Putting speakers next to each other

[admin_exported]

I like to keep my home cinema and hi-fi systems separate. At the moment I don't have an hi-fi system (I currently play cd's through my home cinema set-up).

I'm very restricted as I don't have much space (left) in my living room to put additional components, but especially more speakers.

I am looking into the possibility of a cyrus 8 system (because they get great reviews, look great & importantly are small) coupled with some matching but small(ish) speakers (because I dont have much room), like the Spendor A5's.

I have had a good look around the room where I might possibly place the speakers and the most logical place is in the corners of the room, behind (and to the left) my home cinema floorstander fronts. Ignoring for a minute this may not look great, will placing speakers very close to my home cinema speakers impact on the sound at all. The home cinema and the hi-fi will never be used at the same time (or shouldn't be).

 

[Andrew Everard]

'Next to' not a great idea, but you won't do any damage; 'behind' big problem. The home cinema speakers will affect the sound dispersion from the Spendors to such an extent it really won't be worth doing.

 

[John Duncan]

I'd take the front L/R preouts from the Pioneer into the Cyrus and connect your Tannoys to the Cyrus. Having two pairs of speakers sitting close to each other will be very detrimental as each resonates in sympathy with the other...

 

[Dave_]

You could connect the front left and right pre-out's of your receiver to an input on the stereo amp, and use your current front speaker's for both HC and Stereo duties,if space is at a premium!!!!

EDIT-JD beat me to it!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the answers. I followed most of it but still a tad unsure. Pardon my ignorance but not 100% sure what left and right pre-outs are.

Currently my amp/speakers are bi-amped. So the amp is told I am running a bi-amped system, the chord rumour 4 speaker cable I have is connected to the fronts speaker output on the amp into the HF terminals on the speakers (+ & -) and the surround back speaker output (may also be known as channel 6 & 7 (don't quote me)) on the amp connects to the LF terminals on the speaker (+ & -).

Hope that makes sense to you.

So theoretically if I bought a Cyrus 8 XPD (and a matching CD8SE CD player), I could connect the cyrus CD player to the cyrus amp (obviously). the cyrus amp to the pioneer amp (using left and right pre-outs?), then i could run separate speaker cables from both the pioneer amp and the cyrus amp to the HF & LF terminals on my tannoy speakers (one amp to LF and the other to HF?). I would then (somehow) instruct the pioneer amp to use the cyrus amp when playing CD's, or would I just by-pass the pioneer amp totally when using the cyrus and playing CD's?

I think I'm lost again.

And after all this had been done would my existing speakers be a good match with the cyrus cd player/amp combo?

Sorry to sound thick but at least I'm not complaining about why my amp is only a 4 star amp (lol)

 

[Andrew Everard]

Almost right. You run the front preouts of the receiver to the Cyrus, and then only the Cyrus is connected to the front speakers - the Pioneer isn't connected to the speakers' terminals at all. The Cyrus now acts as the power amplifier for the front left and right speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Andrew - Thank you for your very timely response. That makes a lot more sense now. Good news. I am now saving money on not buying additional speakers.

I just need to find my front pre-outs.

So my pioneer amp would only have speaker connections to the subwoofer, the rears and the centre? The cyrus would output to the fronts?

Obvious next question. Am I greatly compromisng my home cinema sound by using the cyrus amp instead of the pioneer?

And will the cyrus sound ok with the tannoy revolution DC6T towers (for CD playback)?

 

[chebby]

Why do you need to buy a 2ch system?
I have just scanned some reviews for your Pioneer equipment and the Tannoy speakers and I am left wondering why you would need anything more than a good quality dedicated CDP (at most).

What Hifi commented specifically on the Stereo peformance of the SC-LX81 saying....

"The soundstage is wide and extremely well-integrated, with vocals and instruments being clear and defined without ever drawing the ear away from the other elements - which is absolutely key at this level."

 

[Anonymous]

The Cyrus will be more than capable of driving your fronts better than your AV amp but remember you can still biwire from the Cyrus as it has 4 speaker connections. If you want more from your fronts you can add an extra Cyrus power amp to biamp at a later stage but I think you'll be surprised at how good it sounds in AV. You may find the Pioneer sounds better too as you'll have more juice to power your other speakers!

 

[Anonymous]

chebby:
Why do you need to buy a 2ch system?
I have just scanned some reviews for your Pioneer equipment and the Tannoy speakers and I am left wondering why you would need anything more than a good quality dedicated CDP (at most).

What Hifi commented specifically on the Stereo peformance of the SC-LX81 saying....

"The soundstage is wide and extremely well-integrated, with vocals andinstruments being clear and defined without ever drawing the ear awayfrom the other elements - which is absolutely key at this level."

I've always thought that even the cheapest dedicated stereo amps sound better than AV amp's when playing CD's

JD or AE - pursuing this option for a moment (just simply adding a CD player), what CD players should I consider (or how much should I be looking to spend) where I would be able to notice a definete difference in the quality of the sound?.

I like this thread. Each time I post I'm spending less and less. 🙂

 

[Anonymous]

angelface59:The Cyrus will be more than capable of driving your fronts better than your AV amp but remember you can still biwire from the Cyrus as it has 4 speaker connections. If you want more from your fronts you can add an extra Cyrus power amp to biamp at a later stage but I think you'll be surprised at how good it sounds in AV. You may find the Pioneer sounds better too as you'll have more juice to power your other speakers!

Sounds interesting. I have room on my existing rack for four cyrus "boxes". If I add more than that I would need an additional stand/rack which I am trying to avoid at the moment.

I think I have 2 possible "systems". let me know if you can think of better 4-box options.

1) Cyrus CD8SE + PSX-R, Cyrus 8XP d + PSX-R

2) Cyrus CD8SE + PSX-R, Cyrus Pre XP d + 8 Power.

My concern is 2-fold

1) Will the cyrus amp(s) drive the speakers as well as the pioneer does when watching blu-rays?

2) Will the tannoy revolution signature dc6 towers work well with the cyrus kit, when listning to CD's?