Can you have a unbalanced Setup?

[PaniqL]

If you buy speakers with ranging specs , will there be a quality loss.
Maybe the Subwoofer is too big for the speakers and overpowers the setup etc?
Or the surround speakers are poor quality compared to the front speakers?

What the deal with this kind of thing?
Is there a lot off leeway with speakers with different specs?

Panic

[Nick The Slick]

This is such a general question. I don't see how it could be considered a problem as long as you buy all of your speakers from the same series (i.e. all Monitor from Polk, or all Reference from Klipsch etc.). As long as you let your receivers EQ do it's job and adjust the levels, distances, and crossover appropriately everything should stay in balance. When you run your EQ program it adjusts the levels of each speaker and sub appropriately so that they all play at the same level, so even if you have a good massive sub and tiny speakers, they will all play at the same level at any volume (until of course you reach a volume where the small speakers can't keep up and they distort but the sub will continue to play fine). Now if you go mixing and matching different brands and series then I can see where things could get challenging as far as one speaker sounding much different than the next.

[callas01]

I have a high-end front soundstage with lower-end surrounds, does just fine.

[Canada]

The most important thing is to have timber matched speakers. You can have a different subwoofer as subwoofers only deal with the lower end frequencies.

[callas01]

Originally Posted by Canada

The most important thing is to have timber matched speakers. You can have a different subwoofer as subwoofers only deal with the lower end frequencies.

Id agree with the front end you have to have the speakers timber match, and it would be nice for the surrounds to match, but the surrounds dont have to be from the same line or manufacturer as the front 3. The surrounds themselves should be matched tho.

OP if you have polks now and you want to upgrade the speakers but cant afford to get all 5 or 7 speakers at once, get the front 3 first. Then save up for the rears and get them later. Thats what ive been doing and Im happy I did it that way.

[v_squared123]

Just be sure sound from all speakers are equalized through your receiver or some software that way even if you have an over powering sub it can be flattened to blend in with your speakers and not sound to overpowering