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  1. #1
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    Anybody mixed speakers from different series?

    I've owned the B&W 703 for several years now in a stereo only configuration. In the next few months (certainly before the end of this year) I want to expand this system into a 5.1 surround. My problem is that in my room and cabinet set up I cannot accomodate the HTM7 centre. Therefore thinking of using the speakers from the 600 series for rear surrounds and centre. Has anyone else done this? How successful has this been? I understand B&W is releasing a new 600 series, with at least one of the centres having an FST mid-range similar to that on the 703. Perhaps that would mate well with my speakers.

  2. #2
    jvc
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    Still Learnin' jvc's Avatar
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    You can try turning off the center channel, in the receiver's setup menus, and let your mains create a "phantom center". That way, the center sound will be timbre matched with the mains. A lot of folks do this, to save money on a center speaker.

  3. #3
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    You can try the phantom center channel mode....I've had mixed success with it. It's acceptable if you're the only person watching the movie and you sit in the sweet spot, I find it terribly inadequate if you move a bit off axis though. I would get the best center channel that you could and go cheap on the surrounds if your budget is a limiting factor. The center channel is a very important part of the surround field.

    Timbre matching the surrounds isn't nearly as important as matching the front 3 speakers, you don't want to go too cheap, but a lot of the cues sent to the surrounds are just ambience and a few special effects. Most of the dialogue, music, and intense audio sections of a DVD will be played through the front 3 speakers. You might be able to use the 600 series to match your mains, but I would try my hardest to test your proposed center channel in your home first before buying. If your receiver has the parametric eq feature, it might help a bit, but speaking from experience, there's nothing more distracting ina 5.1 system than a voice that changes tone significantly as it pans from left, to center, to right. I think you might get lucky with the 600 series center, most companies tend to aim for the same voicings on all their speakers, so the 600 might be a good enough match. They aren't bad speakers by any means.

  4. #4
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    Thanks fellas

    I want to enjoy the full effects available to us from DVD, but due to space and money constraints I need to limit my expenditure. I know that the centre speaker is most important, and in our situation, I sorely miss it. My wife is a little hard of hearing, and when we are watching movies, she's constantly asking "What did they say?"

    I'm hoping a good centre speaker will at least make speech more intelligible.

  5. #5
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Definitely do your listenings first!

    B&W has a spotty history when it comes to adequately timbre matching the center and surround speakers on the 600 series. And from what I understand, the 600 and 700 series are also notably different in how B&W voiced them. If your local dealer will allow, you should arrange to borrow the center speakers from the 600 and 700 series, and make note of any changes to the timbral match across the front soundstage. Just make sure that you level match the center channel with a SPL meter.

    With the surround speakers, I would suggest that you try both a set of bookshelf speakers and the dipolar surround speakers. I generally did not like how B&W designed their dipolar surrounds for the 600 series (I have not heard the current versions, which no longer adhere to the THX guidelines -- not a bad thing IMO). In the end, you might decide that you like the direct firing bookshelf speakers better.

    If you got space and budget constraints, I would actually opt for a pair of 700 series bookshelf/surround speakers as the surrounds first before going to the center speaker. A receiver can create a convincing phantom center effect (as Kex said, limitation being how it shifts when you go off-axis), but a convincing surround effect requires properly aligned speakers off to the side. To me, the split surround effect is by far the biggest leap forward when making the jump from two-channel to 5.1.
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  6. #6
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    Great advice

    I think I'll wait until the new series 600 become available and then arrange a comparison between the 700, the old 600 and the new 600, particularly the one with the FST mid. For rears, I'm thinking that the smallest bookshelfs from the 600 range would do - after all, they will mainly be reproducing special effects, and at this stage I don't intend going into DVD-A nor SACD - good titles way too hard to find - and I don't have the equipment to play them anyways.

  7. #7
    Forum Regular Woochifer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by StanleyMuso
    I think I'll wait until the new series 600 become available and then arrange a comparison between the 700, the old 600 and the new 600, particularly the one with the FST mid. For rears, I'm thinking that the smallest bookshelfs from the 600 range would do - after all, they will mainly be reproducing special effects, and at this stage I don't intend going into DVD-A nor SACD - good titles way too hard to find - and I don't have the equipment to play them anyways.
    Definitely give a careful listen before deciding how you want to go with the surrounds. Differences in how speakers reproduce the highs make a notable difference in the overall cohesion of the surround soundfield. With a lot of movies, indeed you can get away with non-matching surrounds because a lot of older movie soundtracks primarily mix ambient cues into the surround channels with not a lot of sound effects that bridge with the front channels.

    But, with a stellar soundtrack like Master and Commander in which the sound effects are highly directional and equally tied in with the front and surround soundstage, a properly matched set of surround speakers make a huge difference in how immersive the experience is. Some newer soundtracks get repurposed for home theater, and those matching surrounds really help with those titles in particular, as well as with a lot of concert/music DVDs.

    Personally, I would opt to go without a center speaker rather than non-matching surround speakers. Perhaps the newer 600 series would match more closely with the 700 series, so definitely weigh you options before assigning a lower priority to the surround speakers.
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    Sony UBP-X800
    Sony Playstation 3 (MediaLink OS X Server)
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    JVC HR-S3912U
    Directv HR44 and WVB
    Logitech Harmony 700
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    Linksys WES610



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