I need a center channel speaker!

[carracr625]

My system consists of a Sony V555ES driving 2 pairs of Polk Audio RT55i's (front & rear), and of course a small Polk sub (I live in an appartment). When I made my purchase I used the system mainly for music. Now, I am watching alot more movies and I need a center channel. My problem is that the year after I bought the speakers, Polk stopped using the titanium trilaminate dome tweeter. Now I can't find a voice matched center for this setup. I have listened to some of the new models from Polk, and they sound alright. But the highs don't sound quite as crisp as my current RT's. I don't want to have to replace my RT's because I love the way they sound, but I don't want to be distracted when the stage shifts during a movie. I have looked on ebay for a model from the years polk used this tweeter, however when I see one, they seem to be way overpriced for a used speaker (in my opinion). Are there any center channels that would blend nicely with this setup? I have been checking out the reviews on this site, and I like what I read about the BIC America DV62CLR. Would this speaker work for my application? Am I being too anal about this whole voice matching thing? Please give me some advice. Any input will be appreciated. :confused:

[toenail]

I would stick with e-bay and pick up the matching center if you're that concerned about timbre matching. You say "way overpriced", how much are we talking? If they are below 2/3 of original retail you're still saving yourself quite a bit as opposed to buying new, and you're getting what you want.

[Slosh]

You may want to head out to Best Buy and pick up an Athena Technologies AS-C1 for $150. Don't judge it from what you hear in the store; bring it home and listen for a week, then decide if it's a good fit or not. Best Buy has a pretty liberal return policy so you've got nothing to lose.

BTW, Athena recommends 50-100 hours of break-in but I found a weekend of normal listening was all it took to tame the tweeter.

[drseid]

Timbre matching is important in my opinion... If you can find a used center from Polk that matches your mains then I suggest you go with that.

If you can't, or insist on new, then I suggest you try a center from Definitive Technologies... Maybe their ProCenter speaker... It may be a pretty good match for your Polks.

---Dave

[hifimaster]

Actually, with that V555ES, you are in a good situation. It has a very nice parametric EQ for each individual channel. I bet with a little tweaking, you could get a new Polk center to sound very close to your mains.

James

[BRANDONH]

My system consists of a Sony V555ES driving 2 pairs of Polk Audio RT55i's (front & rear), and of course a small Polk sub (I live in an appartment). When I made my purchase I used the system mainly for music. Now, I am watching alot more movies and I need a center channel. My problem is that the year after I bought the speakers, Polk stopped using the titanium trilaminate dome tweeter. Now I can't find a voice matched center for this setup. I have listened to some of the new models from Polk, and they sound alright. But the highs don't sound quite as crisp as my current RT's. I don't want to have to replace my RT's because I love the way they sound, but I don't want to be distracted when the stage shifts during a movie. I have looked on ebay for a model from the years polk used this tweeter, however when I see one, they seem to be way overpriced for a used speaker (in my opinion). Are there any center channels that would blend nicely with this setup? I have been checking out the reviews on this site, and I like what I read about the BIC America DV62CLR. Would this speaker work for my application? Am I being too anal about this whole voice matching thing? Please give me some advice. Any input will be appreciated. :confused:
does your receiver have a center channel pre output (not amplified) for use with a separate mono center channel amplifier?

[nightflier]

I have a Polk CS245i that I was using with my RT600i's for a while, but that I don't need anymore. Would that be adequate?

[carracr625]

I would stick with e-bay and pick up the matching center if you're that concerned about timbre matching. You say "way overpriced", how much are we talking? If they are below 2/3 of original retail you're still saving yourself quite a bit as opposed to buying new, and you're getting what you want
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a little leary buying a used speaker from an unknown person without ever having heard it.



does your receiver have a center channel pre output (not amplified) for use with a separate mono center channel amplifier?
I'm almost positive that it does, but what difference would that make? I have a designated channel built into the receiver to power the center.



I have a Polk CS245i that I was using with my RT600i's for a while, but that I don't need anymore. Would that be adequate?
I may be interested. It's not exactly what I'm looking for, but for the right price I may give it a try. PM me with the price, and I'll let you know.

