spasmolytic

I bought a Sony HTIAB about a year and a half ago and want to upgrade the receiver so I have more S-Video inputs (i have a ps2, dreamcast, and DVD player all using S-Video) can I upgrade the receiver and use the existing (crappy) speakers and sub that the HTIAB came with? Then upgrade my speakers later.. Which speakers are most important to upgrade? The left and right?

ckolchak

unless it has proprietary connections, i don't see why you couldn't just upgrade the reciever.

when you upgrade the speakers, i'd upgrade the front three in one pass, and then upgrade the surrounds, if you can't do all 5 at once.

for HT the center is where you get most of the information and is arguably the most important speaker in a 5.1 set-up, howevever any timbre mismatching in the system is going to degrade the overall sound.

spasmolytic

Thanks for the reply but what is Timbre Mismatching?

cowanrg

timbre is basically the speakers' unique tone. for example, every piano made sounds like a piano, yet they all sound a little different. this is timbre.

so for home theatre, if you have different speakers all around, they dont blend because their timbre is different, so the tones will sound different. this isnt something that can be adjusted with treble/bass or anything. its just how the speaker naturally sounds. thats why you really need same speakers all around (well, same type anyway, or at least same brand). ive heard damn good speakers that werent timbre matched and it just didnt work out well.