Chill3 Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 good stuff rocky, yeah no point going for something that doesn't take a step forward. I remember a demo I did with some ALR jordans once. lovely mains but demoed with B&W 800 series centre. awesome combination. and was good reason they didn't use the ALR jordan centre there are some amazing centre speakers from B&W, Focal, tannoy, klipsch, paradigm and monitor audio too in their platinum range. one thing I found paramount in ability to do vocals well was a centre with either tweeter midrange concentric design or with vertically alined tweeter mid range arrangement. the late colin whatmough gave us a good explanation of why this is the case at a gtg some years ago and I posted an example of these from paradigm earlier in the thread. good design seems to go hand in hand with end result. some makers tend to have a centre I think for filling a spot in their range whereas others put quite a bit of effort in a good one. budgets often get in the way of doing things properly ! for anyone using stand mounts a great alternative to using a centre is a 3rd stand mount….get that vertically aligned tweeter/mid range and perfectly matching centre as your left and right speakers and works a treat in a sub sat setup. whatmough had a great pack available in the synergy range that did just that a while ago, same stand mounts all around and a decent sub to cover the low end. did both music and home theatre really well and sounded great when they demoed. this stuff doesn't have to be rocket science and doesn't have to cost the earth for people on a budget. Agree Al I don't get along well with the common "Midrange, Tweeter, Midrange" style centre - they have a very clear sweet spot and to me just don't do what a good centre could, midrange with tweeter above are always better IMO - or a two way book shelf speaker, which is what I currently use 1
gemini07 Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 I spent a short time dabbling with 5.1, I bought rears and centre from the same manufacturer as my stereo pair, I found this was the best way of getting the same overall tonal balance which I think is important. The centre when set up correctly integrates the panning and dialogue much better than phantom setups in my opinion. I went back to 2.0 because the receiver was not as good as my stereo amp for music. Did you try using the front pre-outs from your HT receiver into your stereo amp, to use the better quality amplification for both music and movies (if possible)? In any case, this raises an interesting issue: whilst I agree that it makes sense to use the same speaker brand/type especially for the three front speakers, the benefit argument assumes the amplification driving those speakers is also going to be consistent. When you use a combined HT receiver/stereo amp setup, it's unlikely that the amplification quality is going to be the same, eg, I use my Audia Flight stereo amp for my front two mains and my Marantz receiver for my centre (and rears). The Marantz is clearly not as good as the AF and sounds quite different. So I have tried to compensate by using a different centre speaker to even out the sound variations for voicing - Dynaudio instead of Osborn - as the Osborn sounds a little dull with the Marantz amplification. Hope that makes sense.
warrengday Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 70% of the sound comes through the centre channel --- so you want this information delivered well, so a good centre or fronts. Matching is vital. So you want a C that matches the quality of your LR. I was playing with a friend's music/movie system and discovered his amp could biamp his LR, doing this made his system better as a 4.1 than a 5.1. Surrounds create a field. In the early days of going surround I watched a dts LaserDisc in 2.0, which was impressive; then watched a worn rental VCR in 4.0, and was got completely lost in the story as there were lots of quiet subtle sounds all around me, drawing me into the story.
rocky500 Posted January 16, 2015 Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) The best success I have had with center speakers, is to get the best center I like the sound of. Not worrying about matching it to the fronts. I have some JBL Front speakers and matching center and just came across a B&W speaker (my old center) I have had packed away many years ago. Sounds better than the JBL center! It definitely sounds different to the JBL center but it doesn't seem to matter as what comes from the center and fronts are very different anyway. Music sounds great too. Edited January 16, 2015 by rocky500 2
NQB Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 Loving 4.1 so far. Needs a good reciever to pull it off though. All comes down to how good your centre image is.
Steam Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 Is anyone using their TV as a centre speaker? I tried it for a bit but somehow, some why, the vocals become less audible. I was wondering if anyone does cc as tv successfully. I would be highly suspicious of anyone that claimed success using the TV speakers as the centre. The speakers are rubbish and their directivity all over the place. As I suggested earlier 4.1 is probably better than 5.1 using a rubbish center channel. The rubbish channel just muddies the image and confuses things. So then you can't follow the dialog. 2
howze Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 What about something like the aaron cc240 where the tweeter and mid are off center supposedly so the sweet spot is more spread out http://www.aaronhifi.com.au/product.php?prod_id=15
betty boop Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 What about something like the aaron cc240 where the tweeter and mid are off center supposedly so the sweet spot is more spread out http://www.aaronhifi.com.au/product.php?prod_id=15 that doesn't have a vertically aligned tweeter / mid range. which is what helps if sitting off centre. the aaron will still be better than 4.1 or 2.1 systems with respect central image if going off centre. but centre speakers with tweeter/midrange aligned are still better in my experience. that said try check out for yourself. one thing to look out for centres with tweeter mid range horizontal and offset from centre like in the aaron there, is that the sound if sitting on the left is tad different to if were sitting on the right...due to just the orientation of the drivers
howze Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 Well ive got one currently sitting in my lounge room just havent had a good a good chance to test it yet as my partner has been home and her version of a loud movie isnt loud, but i was runing a mythos 3 center which was only 2 way so this is gonna be different anyways 1
betty boop Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 in the aussie brand centre speakers, krix have a couple of pretty decent centre speakers and not hugely expensive, quite reasonably priced and great match for their floor standers, krix vortex, Krix epicentrix, can put together a pretty decent front stage, as thought by krix to be a winner here a few years ago, though am sure this is what krix would like you to get as a front stage from their cinema ranges 1
howze Posted February 15, 2015 Posted February 15, 2015 That last picture i may have to clean myself up after 1
mpearce38 Posted February 16, 2015 Posted February 16, 2015 looks like the opening scene from back to future 1
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