Paradigm Cc-370 Or Psb Stratus C5

[LEAFS264]

I have PSB Stratus Silveri's for mains. But the C5 just dosen't have the sound that i feel i need for SACD and DVD-Audio,Video. I want something with a little more umpf. And the Stratus C6i is too much money.

[Woochifer]

I have PSB Stratus Silveri's for mains. But the C5 just dosen't have the sound that i feel i need for SACD and DVD-Audio,Video. I want something with a little more umpf. And the Stratus C6i is too much money.

What do you mean by "umpf"? If you're referring to punch in the midbass, then in actuality, the center speaker is probably the wrong place to try and convey that. You don't want to send a full range signal through the center speaker to begin with, especially in your case where you use floorstanding speakers that are likely voiced with a very different profile in the lower frequencies. In most cases, you will set the center speaker to "Small" and redirect the bass to either the mains or the subwoofer.

If the C5 is a sufficient timbre match for the main speakers, then it does not matter how much of how little "umpf" it has if the mains behave the same way. The voice match that you're listening for is in the midrange and highs.

You should give the C6 a listen and see if it matches your mains better. If so, you're better off saving up the extra coin and going for that model instead. Doubtful that the Paradigm center speaker will be a better match.

[N. Abstentia]

Yeah, what Wooch said. There won't be enough difference in the 2 centers to warrant the cost. I mean really..what's the difference between a 5.25" driver and a 6" driver? Possibly a 6" CAN handle lower frequencies better, but with a center you don't want a full range signal going to it anyway, so that's a moot point.

What are you using to power the center channel?

[LEAFS264]

Sorry , I'm not looking for more bass from the center. I find the dialog in my movies not as clear,if thats the right word. It just doesn't seem to jump out at me like some other centers that i've heard in the past. I'm using a Sony STR-DB940 for the power and decoding.

[kexodusc]

If you aren't looking for more bass from the center, than you've already made up your mind...get the C5, nuff said.
Generally, a 6" driver will handle the lower midrange and upper bass (ie: low frequencies just above the LFE crossover point) just a wee bit better than a 5-1/4" driver, but often it requires a lower crossover point...not to worry, they both seem to be xo'd fairly low anyway. The C6 might have a wee bit more output capability too, but if you've already got the C-5, I can't see there being any real benefit to buying a C6. There's a very good possibility it could sound worse!

You might be further ahead upgrading another part of your system, or just save your money. For the cost of your center channel upgrade you can easily get a more powerful, better sounding receiver, something from Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, H/K, etc, which might yield more of an improvement for you. The last thing you want to do is go from speakers that match to speakers that don't. Maybe your problem is in setup and calibration?

[LEAFS264]

Did you even bother to READ why i want to change. I'm not happy with the sound.....so why would i keep it. I've sent the speaker to PSB for a check up and there is nothing wrong. I've taken it to other peoples houses and hooked it up on other systems. It just sounds muddled.

[kexodusc]

Did you even bother to READ why i want to change. I'm not happy with the sound.....so why would i keep it. I've sent the speaker to PSB for a check up and there is nothing wrong. I've taken it to other peoples houses and hooked it up on other systems. It just sounds muddled.

Wow, kid, that's some friendly response...usually when someone tries to help someone else, that person remains polite even if the advice is not helpful, rather than asking "did you even bother to read..." But that's okay, I can understand how frustrating this can be. Yes, I missed the point that you already had the C5, and thought you were considering it...my bad. No matter, my general response would have remained the same.

Great, so now we've confirmed that you're not happy with the sound. Have you eliminated every other possible cause (ie: setup and calibration, placement, source, receiver, etc) from contributing to this sound you don't like, and are absolutely positive it's the speaker?

If that's the case, and it can be nothing else, we've got to ask why you even bought it in the first place?

You have got to realize that adding a better speaker to your system in isolation is not going to improve the sound. Especially for multi-channel audio and music. You DON'T want to change the timbral characteristics of the front three speakers so that they are uneven. What will happen is instruments, dialogue, effects, etc, will start to sound noticeabley different as they move from one speaker to another...that's bad. For DVD-A and SACD, that's very, very bad. Those formats are designed to be played on 5 identical speakers, the further away from identical you move, the worse the results will be. That's why everybody under the sun recommends "timbre matching" in the first place.

Nope, I'm afraid I've got to ask if you bothered to read my post? I think it was more constructive way to approach your problem than just throwing more money at your center channel, especially if we could have found that you didn't have to, or at least found an area that would produce more beneficial results than spending even more money to make your system sound the same or worse.

[Quagmire]

As I was reading through all of these post, I was thinking what Kex finally said in the last line of his post...

"Maybe your problem is in setup and calibration?"

It is such a basic thing and it gets said over and over but it is surprising how often times folks are willing to spend large sums of money to upgrade equipment when they haven't addressed setup and calibration. Even if you have taken the time to calibrate your system using an SPL meter and the test tone included on your receiver (though many have not), you could still have a problem associated with calibration. A common finding around here has been that the test tone generators included on receivers is generally not as accurate as the tones found on setup discs such as AVIA, Essentials, etc... And another very common finding has be that when folks have gone back in and recalibrated their system using one of these discs, the center channel speaker is NOT calibrated correctly -- usually needing a boost from one to several db. This is especially true in systems where the mains are large speakers (and being run as large) and the center speaker is small.

Do you have a good sub in your system? If you don't, you might find that any upgrade money you have to spend would be better allocated toward the purchase of a good sub rather than a new center channel speaker because what you are perceiving as being a weakness of the center channel speaker may just be the combination of a setup induced timbral mismatch between it and the main speakers resulting in an overall loss of clarity. This could be remedied by first having a quality sub in the system and then running the front three speakers as small (as others have suggested). That alone can give you a better timral match between the mains and center speaker which may equate to better overall clarity of sound. Then if you find through recalibrating that the center channel level needs to be brought up a notch or two, that should really nail the setup induced problem. I realize this may not be what you are wanting to hear, but you really owe it to yourself to cover these basics before moving to upgrade things. Otherwise you could spend the money, only to find that problem has followed along with you on the upgrade path. No one want to see that happen.

So... have you calibrated your system, and have you used a good test disc to do this as opposed to just the tone generator on your receiver? If you haven't, that's a great place to start with a minimal out of pocket expense. Besides, the disc is very useful for other things too. Best of luck.

Q