12-01-2007, 12:08 AM
Does your receiver have individual speaker adjustments, meaning is there a mode where it plays "white noise" through each speaker, individually, in your setup so you can adjust each speaker to have the same volume level? If not, I'd say a "matched set" is your best bet.
I run a "mixed" setup too (matching Advents in the front and center, Polk subwoofer and Polk rears), but my Yamaha receiver can adjust each channel independently, so I have them tuned to give proper output (though to just the center, "ideal," listening position). My fronts are equal distant and perfectly placed for stereo imaging, the center is a little closer than it should be, so it's a slightly lower volume than the fronts, and the rears have a slightly shorter delay as they're very far away but they're adjusted louder than the fronts because of the distance. If you can "tweak" each speaker having a mixed setup is not a bad option if you don't have the money for a full setup. That being said, matching your center speaker's characteristics to your main front speakers really is essential so that the sound transfers well as an object moves across the front and so dialoge (almost exclusively in the center channel in 5.1 audio) matches the other audio from the front speakers. If you can't find two DCM front speakers that match your center, I'd pitch the center channel and get three matching front speakers first.
~A
I run a "mixed" setup too (matching Advents in the front and center, Polk subwoofer and Polk rears), but my Yamaha receiver can adjust each channel independently, so I have them tuned to give proper output (though to just the center, "ideal," listening position). My fronts are equal distant and perfectly placed for stereo imaging, the center is a little closer than it should be, so it's a slightly lower volume than the fronts, and the rears have a slightly shorter delay as they're very far away but they're adjusted louder than the fronts because of the distance. If you can "tweak" each speaker having a mixed setup is not a bad option if you don't have the money for a full setup. That being said, matching your center speaker's characteristics to your main front speakers really is essential so that the sound transfers well as an object moves across the front and so dialoge (almost exclusively in the center channel in 5.1 audio) matches the other audio from the front speakers. If you can't find two DCM front speakers that match your center, I'd pitch the center channel and get three matching front speakers first.
~A