre speakers on eBay for reasonable prices at the moment ( CC3 or CC6 and the like).

 

[splasher]

As most have said, subwoofers from a different brand is not normally a problem. Given that you've ordered the B&Ws for FR & FL I wouldn't worry too much about changing the centre yet either. If you were buying a full set of speakers from scratch the safe advise is get the same brand, but given you've already got your centre it's worth trying your new fronts with your existing centre to see if there's a problem or not.

For example, I run Tannoys for the FR, FL, RR and RL, a Monitor Audio Apex for the centre because of space restrictions and an SVS subwoofer and there's no problem at all with film soundtrack integration or music.