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Old 07-10-2004, 05:31
musicears
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Can I getgood old speakers from old hi-fi system and TO attach to home cinema amplifier and will it sound good or balanced to upgrade my system or will it have no balance.
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Old 07-10-2004, 07:03
cyberdog
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Theres no reason why you cant attach "good old speakers" to a home cinema amp - the important thing is to get a reasonable match across the front three.
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Old 07-10-2004, 15:32
dudly
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what make are your old speakers? and what av amp will you be useing them with?
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Old 07-10-2004, 19:38
MrKev
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I have done jus that, replacing the left and right fronts with some big old quality speakers I had.

There was a bit of fiddling with the level of the centre but other than that it was a no-brainer.

Have a CD player linked to my AV amp and now with the Stereo option and the new (old) speakers it sounds amazing.
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Old 08-10-2004, 03:36
musicears
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Old speakers are wharfdale.
I have integrated system. AIWA BMZ -K7D. It has 2 output 165w 3 output 40w. The system hav two big speakers already 45 cm . The wharfdale are 20 cm higher. SHould I shift big new speakers to side left and right. The put wharfedale to front left and right or other way round. SHould I also get big speaker for the middle front .
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Old 08-10-2004, 18:47
Jim Rae
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There can be a problem with bass response if you simply connect any full range speakers (old or not) to a system that has a sub woofer.

The whole rationale of home cinema kits with a sub woofer is that all the low frequency bass noise from each channels is sent to it and not reproduced through the other speakers.

If the bass is still coming from the other five, it will sound terrible.

So you need to go into the menu and make sure that you select "small speakers" which will cure the problem and let the sub woofer function properly.

Or alternatively, you disconnect the subwoofer...
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Old 08-10-2004, 19:21
MrKev
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Originally Posted by Jim Rae
There can be a problem with bass response if you simply connect any full range speakers (old or not) to a system that has a sub woofer.

The whole rationale of home cinema kits with a sub woofer is that all the low frequency bass noise from each channels is sent to it and not reproduced through the other speakers.

If the bass is still coming from the other five, it will sound terrible.

So you need to go into the menu and make sure that you select "small speakers" which will cure the problem and let the sub woofer function properly.

Or alternatively, you disconnect the subwoofer...
I don't see the relevance of what you say to be honest.

As you said the subwoofer is sent the low frequency 'bass' signals from whatever you are listening to - thus that signal is not sent to the 5 smaller speakers it the normal AV setup. This is at least my understanding.

Now surely when you plug in the full range speakers as say left and right fronts, the same will happen. The sub woofer will get the bass signals and the 5 speakers (now including the full range ones at the front) won't. Just because the full range ones can produce bass sounds doesn't mean they will - they are not being sent the information to do so.

I might be wrong but, but I honestly don't think bass response would be a problem.
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Old 08-10-2004, 20:05
cyberdog
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[quote=Jim Rae]There can be a problem with bass response if you simply connect any full range speakers (old or not) to a system that has a sub woofer.

The whole rationale of home cinema kits with a sub woofer is that all the low frequency bass noise from each channels is sent to it and not reproduced through the other speakers.
QUOTE]

Have to disagree; each channel contains its own bass frequencies, and the subwoofer only gets a signal from the ".1" LFE channel of the amp.
The better the main speakers, the better the sound from them, obviously.
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Old 08-10-2004, 20:25
Jim Rae
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No.

On the systems with small speakers, all the low frequency stuff is filtered out from the five speakers and then is combined into a mono low frequency signal which is sent sent to the sub woofer.

The LFE track is a separate issue and is only available on movies where it is applied.

So what you must do is make sure that the bass is still being filtered out of any large speakers you attach and goes as planned to the sub woofer.

If you don't, there will be bass chaos!

If you use large speakers all round, in theory you shouldn't need a sub woofer at all, except for the LFE track.

It's a matter of personal choice as to how you set the system up, but five speakers and a sub woofer pumping out bass all the one time is very tricky indeed.

And not at all what your local Odeon does...
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Old 08-10-2004, 23:16
MrKev
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OK so the large full range speakers can produce bass where as the small ones cannot.

However, if the signal they receive does not contain the bass frequencies (which is filtered out in the amp and sent to the sub woofer) then they will only produce the high end sounds - thus I can't see a problem.

When using any of the multi channel settings on the amp (be it with real dolby digital or pro logic) the large speakers will surely never recieve and bass sound. Only on a stereo setting would the full signal go left and right - and then the sub woofer is not used.
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Old 09-10-2004, 00:42
Jim Rae
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Sorry - it's not that simple.

You are right to say that if the home cinema gear is set up properly, any large speakers should not get fed with low frequencies, but it has to be set that way.

Many home cinema amps can feed full frequency speakers with the whole sound spectrum and there is a menu setting for this on many of them.

It's the same with the audio section on a computer.

Using stereo is no different - the low frequencies will still be sent to the sub woofer and shouldn't go to the left and right speakers.

The worst of all worlds is a home cinema set up feeding five full frequency speakers with deep bass - and a sub woofer as well.

It just sounds horrible, unless the low pass filter on the sub woofer only allows it to sound at the absolute bottom end...

If any one doubts that, check your home cinema manual.
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Old 09-10-2004, 14:04
MrKev
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I think it is still reasonably simple.

Because the AV amp comes with 5 small speakers the bass will not be being sent to them by default.

Thus when you fit the full range speakers it will still not be being sent to them, they will not produce the bass and there is not problem.

The only way there would be a problem would be if the user actually changed it from the defaults - there would be no reason to do this.
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Old 09-10-2004, 14:22
Jim Rae
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In an ideal world yes.

But what I have found is that when people substitute speakers, they do so because they think big ones will sound better.

If they look at the instructions and see that there is a menu setting for large and small speakers (sometimes medium as well), they then say - "Ah I've got large speakers so I'll change the settings to large to match them."

And then they wonder why it sounds horrible.

Trust - me I've seen it in real life!
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Old 09-10-2004, 15:16
musicears
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My system different from normal. It has two ful range speaker already with 5 speaker each, I think tweeter, normal, and two bigger, and then subwoofer. Then have three satellite. One question. WHy is having 5 diff size speaker not better than all the same plus subwoofer. Me think freq resp must be better.
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