A couple of general stereo questions...

Posted by Brad Broten [IP: 209.82.120.19] on July 30, 1999 at 14:51:05
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In Reply to: A couple of general stereo questions... posted by Tim M. on July 30, 1999 at 12:06:30:

1 - No, ohms matter not. Even SPL is not really a concern any more, which is, in a nutshell, when you feed the same signal to two different speakers one will be louder. The reason these things don't matter is most preamps have features built in to adjust each channel in volume so all speakers are equally loud. What you do have to watch out for, though, is some amps are rated only for 8 ohm speakers, they will not be able to properly drive lower impedance loads. Also of course you will want each pair of speakers to match, front left is same as front right, rear left is same as rear right, etc. This brings us to another topic, timbre matching. To sum it up, if your different channels have vastly different crossover frequencies or driver designs you will easily notice one channel overpowering the other depending on the frequencies at the time. This can be rather subtle and in fact you may only notice that you become fatigued while listening, or uncomfortable so you turn it off. This is a good argument to buy speakers from the same line of the same manufacturer - they will be timbre matched. Good, neutral sounding speakers are able to blend in with other more coloured speakers, but I suspect you will eventually replace the ceiling speakers if you can't match them, so don't worry about trying to build around these speakers. As far as the existing speaker the rating will be on the speaker nameplate, you may have to take one down and check.

2 - see many threads on power in this forum, 80W is usually more than enough.

If you are thinking of adding amplifiers, you should probably take a look at the options available in separates rather than receivers. Go to a high end store (hint: they will be selling stuff you've never heard of before) and ask to hear their best stuff just so you know what to listen for. Then start with the entry level stuff and see if there's something that attracts you to the sound in your price range. So the long answer to #2 is actually yes, adding amps can improve the sound but if you are moving to separates might as well start there!

BTW - I notice you are focusing on speakers and amps. Don't forget you should allocate 1/4 to 1/2 of your budget for the source. See the main page for a more complete discussion of the breakdown and more importantly why. It is the why that counts because as long as you know why someone is pushing you in a certain direction you can decide if it is valid for your case.

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