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Speakers That Have a Good Center Channel ?

P

Peppered

Senior member
My hearing isn’t the best from my time spent in the Military years ago. I am looking to get a new set of front and center speakers in a couple months.

Any recommendations on what brand has a good center channel. I like hearing all the squeaks, blast and gunfire but if you can't hear all the dialogue it takes a lot away from the movie.

I am not what you call hard hearing but my wife sometimes has a hard time hearing in suround sound even and she has good hearing.

I tried to raise the output lv on my center channel it helped a little but i still miss out on a lot sometimes.

Thanks for any info you can proide.
 
Sounds like something isnt setup quite right if your left/right speakers are overpowering the center. The center is where most of the dialog will come from. What reciever do you have? Have you run the "room correction" for it? (Aydussy or comparable depending on brand)

As fo rme i have a boston acoustics VRC and love it. (paired with VR3's) but you might not be able to find them anymore.

My dad has infinity priumus p362's with the matching center and they sound good as well.

The polk monitor series has also gotten decent reviews but i havent heard them so cant really comment.
 
I Have Bower's and Wilkins fronts center and surround I have a onkyo receiver cant rember the model number but is a newer one I got this year. We were stuck by lightning earlier this year the so I had to replace the Denon Receiver and a lot of other stuff in my house.
The speakers never sounded as good as they did when I had the Denon hooked to them.
I hope the lightning didn’t mess up my speakers too.

But even with the Denon the center channel never sounded right. I used auddussy to set both of them up and made some minor adjustments after it was corrected.
 
I the speakers are mesed up there is no way I can spend what I did for the ones I have polk energy and such will be more in my budget range.
 
What is your budget?

If upping the level on the center speaker didn't help, you might also try buying a center channel that is a notch or two up the food chain as compared to your left and right mains.

-KeithP
 
I thought you needed to but a center that was matched to your right and left ?
I will have to call araound to see what a upgrade to the center cost I dont no of any online store's that carry Bowers and Wilkins that you can buy direct from?
 
Peppered said:
I thought you needed to but a center that was matched to your right and left ?
Click to expand...

If you stick with one manufacturer and just move one level up, you should be fine. That is what I did when I bought my 5.1 system (Definitive Technology) many years ago and it worked out great.

I may be wrong but I don't believe B&W have any authorized online retailers.

-Keith
 
generally yes you want to keep speakers matching as much as you can (least the front three). Stepping up a model in the center usually wont impact sound to much. And i just mean the sound type, timbre. Now if you went with a totally different manufacturer for a center then it might be noticeable.

Have you looked ot make sure the center is actually functioning? Like not a damage/broken tweeter or midbass or something?

Might be worth posting over on avs too to see what those more experienced guys have to recommend.
 
If you've increased the level of the center, have you tried decreasing the rest of the speakers to create a larger contrast?
 
Yes I did I moved the lv's of the fronts down a little at a time, I may just not have enough power to drive them good. This Onkyo was recommended to me from Crutchfield, I didn't buy it there I got it from Amazon they had a lower price.

The room I have it in has about one third of the room in the back. This is not the best for surround sound but the best I can do for now.
 
lol yes I get a hearing test ever year. do to work. No problem with talking to anyone at all.
I have a rep from were I bought them from that is going to look at them to see if ther were damaged from the storm. They sale high in stuff like rotel and more expensive Receivers and. if it is damaged I will see what it cost to fix it.
One other thing the room it is in is panneling if we keep the house we will drywall it. but the panneling should help reflect the sound better

Nice center VI edit, but to big for were for the area. If i tried to set my 50" plasma on it I am afraid it would damage it
 
you need to get a center channel with the same tweeter as your main speakers and preferably the same mid range.
 
For better dialogue clarity make sure you get a 3-way center channel. One that has a tweeter and midrange (in addition to bass drivers).

Like this:

nht-three-c-center-no-grill.jpg


Instead of this:

RX%20Silver_RX%20Centre%20Black%20Oak-m.jpg
 
vi edit said:
My X-Voce is pretty cool. It's a behemoth 🙂

https://public.bay.livefilestore.co...cpV6VIj9lBjQB1CXRiYnhP8iw/IMG_3954.jpg?psid=1

https://public.bay.livefilestore.co...izG7hejtNq4D6i9k4fjsMmReg/IMG_3953.jpg?psid=1

You can pick them up for around $200 now. That's 3' wide and almost 50 pounds of speaker.
Click to expand...

my center

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/details/548649823


There was a sale, buy the mains and get the matching centre free, or it would have cost 1k.
 
Thanks for all the good input everyone.
I have one last question. I always heard that you need to match your center with you front speakers. If I bought a cent not made by B&W how much trouble will that cause me. I have the 683 model for the front's and the 686 for the surrounds.
 
Peppered said:
Thanks for all the good input everyone.
I have one last question. I always heard that you need to match your center with you front speakers. If I bought a cent not made by B&W how much trouble will that cause me. I have the 683 model for the front's and the 686 for the surrounds.
Click to expand...

The issue is panning. Say a car goes from left of the screen to the right, if your centre doesn't match the timbre of your mains, it will sound off. How much off is a big unknown. You can get a bigger centre from b&w and they can tell you which has the same tweeter.

Back to front panning is not as critical.

have you tried pink noise test of all channels? Just to make sure there is no physical damage.
 
I will check the price of the bigger center I may be better off getting 3 used like yours it may be cheaper to do that and will match exactly lol.
 
Peppered said:
I will check the price of the bigger center I may be better off getting 3 used like yours it may be cheaper to do that and will match exactly lol.
Click to expand...

Then you can move your current mains to the back. Or shop for used center that match your current mains.
 
Thanks I just order some sony speakers center left and right. I will keep these until l can get the money for some Deftec or something else better.
If the I don't like the speakers I have 30 days to return them with out anyquestions. that is what i like about Amazon as long as there are the one that ships them they have a good return policy
 
Peppered said:
Thanks I just order some sony speakers center left and right. I will keep these until l can get the money for some Deftec or something else better.
If the I don't like the speakers I have 30 days to return them with out anyquestions. that is what i like about Amazon as long as there are the one that ships them they have a good return policy
Click to expand...

what is wrong with the B&Ws? Just wondering why you would look at Def Techs if you got B&Ws already.
 
I won't say there is anything wrong with them but when i got them I was told i could return them if I din't like them. I got these several years ago. I tried to return them the next day I had off and I was told they don't take returns. I shy away from buying from these guys now.
I can't find a another Dealer that Is close to me that has B&W speakers.
I went into the store to buy Deftech came out with B&W because they all like them so much.
I would need to spend like $600 Dollars for the next step up in the center channel.

I am going to over the air TV in a couple of months to save cost.
I may not be able to afford deftec at that time and may gpo with JBL or something cheaper will have to see what I can get when the time comes.

For now I just wanted to be able to hear what was said and still have surround sound.
 
Peppered said:
I won't say there is anything wrong with them but when i got them I was told i could return them if I din't like them. I got these several years ago. I tried to return them the next day I had off and I was told they don't take returns. I shy away from buying from these guys now.
I can't find a another Dealer that Is close to me that has B&W speakers.
I went into the store to buy Deftech came out with B&W because they all like them so much.
I would need to spend like $600 Dollars for the next step up in the center channel.

I am going to over the air TV in a couple of months to save cost.
I may not be able to afford deftec at that time and may gpo with JBL or something cheaper will have to see what I can get when the time comes.

For now I just wanted to be able to hear what was said and still have surround sound.
Click to expand...

ok. Reason I am asking about Def Techs is because they sort of went down hill after shifting production to China.
 
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