Anticipated issues with mixing Active + Passive speakers in Home theatre?


Fellow Agon’ers,

Reaching out for your advice. 

Some years ago I pared down my hifi due to time & space issues and shift into streaming, got myself Dynaudio Excite12 with my Mac using Roon.  (Have a 2Qute + Ultrarendu + STi7)

Now have a slightly bigger place (but still not a lot of time!). My Mac and speakers goes into study. 

Now to the living room. 

I like my music and would like migrate my primary listening to the living room. My wife is serious about her movies. 

So need to architect a system that suits both our needs. Interesting times we live in with the active speaker evolution. 

Would like to have component lean setup for the AV in the living room and would like to assess what’s possible to double up to use it for listening. 

I have the KEF 3005 eggs and a PV1D from the past. 

Living room AV Design:

To design a lean setup. Room is horizontal 4.5m depth x 8m. A third (4.5x2.5) of which will be the AV space.

(Buy) Marantz NR1609 7.1, for 5.1 surround. 

(Use) Ultrarendu + 2Qute ..Hook up to analogue IN on receiver 

(Buy) Dynaudio Xeo 6 for front L/R speakers. These are 2 1/2 way active speakers, 3x50W. 31Hz to 23kHz. ..Hook up to receiver pre-out.  

(Use) KEF eggs passives for Center + Rear L/R  ..hook up to speaker terminal on receiver. Will give 3x50 per channel. 

(Use) PV1D as subwoofer ..hook up to Dynaudio Xeo. 

Questions: 

  • How can I address potential phase problems while mixing Actives and passives on the receiver? Any Agon’er see potential problems with this?
  • Is there a way I can connect my Townshend Supertweeter to my receiver front L/R directly (x/o at 30kHz)?


Cheers,

Tom









dylanq
Normally mixing speakers is a reasonable compromise in a home theater so long as you have adequate room correction and the speakers have no glaring issues or differences in dispersion. 

This particular mix is a terrible idea due to the limited dynamic range, efficiency and output of the KEF's.  The center channel especially needs a lot of output, even when bass limited. 

Unless you are going to be listening at very low volumes, this combo won't work. 

Sorry bud. 

What you could consider is using the kefs for surround only duty and a phantom center. It won't be as good as a true center, especially for dialogue intelligibility, but you won't have the dynamic range issues and distortion I expect from the KEFs.

Even as surrounds though, those are going to be iffy. Get some reasonable 2-way bookshelves instead.

Erik

Thanks Erik,

I’m not attached to the KEF’s..if I can’t use it in this setup, will sell them off. 

are you suggesting that I get passive bookshelves for surround? To go with the active Dynaudio fronts. I fancy Wharfedale passives 210/220

Interesting lead with a Phantom center, but can I achieve this on the receiver with active and passive? 

Cheers, Tom. 
Wharferdales perform unusually well for their price range and should be easy to integrate.

Using a "phantom" center has to do with your receiver/processor. See if it has a setting for it. 

Best,

E