Ok, here is the scenerio; I have just purchased the Marantz 5500. I can't afford a set of HT speakers right now. I do have 4 Advents. 2 Lecacy III floor standing behemoths and 2 Graduate bookshelf speakers (18"H). Actually, they sound spectacular with the 5500.
My problem is finding a suitable center speaker. From what I've read it may be difficult to timber-match these speakers. I have a chance to buy two baby Advents (12"H) speakers that came from the same series as the ones I have. Now, the question. Is it possible to use one of the baby Advents(or the Graduates, whatever makes sense) as a center speaker...and the other as a back speaker for 6.0? Would this work at least fairly well? If not, anyone have any suggestions for a good timber-match for these classic Advents?
That would be just fine. The main problem with centre channels is placement, as you want it placed right in the centre of the tv/screens viewing area. This is the main reason centre channels are designed to be placed flat on top of the tv. As long as you find good spots for them they will do just fine.
I have a similar probleme. My HT situation is that there is no place above or below the tv. I have placed a single bookshelf speaker inside my HT cabinet, and it fits perfectly. However, two issues have arisen that i am concerned about.
First, since it's snuggly fit inside the cabinet, would this not result in extreme sound distortion/boominess? Can this be fixed by fooling aroudn with the Center Channel EQ? (I can adjust the center channel through my Yamaha HTR5760)
Second, the bookshelf speaker is placed on it's side, resulting in a tweeter on the left and a woofer on the right. Is this an extreme faux-pas, or should it be alright?
I'm running out of optionn. Maybe posting pictures of my set up will result in more feedback.
If im not mistaken the reciever has yapo so that would take care of the boomieness and distortion caused by acoustics or you could do it manualy in the GEQ menu for each speaker
For the speaker on its side problem i would recomend some playn around with movining it from left to right a couple of inches but as a good rule of thumb place the tweeter to the midlle of the TV screen
It has worked wonderfully. I found a tip on the net to buy square, rubber feet with adhesive and 2 pie-shaped door stops. Basically, you can put the rubber feet on the "front" of middle speaker to keep it slipping off of the TV, and then you use the door stops on the "back". You can slide the speaker up and down the doorstops until you find a good angle for the tweeter (and yes, Cory is right, it works best to aim the tweater at the middle of the TV screen).
After some playing around, it works just great!.
So, my set-up as of now is:
Two 32" Advent Legacy III [Mains] (10.5" Woofer and 1.5" soft dome tweeter)
One 16" Baby Advent [Center] (6.5" Woofer and 1" ferrofluid-cooled dome tweeter)
Two 18" Advent Graduates [Surrounds] (8.5" Woofer and 1" ferrofluid-cooled dome tweeter)
And, I have one Baby Advent left over which will become the back speaker when I find more room.
This set-up absolutely rocks!! Terrific base, I don't think I'll need a subwoofer any time soon.
Thanks for all your help, everyone. If there are any suggestions or tips to add...I'd surely appreciate it. I'd like to know if anyone thinks I'm better off using the Graduate as the center and the Baby's as the surrounds...the graduates are a little larger than the baby's and do have a bigger driver...maybe a better sonic match for the Legacy's??