How Important is a Center Speaker?

[shokhead]

I think noddin0ff summed it up best...Even in many good action movies, the surrounds are rarely used more than 30% of the time...reflected sound in the room will provide at least some ambient effect, virtual surround DSP can help here too.
There's many ways to build a system...I like the idea of buying the best front 3 speakers you can, and 2 lesser surround speakers if you're on a budget until you can afford the matching surrounds.

I did have a pair of Studio 40's and Studio 20's with no center channel for awhile...Nothing worse than all the dialogue and center effects (as much as 80% of the movie) being skewed to the side of the room I was sitting on. This drove me nuts so I went out and bought a cheap Paradigm speaker that didn't match...much better IMO...until I could afford the Studio CC.

Guess it comes down to preference again...would you rather an excellent sound 70% of the time, or mediocre sound 100% of the time....tough call....six of one, half-dozen of the other...no right or wrong I guess.

98% of LFE is 25HZ and up so why get a sub that goes lower? No center and you can get the dialogue from the mains. No surrounds and thats all lost.

[kexodusc]

98% of LFE is 25HZ and up so why get a sub that goes lower? No center and you can get the dialogue from the mains. No surrounds and thats all lost.

Your argument about the LFE isn't quite a proper analogy in this case. This really all depends on your priorities. I could use your LFE comments to strengthen my point: If you don't have the budget to do it all, do what you can. In this case, if all you can afford is 25Hz LFE, ie: get 98% of the LFE and don't sweat the small stuff. Prioritize where most of the important information is. Actually, many serious hi-end 2-channel audio systems don't bother much below 27 Hz...there's almost no musical information there.

Not all "surround" info is lost by having no rear speakers. The signals are instead routed to the front channels anway, and much of the ambience occurs from natural reflections in your room. Throw in a decent Virtual DSP and you can get by.
The undisputable fact remains, once you move outside the sweet spot in any room, often just a few inches, the phantom image disappears, and instead your brain processes the louder information - this is known as the Haas (or Precedence) effect. So while you don't lose the surround info, you DO lose the center image and it's all skewed to whichever speaker you're closer too...nothing worse than watching someone in the middle of the room but hearing them in the corner, especially since dialogue is used much more than surround channel info.
... I'm not suggesting not to have rear surrounds, but rather if compromise must be made, I'd sooner have the most important, and most used parts of the soundtrack at their finest until such a time as adding surround speakers is feasible (unless you are absolutely sure you can always be in the perfect sweet spot and could care less about other people's listening experience, in which case I would agree with your approach). YMMV

[shokhead]

Well speaking of center speakers,i have a B&W CC6 and i'm thinking of replacing it with a LCR600. Anyone with advice to do or dont?
I'd still rather have surrounds. LOL Luckly,i have both. I remember how much better it was from PL to seperate surround channels. 2 Cenyrt channels? Could it happen? i think .2 is not far off,imo.

[kexodusc]

Well speaking of center speakers,i have a B&W CC6 and i'm thinking of replacing it with a LCR600. Anyone with advice to do or dont?
I'd still rather have surrounds. LOL Luckly,i have both. I remember how much better it was from PL to seperate surround channels. 2 Cenyrt channels? Could it happen? i think .2 is not far off,imo.

Since you asked Shokhead...A good friend of mine recently bought a complete 603/601/LCR 600 s3 system...He started with the LCR 60, wasn't impressed and for the extra cash said the 600 was the way to go...apparently the previous CC6 wasn't as good as the rest of the 600 speakers, but I've never heard it, so I can't really comment. If the drivers have changed as the series number changed, you may wish to match the center to whatever Series number you have for best results.

I did hear his system once we set it up and it sounded pretty damn good to my ears.

[paul_pci]

Well speaking of center speakers,i have a B&W CC6 and i'm thinking of replacing it with a LCR600. Anyone with advice to do or dont?
I'd still rather have surrounds. LOL Luckly,i have both. I remember how much better it was from PL to seperate surround channels. 2 Cenyrt channels? Could it happen? i think .2 is not far off,imo.

Since we have similar setups, I can say that the LCR60 does a good job as a center channel and I'd only recommend getting the 600 if you room is sufficiently large enough that you'd need the extra horizontal dispersion. And the LCR60 is much cheaper.

[Woochifer]

Well speaking of center speakers,i have a B&W CC6 and i'm thinking of replacing it with a LCR600. Anyone with advice to do or dont?
I'd still rather have surrounds. LOL Luckly,i have both. I remember how much better it was from PL to seperate surround channels. 2 Cenyrt channels? Could it happen? i think .2 is not far off,imo.

Definitely do the upgrade if you can afford it. B&W's CC6 was not a well matched speaker for the 600 series.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

98% of LFE is 25HZ and up so why get a sub that goes lower? No center and you can get the dialogue from the mains. No surrounds and thats all lost.

I guess I am from the school that says that your speakers should have a greater frequency response, and dynamic ouput than the source itself. So if my LFE average frequency response is around 30hz or so, I buy a sub that can do 16hz so that if there is a chance that information exists, then it will be reproduced. I don't like to miss a note if I can help it.