Suggestions for center channel speaker
I have a Marantz SR7400 and a pair of older Paradigm that still sound good to me. My next step was going to be a center channel. I bought a Polk CSI5 (on sale for $300 at Circuit City). Adding this speaker seriously downgraded the sound quality of a movie. Dialog which once sounded full coming from my Paradigms now sounded like it was coming from a single small speaker. Some music was also coming from the weak center channel that once sounded full from the Paradigms. I thought I was getting a large enough speaker for the center. Did I perhaps have something configured incorrectly? In the setup, I tried big & small speaker options, and tried all the available theater modes. Funny thing, but when I set the receiver to "auto", it just played in stereo mode w/o the center channel. Makes me wonder if something is wrong with the receiver because of this and also because the Polk CSI5 sounded good in the store.
This was my first experience with the center channel added. Now most of the dialog and about half the other sounds come from the one smaller center speaker. To me it seems logical that this speaker(s) should be as big as your left & right speakers? Otherwise it seems like adding the center would be a downgrade? Has anyone else experienced this? I'm thinking about getting another pair of Paradigms full size speakers to use as a center.
Thanks for any help.