Also, my friend has my old pair of RT35i's that I sold him when I bought my second set of RT55i's. Is there any way of wiring the pair of those as my center without putting to much of a load on my amp. And without offsetting the sound/volume by giving less/more power running them in series/parallel. I know...that just sounds weird, but you know what I mean.

[Worf101]

If I were you I'd do the following:

1. Go on Ebay or Audiogon till I found the Center that matched my fromts.

2. Barring that, I'd look at some company's tht make outstanding centers. I've liked and used Klipsch centers, kinda bright, very forward and excellent for the spoken word. I'm currently using the masssive C-7 as center for my main system. It's not timbre matched to my mains but I really don't notice it all that much.

I've also owned and used the BIC America DV62CLR. Great cheap, well made CC that can be had for a song on ebay. It's so cheap I'd say try it out and if you don't like it, sell it on ebay for near what you bought it for.

Da Worfster

[BRANDONH]

If receiver has center pre-out and if the TV does not have a center channel input then use a Y connector and insert into both the left and right audio inputs on your TV. You will have to turn the TV volume all the way up but you will still control the Volume with the receiver. This is inexpensive to do so if you do not like the results you will not be out much money.
I believe you will be pleasantly surprised by how natural it sounds and feels since the voices will actually be coming from the TV instead of a box sitting on top or in front of the TV.

[Quagmire]

I was going to respond to your thread earlier and got side tracked, but... my advice was going to be to use a RT35i speaker as a center channel speaker: Not a pair of them as you suggested, but just a single one, preferably sitting upright (Drivers vertically aligned) rather than laying over on its' side. There are sonic advantages to having the speaker arranged this way If you have room for it and don't mind how it looks. In fact, from a sonic point of view, you will likely get BETTER performance from this arrangement than you would by using the prescribed center channel speaker. I won't go into why unless you're interested.

You can also use a pair of the RT35i's (as you were asking) by laying them over on their side with the tweeters adjacent to each other. You can wire them in PARALLEL from the same speaker output on your amp, but of course it would be better to have a seperate amp channel for each speaker. I do not recommend wiring them in series; once again, I won't explain why unless you're really interested in knowing.

My bottom line advice... yes buy the RT35i's and use them in either of the ways described.

Q

[carracr625]

If I use the pair of RT35i's running in parallel, it would present a 4ohm load on the amp. Wouldn't this put more of a strain on the receiver, maybe even causing more problems? (I have had to send this receiver back to Sony 3 times for misc. problems) One of the common problems with the ES models from the year this on was made is overheating. I used to have it in a cabinet with 2 fans running push-pull across the unit & it still was hot enough to fry an egg. So now I have an open rack, but running at 4ohms would definitely heat things up a bit, Right? Also, I would think that this would essentially double the power to the center making it obviously louder. What do you think? I might try the single speaker if the dual setup creates problems. Also, as I said before, I used this system mainly for music when I purchased it. How important do you think timber matching the rear speakers is? I was thinking of maybe getting new surrounds with a multiple array setup.

[Quagmire]

Yes, it would present a 4 ohm load on the amp and the strain on the receiver should be taken into consideration - especially if you've had problems with overheating. That is why I said it would be better if each speaker were being driven from its' own amp channel. A series wiring scheme would eliminate the low impedance demand on the amp, but would introduce its own share of other sonic "undesirables": Like I said, I don't recommend this at all.

Actually, the single speaker setup (as I described it) is the preferred way to go. I was mostly just pointing out that you could conceivably use the dual speaker setup if you wanted to, but the best method, strictly from a sound quality point of view is the single bookshelf speaker with drivers vertically aligned. You can use it layed over on its' side too, but it will sound better upright.

Personally, I think timbre matching the surrounds is important; even more so if you're interested in the new hi rez multichannel music formats (SACD & DVD-A). I am also a big fan of using multiple arrays of direct radiating speaker for the surround channels rather than dipole or bipole speakers. I have used mulitple arrays for several year now and much prefer it for both movies and music. But if you're planning on going this route, you may want to look into getting more amplification otherwise you'll run into the same kind of low impedance issues as the dual center scenario.

Q