Is matching speakers as critical in an age of room correction and/or eq?

[Sunsanvil]

Background: I have a trio of M&K MPS2510 passive speakers which have been wonderful, but in order to squeeze a larger screen into what is a decidedly small space I need to find something which is a more traditional low-profile (the cherry veneer cabinets of the M&Ks are a full 13" high).

The Dali Sonik Cinema is a contender for sure (its <7" high, reasonably efficient, and an amp-pleasing 6ohm), but I dont love the idea of having to replace the mains as well (literally would triple the cost of this endeavor). Back in the day the prevailing wisdom was always to never mix and match speakers, stick to at least the same brand, better yet the same series, better still identical speakers.

So the topic for discussion is, in a day and age where Audyssey (etc.) is the norm, is it as critical to match speakers? Even with the three identical M&K cubes I have now, panning test noise reveals that in-room they sound quite different (thanks to acoustics, laws of physics, etc). Thankfully with XT32 they actually match. My thought is that A) if even identical speakers dont necessarily match in-room to begin with and B) we are eq'ing each speaker individually anyway, maybe we can we get away with more of a miss-match than in years past?

 

[staticV3]

1. You can't EQ directivity.

2. To match speakers with similar directivity but different on-axis response, you ideally want reliable frequency response data (e.g. Klippel NFS) and a way to apply the correction.

Doing it with auto EQ based on steady-state in-room response is suboptimal.

 

[Duke]

Doing it with auto EQ based on steady-state in-room response is suboptimal.

Agreed.

What we want to get right is the direct sound from both loudspeakers, and it is highly probable that any broadband "in-room" correction will degrade the direct sound from the speakers, and even worse if a different "corrective" in-room EQ is applied to each loudspeaker because now the direct sound will be different from both speakers, degrading the imaging.

"Room correction" is beneficial at low frequencies where the room interaction is perceptually dominant, but imo it is usually detrimental further up the spectrum, where the direct sound is perceptually dominant. Imo the calculated "Schroeder frequency" is probably the highest we want to go with "room correction". North of that and imo we should be correcting the direct sound, not the in-room sound. Don't be seduced by a nice-looking in-room curve (except in the bass region).

 

[Ellebob]

I have been a calibrator for decades and much of the above is true. Here is my subjective opinion. The rooms that I find sound the best are the ones that use identical speakers all around. Everything is seamless and just sounds Right. I don't see it much in homes as I do recording studios as aesthetics and multiple seating locations have a bigger role in most homes.

Before I take a lot of backlash, other rooms don't sound bad. It is not like they are distorted or grating to listen. They are just not as good..