Timbre-Matching Different Brand Speakers-The Challenge

[Pianoman]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum, & could not find a previous thread on this subject.

I am in the market to upgrade my current HT speaker setup with new side & rear surrounds, but I need wall-mounted, low-profile speakers. I currently have Meadowlark Kestral hot rods for the front left & right channels, and a Meadowlark Petral for the center channel. If Meadowlark had low profile surrounds, my decision would be easy, but they don't. Attached are the specs for the Kestrals.

I am contemplating Sonus Faber Home Wall mounted speakers, ACI Emerald on wall speakers, Dynaudio Audience 42W's and the Vandersteen VSM-1 model. I need smaller footprint speakers for the rear & side surrounds, and these seem like they would be acceptable candidates due to the fact that they are constructed solidly, reviews suggest that they are relatively sonically neutral, are the right size, and I believe all but the Vandersteens have nonmetallic tweeters like the Meadowlarks, which have soft dome tweeters and are 1st order & time coherent.

I'm relatively new to the audiophile world. Any suggestions or direction based on the current set up & the attached Meadowlark website address would be greatly appreciated (crossovers, etc..). To give you a complete picture, I have a Vandersteen sub and 2 small Tannoy mini-monitors currently as rear surrounds. The room is not large, about 11' wide x 16' long x 8' high. I like to listen to multichannel SACD/HT and recently upgraded my front end with a Rotel RSP-1066 pre/pro & a Rotel RMB-1095 multichannel amp, which is why I'm now looking at rear and side fuller range, higher-end speakers. I'm mostly concerned with the timbre-matching issues & having the new speakers blend in with the current front soundstage.

Sorry for the length of this, but I'm in the buying mode & want to make the right decisions, long term.

Thanks,
Pianoman

http://meadowlarkaudio.com/Kestral.htm

[ryewoods]

See if you can bring one of your Meadowlarks (either the center, or the left or right) to the dealer with you when you audition. If the dealer wants to make a sale, he'll hook it up for you so you can see how similar the timbre is.

[Pianoman]

Thanks ryewoods, not a bad idea. Now that you mention that, a Meadowlark dealer near me also carries Vandersteen, so I can have him set up the Kestrals and the VSM-1 for a better idea. Thanks for the idea. What I was thinking about was, what do you look for in the crossovers (if anything) for the different speakers to sort of 'match' them up, or does every speaker have it's own personality/signature, so it's more your ears than the specs that are ultimately important. Maybe I'm overananalyzing or barking up the wrong tree.

[Geoffcin]

Thanks ryewoods, not a bad idea. Now that you mention that, a Meadowlark dealer near me also carries Vandersteen, so I can have him set up the Kestrals and the VSM-1 for a better idea. Thanks for the idea. What I was thinking about was, what do you look for in the crossovers (if anything) for the different speakers to sort of 'match' them up, or does every speaker have it's own personality/signature, so it's more your ears than the specs that are ultimately important. Maybe I'm overananalyzing or barking up the wrong tree.

I would definitely look into Thiel speakers. I have not heard the Meadowlark speaker line, but from what I've read I believe thier sound to be very similar to the Thiels.

http://www.thielaudio.com/THIEL_Web/Pages/modelintro.html

[Pianoman]

Thanks for the lead Geoffcin. Checking the Thiel website, it appears that there are no smaller footprint speakers, with the exception of the powerpoint, which appears to be primarily geared for movies, but I'll read up on them. They are time coherent since they are coaxial, but again, they have a metal dome tweeter which may take away from the main soundstage Meadowlark soft dome tweeters. I'll check 'em out anyway.