Centre or no centre?

pixelpoacher

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Hi guys,

What's the general opinion on not running a centre speaker when the fronts are each side of the tv?

I have taken the Kef IQ60 out from between the two new Focus 862's, and I reckon it sounds loads better, maybe because the Kef bass is rear ported?

The quality of the speech etc is a hell of a lot better without the Kef, the Kef just makes it all very tinny and nasty, huge tonal difference between them.

What's the biggest drawback? will I lose much in the way of detail on Master audio etc, when the centre is mixed into the L & R channels?

Cheers

Cheers
 
If it sounds better, what drawback can there be? I'm not being facetious, it really is that simple. There's certainly no benefit to running an inferior speaker that doesn't match.The only drawback may be if you sit well off axis as the centre will lock the dialogue to the centre of the screen - without, it will collapse toward the nearest speaker.

Russell
 
If it sounds better to you then that is the best option. Maybe worth saving for a well matched centre which will then make it sound better than currently. I have always been told that a good quality centre is important due to amount of sound directed through it. Your example seems to enforce that this is true but that a non matched/cheap centre can make it worse.
 
Just as I thought, but just goes to show the difference in manufacturers, the Kef centre was £300 (not really what I would call that cheap), but compared to the Focals it sounds really cheap.

With the Focals being so close to the tv, with a little toe out, they seem to image the centre quite well, and as I sit in the "sweet" spot, it shouldn't pose a problem, but just a little wary about over working the fronts with info that the centre would normally take care of, and therefore losing out on separation.

The other problem is space, or the lack of it, I only have the two shelves, with sky hd, yammy amm and cd and the lx08, there aint a lot of room for the centre, and I don't want to put the cd on top of other boxes.......

Waiting for the 8 series surround biploars to come in, around a week, and then shall see how it all sounds, may have to go back to some 816's on the front as the 862's with the more complex crossover and extra driver, seem to need just a tad more drive, and at lower levels in the evening it could be a problem.

Cheers
 
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Clearly with the same or equivalent speaker for the centre you are having the benefits of separate, specific amplification and another two or three drivers. It stands to reason that that will be the best scenario.

I do wonder if manufacturers milk it, knowing you are likely to buy the centre too. Or maybe the costs to manufacture a lesser selling unit are much higher.

If you don't have room, budget or inclination, doing without is a real option.

Graham
 
I thought the same about the Kefs (IQ5SEs) when I auditioned them against 7 series Focals and Monitor Audio bronzes. I felt the kefs sounded decidely cheap and the sound had no definition/separation.
 

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