5 steps to centre channel heaven (on a budget)

[mousebat]

My highly pikey solution born out of frustration with boxy nasal centres, I thought I would see if I could do better, total cost £20.40 as I had a couple of Mission tweeters spare. I will put a better 8" driver now that proof of concept seems to have worked and I havn't been divorced yet for my telvisual butchery.

 

[d0mj4y]

My highly pikey solution born out of frustration with boxy nasal centres, I thought I would see if I could do better, total cost £20.40 as I had a couple of Mission tweeters spare. I will put a better 8" driver now that proof of concept seems to have worked and I havn't been divorced yet for my telvisual butchery.

Where's your bass reflex port matey?

 

[mousebat]

In my limited experience porting is a bunch of ar*e. Centres are generally made small to be unobtrusive and so have to use ports to artifically re-enforce the bass. As I had the volume I made it sealed or infinite baffle.
Yes, I know it is probably not really very good but it does seem to better than your average sub £100 centre.

 

[chrisgeary]

did you manage to magnetically sheild it?

 

[mousebat]

The bass speaker is sheilded (a steal at £16.40 - Maplin) but I am hoping the smaller tweeter magnets are far enough away - no discolouration yet ;-)
Anybody have any ideas on this ? foil line the top of the cabinet ?

 

[Badger0-0]

Yep, that should do it mate
How would you rate the sound compared with others in your experience ?.
The port argument seems reasonable, given the space behind it

 

[mousebat]

To be honest badger, I don't think I am quite in centre heaven yet.
It was an amusing excercise in economy but I would need to work on the cabinet and more money on a decent driver for it to be actually good.
Which prompts the question : What centre would folks around here recommend that produces excellent dialogue?

 

[clockworks]

I think a decent power amp to bi-amp the centre is the way to go.

Have you got a "proper" centre at the moment?

 

[Badger0-0]

Mousebat,
Although I wouldn't bother with DIY myself (I don't have the time), I'm interested in what you're doing
As for the budget, you can get a decent centre (I'm thinking my MS 905C) for £110, so I reckon your driver is not that far off the mark, price-wise.
Except it's too big.
It's resonant frequency will be around 100 Hz (a guess, I'm no expert) and I reckon it needs to be much higher for a centre.
I suggest three 4", although I'm quite happy to be shot down

I seriously think you could make a pukka job out of what you have mate.

 

[mousebat]

Update;
I braced the insides (stuck 3/4 ply plates of wood into internal surfaces) stapled plenty of wadding onto all internals including back of baffle and reassembled.
I can Bi-wire but not Bi-amp as economy was the excercise. Am I in centre heaven? I don't think so, Voice seems a tricky cove to get right.
Reading the excellent advice on this forum, it makes sense to have the centre tonally similar to my AE109 fronts or would you say just buy the most natural dialogue reproducer you can afford?

 

[Badger0-0]

I guess 2 109 mid ranges would be pretty good, but probably difficult to get hold of and that would defeat the object, I suppose.
I definitely think you need to go smaller than 8" though.
Does it sound too bassy?

 

[mousebat]

Badger,
Not Bassy in a bad way so voice is not overblown or wooly and say, a door slamming has plenty of er.. slam but there is still some boxy/nasaly residue.
Suspect building it into a TV cab was optimistic despite the mods. Second hand 109's are about though, hmmm.

 

[phils_wicked]

Good on ya chap, I've built subs before (in car use) but have never built a speaker.

Often wondered, never bothered.

Its good to see someone having a good go though

 

[mousebat]

this bad boy looks like it would get me there, damn this champagne lifestyle but brown ale salary.