speaker synergies

hi guys,

i know this is a long shot, or perhaps wishful thinking, but what the heck i will ask anyway... if anyone knows, you wil...

being unable to find a piccolo solo centre speaker, i am now looking for alternatives. one is, of course, having no centre speaker for the time being... but i started thinking if there was a temporary solution that didn't set me back too much. Also, because i need a pair of rear speakers, this idea came to mind...

there must be a way to look at the speakers' technology and with it find a brand or make that will be more likely to work together with my signums... even if it won't be perfect... so here are the specs, let me know if you know what other brands use similar technology or you think may work well with this kind of technology (for either rear speakers or centres).

The sonus faber signums specification is as follows:
- 86db/w/m sensitivity.
- freq response from 40Hz to 20Khz
- 20mm silk dome tweeter
- 150mm fiber glass multicoated cone mid/woofer
- 6db/octave crossover @ 2.5kHz
- 8 litres box with individual struts of solid walnut used for the outside and lead and copper parts used inside for resonance control.

Would this help you guys have a rough idea of what other speakers use similar or compatible technology? Am I going about it totally the wrong way?


Cheers, everyone!
:beer:
Jack

 

french drive units audax, focal, can have some glass cones....try mission, they use them

 

jack,
to be honest i'd go to your local richers and get a cheapie gale or eltax center. this will give you a center channel until a picolo or equivalent comes along.
cheers


julian

 

Thanks Data. I was thinking of giving mission a go but i was told that they use not very quality equipment these days and their drivers keep blowing up... hmmm... but if they don't use metal tweeters it may be a good idea.

triangle was the french brand that came to mind, but i am having trouble getting hold of them here. perhaps i need to go to france and get one. anyone knows which french dealer i should use? any french croud around?

Jack

 

thanks, julian.

not a bad idea. this was in fact my original thought... just wonder if i won't be better off without a centre altogether for the time being...

another idea would be to use an hi-fi speaker (not a very expensive one of course, perhaps snapping some good old stereo speaker from ebay or something) and use one of them as a centre...

if i had the space i could use both of them... i heard that people have tried this with some success... you wire both to the centre output, either in daisy-chain configuration or in parallel. Daisy-chain will mean you will add up the impedance so the pair may become quite inneficient but in parallel, if they are 8 ohms each, they pose a load of 4 ohms together, which i believe a denon 3802 would be able to drive... and it would bring some body to the centre channel...

anyway, mad ideas, no doubt. and i don't really have the space for two stereo speakers serving as centres... but it was an entertaining idea...
if i had the time and space i wouldn't mind experimenting, actually... :MILD:

anyway, thanks guys. my quest for a piccolo solo continues, and in the meantime, i'll either stay with a phantom centre, look for a cheap hifi speaker to serve as centre or take up julian's idea and try a gale, or maybe a bit better and give an Aegis Evo Centre or a Tannoy MXC-M a go (since they have silk and soft tweeters, they may at least not be bright and pair a bit better with my signums).

any thoughts welcome.

:beer:
Jack

 

Jack, go on www.hifibitz.com and get yourself a m7c2 for £60-bloody bargain-it was £150 new, very clear dialogue and un coloured sound. A true bargain belter. That would give the eltax/gale turd a run for their money i garuntee you matey. Im not a big AV fan but ive had it for over 2years and its an exceptional centre speaker at a very good price. Of course then, u can save up gor a matching Sonus faber 1. Ive owned too many mission speakers to mention, only had problems with 1 set which were the awful 702e's whihc had rattling front baffles, apart from that the m7 series have great build and never had a fault with them....apart from when i blew a cone off my m71's(but that was my own fault-played at ear bleeding levels with 2 bridge Rotel RB-03 180wpc, just for a laugh to see how far the dinky m71s could be pushed )

Im thinking about going into multichannel audio with a Tannoy Sensys DCC and another pair of DC1S , the DCC is truly designed to offer seemless integration with the DC1's as they even have the same enclosure volume, crossover point and frequency response.

Maybe Sonus Faber do something similar for the signums??

Ultra

 

jack,
you can get a gale center for 9.99 from richers. any center is going to be better than none as a lot of films have all the dialogue coming from the center speaker so you'd have a wierd experience with no speaker there (unless your amp can create a phantom center - but for a tenner.....)
cheers

julian

 

Wow, that is cheap julian! Well heres an EVEN cheaper solution, buy a pair of those £10 aristons from richer sounds and you'll have a centre and centre/rear speaker for 6.1 they might even outperform your Sonus fabers, causing you to relegate them to centre speaker duties


Ultra

 

Ultrasonic,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to audition a few or go for the richersounds approach (which is more a blind faith option).

The centre is going to be a challenge, no doubt...
I am focusing on getting something that does not sound too boxy, that disappears as much as possible... maybe the small Mordaunt Short? They are small but with a sub the lesser bass may not be much of a problem... anyway, will have to go and listen, if i find one. I'm a bit worried about them being bright...

I'm gonna get the rear speakers first, they are a simpler, less worrying thing to get.

Thanks everyone for your help!
Jack