Mixing B&W with Polk

[Jimf]

Hi I am new to this forum and recently posted a Question B&W 603s or Axiom M60s.Well thanks for all the suggestions and I ended up ordering a pair of B&W 603s.Went for what Ive heard and liked.They have not arrived yet but my question is how bad can it be to mix brands for surround system.My main listen is to 2 channel stereo for music.Movies is second.My mains will of course be the B&Ws and rear are Polk RT15s and a Polk cs300 center.Also have an old Sound Dynamic 12 inch sub.Any ideas what I may be in for?

Thanks Jim

[enrique]

Hi I am new to this forum and recently posted a Question B&W 603s or Axiom M60s.Well thanks for all the suggestions and I ended up ordering a pair of B&W 603s.Went for what Ive heard and liked.They have not arrived yet but my question is how bad can it be to mix brands for surround system.My main listen is to 2 channel stereo for music.Movies is second.My mains will of course be the B&Ws and rear are Polk RT15s and a Polk cs300 center.Also have an old Sound Dynamic 12 inch sub.Any ideas what I may be in for?

Thanks Jim
Congrats on new spkrs.I also have the 603s3.I originally had a def.tech setup procinema 100's w/c2 center and 200tl sub powered with marantz sr7000.I upgraded peice by peice as budget allowed.First receiver rotel rsx1056 then the 603s3.I changed the center to lcr600.I'm still using the pro100's as surrounds and the 200tl sub.Ultimately i will change the surrounds to b&w 601s3.What i'm getting at is you will ultimately need to change your polk center to b&w matching center.The surrounds are not as crucial for now.The sub i dont know anything about your sub if you like it you can live with it.But i believe your most important speaker to change would be the polk center.Just change peice by peice as budget allows i'm sure you can live with the polk center until you can upgrade it.Hope i helped.By the way what are you using for amplification?

[20to20K]

Congrats on new spkrs.I also have the 603s3.I originally had a def.tech setup procinema 100's w/c2 center and 200tl sub powered with marantz sr7000.I upgraded peice by peice as budget allowed.First receiver rotel rsx1056 then the 603s3.I changed the center to lcr600.I'm still using the pro100's as surrounds and the 200tl sub.Ultimately i will change the surrounds to b&w 601s3.What i'm getting at is you will ultimately need to change your polk center to b&w matching center.The surrounds are not as crucial for now.The sub i dont know anything about your sub if you like it you can live with it.But i believe your most important speaker to change would be the polk center.Just change peice by peice as budget allows i'm sure you can live with the polk center until you can upgrade it.Hope i helped.By the way what are you using for amplification?

Enrique is spot on. The timbre matching is much more critical for the center...hardly a concern at all for the rears. Especially for someone like yourself who is much more concerned with two channel stereo listening. If you ever become a stone cold multichannel junkie you will probably want to get an entire B&W setup.

Don't know what kind of other gear you have, but most new AVR's and digital processors have calibration setup functions that will allow you to manually (and sometimes automatically) calibrate all of your speakers Db levels, and eq curves and could help your setup if there are dramatic differences in the sound of your speaker hodgepodge. I've got the Denon 3805 and all you do is connect the calibration mike up, put it in your listening sweet spot and the Denon does the rest for you and stores the settings. You can easily change the settings or disable it for two channel listening. Most newer AVR's have this feature.

Good luck!

[shokhead]

Congrats on new spkrs.I also have the 603s3.I originally had a def.tech setup procinema 100's w/c2 center and 200tl sub powered with marantz sr7000.I upgraded peice by peice as budget allowed.First receiver rotel rsx1056 then the 603s3.I changed the center to lcr600.I'm still using the pro100's as surrounds and the 200tl sub.Ultimately i will change the surrounds to b&w 601s3.What i'm getting at is you will ultimately need to change your polk center to b&w matching center.The surrounds are not as crucial for now.The sub i dont know anything about your sub if you like it you can live with it.But i believe your most important speaker to change would be the polk center.Just change peice by peice as budget allows i'm sure you can live with the polk center until you can upgrade it.Hope i helped.By the way what are you using for amplification?

I've got the 603's in front and 601's for surrounds. If you are going to or already do play DVD-A or SACD,i'd go for the 602's. For me,the o1's are a tad small.

[enrique]

My problem is that the surrounds have to be wall mounted and the 602's will probably be too big(difficult) as opposed to the 601's, putting on stands is not an option..How do you have the 601's mounted. As surrounds do you not like them?

[shokhead]

On stands and as far as movies go,they are fine but for music,abit tinnie or brite.

[Jimf]

Congrats on new spkrs.I also have the 603s3.I originally had a def.tech setup procinema 100's w/c2 center and 200tl sub powered with marantz sr7000.I upgraded peice by peice as budget allowed.First receiver rotel rsx1056 then the 603s3.I changed the center to lcr600.I'm still using the pro100's as surrounds and the 200tl sub.Ultimately i will change the surrounds to b&w 601s3.What i'm getting at is you will ultimately need to change your polk center to b&w matching center.The surrounds are not as crucial for now.The sub i dont know anything about your sub if you like it you can live with it.But i believe your most important speaker to change would be the polk center.Just change peice by peice as budget allows i'm sure you can live with the polk center until you can upgrade it.Hope i helped.By the way what are you using for amplification?
Im using a Yamaha RX V596.

[gotj1]

Im using a Yamaha RX V596.

I have the 602's and 01's. The 602's definately have more bottom end. I have some SACD's but all of those have use surrounds as an echo effect. I have not been disappointed with any of my speakers yet.