Audio advice and discussions with audiophiles and professionals. Free discussion forums, open to all and frequented by industry experts. Ask questions and get advice on stereos, speakers, hi-end amplifiers, pre-amps, home theater, tube hi-fi, turntables, vinyl, tweaks, music, films, video, DVDs and more.
Hi Wayne, I recently read a post about surround sets. They said you should consider that a center speaker has to have the same sound-color and warmth as the mains, or else a train will drive from left to right and sound different in the middle. So if I would build a pair of theather 4 pi's as mains, and use 2 pair of one or two pi's as surround. And I use eminence in all of them, they would have same sound color. But can you give me help with the center? I mentioned to take a 10" model and mirror it trough the middle, and use my fanes for it. But I should use eminence. Thank, erik.
If possible, use a Theater four π speaker for the center channel to match your speakers on either side.
Well, That's a bad idea. Of course it'll work, but the 4 Pi's are so huge, and they're expensive for this purpose. And there not magneticly shielded. So putting the 4Pi on the television, is no option because it leaves no space for a screen coming out of the wall. Putting the television on the 4pi is no option because its not magneticly shielded and television may get troubles cause of the vibrations. No, what I need is a center that's low and wide in front. Isn't it so that the eminence speakers have more or less the same sound. I mean, if I would use a JBL for the mains and eminence for the centers you would really have a problem. Can you tell me about the 4 Pi's, would they need a sub added for movie use? Or do they give enough bass. Can imagine that they are design for clean, dynamic music experience. And linear effect would be lost when stuffing much bass into them. Need to make well over thought choises, else I get disappointed. Also still thinking bout using all JBL. How much more expensive is the Theater 4Pi with 15" if using JBL? Can you give a percentage? Don't have any idea what to do with the kappa's then. Thanks, Erik
Hi Erik, depending on your room acoustics you will not need a sub. I was shocked to find that my 4 Pi's do better than all but one of the subs I used to sell. (& I worked in a nice shop, not mass market) Bass like this will rattle anything within 30 feet. If you build the box solid, it will vibrate less than most pieces of your house (assuming it isn't concrete). I think you could put a TV on my speakers. You can get metal cylinders to cement onto magnets & shield them for theater use. Build one 4 Pi in a good shape for this, maybe 28" tall and 33" wide (just guessing). you could slighty slope the front to aim the horn at listening height. sounds like fun, I might do 5 channel some day. I bet 6 or 7 Pi for the rear would be amazing. Hmmmm. Thomas
Hi Thomas, Well, you would be amazed by the magnetic field coming from the magnets, they would molest your tele. When I was still living with my parents, I had a very small tv. I one-time finished my first sub, and used it for a while in my room. I put the television on it. After a few days I finaly noticed the change of color in it. Red became green. I found out it came from the sub's magnet. The change in color didn't go away until a friend of mine banged it on the floor a couple times. Interesting story, no... ........nevermind! I'm planning on buying a THX certified AV-receiver. It must be a thrill. The new types have all new decoders and a flashable 1mb chip, for upgrading in the future. You can link practically everything through them, and with a good remote and the built-in 12v triggers you can operate everything from your chair (screens and light as well). And you have 6.1 and 7.1 output (6.1: you have extra rear centre, 7.1 you have extra pair surrounds). Plus loads of options for expanding and playing around. Beats me, would be something! Kinda like nice subs, but if the theaters will do, alright! One problem, thx-receivers will let everything above 80Hz for the main and surround speakers. The subs get 80Hz and less. Don't think one can set amp for letting everything through to the mains. Thanks, Erik
Hi Erik, you can check out the center channel I made using a horn on my webpage. Its in the Speakers section. I was not able to find any 6" drivers that had higher than 91db efficiency that were shielded. maybe you could find some alnico magnet 6" high efficiency. I have the horn padded down quite a bit since I can only get 94db out of the two woofers. then, you will have to boost the db to the center in the receiver. but hay, thats why your new receiver is going to have all those nifty option! You can buy a Klipsch RC-7 which is horn loaded and 98db or better. it will set you back around 500 usd. you have to buy factory shielded speakers or use speakers with Alnico magnets. forget about trying to shild anything yourself. The one I have works great but it was a project. check it out bill http://www.woodhorn.com
Erik, While I was operations manager for Now Audio Video stores I was often called upon to degauss televisions that people had put on speakers or generally magnetized. I am all too familiar with this problem. I also routinely serviced speakers that were so called sheilded units. I can tell you that except for Dynaudio and Morel, all other loudspeakers that I have seen with video shielding had nothing more than a metal cup or a ring magnet fitted on the back of the motor. Both have air holes for motor venting. You can obtain rather large ring magnets from scientific hobby sources. You can also seperate old speaker motors of appropriate size, and steal the magnet. Glue it on the back of your speaker magnet in reverse polarity, and thats it. You will need strong hands and good clamps however. Any magnetically conductive metal covering of sufficient thickness will work as well. Lots of metal objects can be found in hardware and farm supply stores that are ferrous and of good size and shape for the job, you might drill a hole for venting in the middle. This doesn't remove all of the stray field but it will reduce it to "negligible" levels. Since a few seconds of exposure will not usually harm a TV set, you could try your efforts by moving the magnet near the TV to see if you have done it. This may seem a little silly, but you asked for video friendly Pi's. I will bet you will not find too many shielded pro drivers, so you may have to do it yourself. good luck with this, Thomas
While I'm not as familiar with the newest receivers, I would bet money that most of the decent ones will have an xover defeat option. As far as the kappa's go, I'm tempted to offer you some quick cash for them, but I'm up to my nuts with Kappa based speakers in this house as it is. My next system is going to be solid JBL equipment. Adam