$150 Center Speaker Suggestions

[Defshep]

Hey, it's me! Mr. Budget! I currently have a home theater completely comprised of Sony speakers, except for the sub (Yamaha sw215). I was thinking the center channel(sscn550h) is sounding a little strained lately, since I hooked up my Panasonic sahe200. I think, at some point I'll be replacing everything, but for now I want a little more oomph and clarity from my center. My Sony towers (ssmf650h) sound fine, as well as the surrounds (ss150h). My price range is around $150, and I like to spend my cash locally. This limits me to these:

Cerwin-Vega E76C
JBL Northridge EC35
Yamaha NS-C444

Any opinions? Another question is, would these "lower end", more reputable manufacturers products be a serious upgrade?

[L.J.]

Hey, it's me! Mr. Budget! I currently have a home theater completely comprised of Sony speakers, except for the sub (Yamaha sw215). I was thinking the center channel(sscn550h) is sounding a little strained lately, since I hooked up my Panasonic sahe200. I think, at some point I'll be replacing everything, but for now I want a little more oomph and clarity from my center. My Sony towers (ssmf650h) sound fine, as well as the surrounds (ss150h). My price range is around $150, and I like to spend my cash locally. This limits me to these:

Cerwin-Vega E76C
JBL Northridge EC35
Yamaha NS-C444

Any opinions? Another question is, would these "lower end", more reputable manufacturers products be a serious upgrade?

If your patient, you may want to linger around Good Guys for awhile. I talked to someone there the other day and he said prices would drop below the current 10% off audio in about a month.

[Defshep]

Unfortunately no Good Guys close. I forgot about Circuit City's Polk and Infinity speakers.

[Woochifer]

If this is an interim step, then I would say forget about the center speaker upgrade and save your money for a more substantive upgrade. Any investment you make right now would just push back any upgrades that you might want to do later on.

The key with selecting a center speaker is with how well it matches your mains, not how good it sounds by itself. Upgrading to a severely nonmatching center speaker is not an upgrade, because it can result in severely compromised front imaging coherency. If you can't find something with a sufficient match, then you're actually better off without a center speaker altogether.

I don't understand what you mean by the center speaker sounding "strained lately." Are you saying that the characteristics have changed recently? Or are you just sick of it? Or is this something that you've noticed all along?

Have you tried repositioning the center speaker, or level matching it to the mains? Some receivers also allow you to vary the delay timing on the center speaker. In general, if you have the center speaker on a straight line with the main speakers, then you need to increase the delay because the center speaker is actually closer to the listening position than the L/R speakers, and the sound from the center speaker will arrive before the L/R speakers.

[L.J.]

Unfortunately no Good Guys close. I forgot about Circuit City's Polk and Infinity speakers.

As everyone says, give em a try at your house. That 30 day return policy is a beautiful thing.

I tried Boston, Klipsch and Energy. I liked that JBL EC35 but I never gotta chance to hear it.