Using floor speakers as center speakers

jacobe

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I was wondering if it would be completely inadvisable to use floor speakers as center speaker.

I have an Infinity system with Beta 50 fronts and a Beta C360 center. I've never really been able to tonally match them to my satisfaction, but whenever I watch movies with a stereo soundtrack I really like the dialogue sound produced by the Beta 50s.
Now I fear I may have blown the tweeter in the C360 (sound has become very harsh lately) so I may need a new center speak anyway. That gave me the idea; instead of looking for a new center speaker which may or may not be a good match for the fronts, why not hunt down a second pair of Beta 50s and use one (or even both) for the center channel.
I won't have any placement problems since my speakers are behind an acoustically transparent screen, but are there any disadvantages with using a floor speaker? And if not, would two be better than one, or vice versa?
 
Absolutely go for it if you can! Matching front three is the best you can have really. Sadly most of HT guys don`t have acoustically transparent screen so they can`t do it, cause ideally the center channel should be upright (vertical) same as fronts (would block tv/screen), plus you will have all the drivers in same height for added bonus! Using crossover around 80hz might be good idea so the speech stays clear enough. Hunt a pair and use one as a center channel. They shouldn`t cost much, that serie is from 13years back give or take.

Here is picture of Stereophiles Editor (?) Kal Rubinsons MonitorAudio Silver 8 system. AT screen lands in front of the speakers. He fell in love with the 3-way Silver 8s, but didn`t want to compromise the center channel which is one of the most important channel in HT system, so 3 towers in front!

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If you have the room to place a floorstander in front of the screen or display then why not. All a large centre speaker is is infact a speaker designed to be placed horizontally. I don't think there is any need to run a pair though.
 
I don't think there is any need to run a pair though.
Well, I guess I was just thinking that a dedicated horizontally positioned center speaker would "spread" the sound a little bit more than a vertically placed speaker would, so using two would compensate for this, but maybe I'm over-thinking it!:)
 
The tweeter will be the main driving force of a speaker in the centre position as it will be almost always dialogue driven, so clarity is of the utmost importance. It's position of the cone within the speaker cabinet, whether vertical or horizontal, makes little difference to spread. A popular choice for having all speakers the same in a 5.1 is the KEF LS50s as an example.
 
A floor stander will work fine, and will allow a lower crossover point to be used for the centre channel - the more directional frequencies from one place, the better.

Whilst not quite an identical match, I did once use a Reference 1.2 as a centre for a pair of Reference 4.2 which did work well, but the 1.2 as a centre was a little lacklustre in comparison to the 4.2, but then, that was also the case with music.
 
Dedicated centre speakers really only exist to get around the problem of locating the speaker. Centre speaker introduce problems when they swap vertical driver alignment for horizontal alignment.

Causing limited horizontal dispersion and driver interference. The dual midranges cause suckouts, that should completely disappear if you use your floorstanding speaker as a centre
 
Thanks a lot, guys, you have sold me!
 
Your questions ought to be - 'I was wondering if it would be completely inadvisable to use a 'Dedicated' Centre Speaker as center speaker alongside my Floorstanding Front LR speakers'.

Three identical floor standing cabinets is always ideal - though trying to source 'three' speakers can be a challenge when purchasing new.

Joe
 
Your questions ought to be - 'I was wondering if it would be completely inadvisable to use a 'Dedicated' Centre Speaker as center speaker alongside my Floorstanding Front LR speakers'.

Heh, yes Joe, apparently! :) Thanks for your approval!
 
I have used a old kef floor stander for year's as a center speaker. I am considering changing it though now as I am running a pair of Monitor Audio BX6s as my front pair and was considering another BX6 or a MA silver floor stander as my new centre speaker.

Does anyone on here think that will sound ok? Or should I not mix the bronze and silver.

I can't see how a small centre speaker can give me the same level of audio I've been used to with the large kef.

I use book shelf kef coda 8's as rear surrounds.
Sub is a MA 12in.
 
I have used a old kef floor stander for year's as a center speaker. I am considering changing it though now as I am running a pair of Monitor Audio BX6s as my front pair and was considering another BX6 or a MA silver floor stander as my new centre speaker.

Does anyone on here think that will sound ok? Or should I not mix the bronze and silver.

I can't see how a small centre speaker can give me the same level of audio I've been used to with the large kef.

I use book shelf kef coda 8's as rear surrounds.
Sub is a MA 12in.

Third BX6 would be quite ideal if you can find cheap pair and you are happy how they sound! Looking back we have had plenty of members mixing Bronze mains and Silver centre with no complaints so there is still that option to use single Silver 6 or 8 / Silver RX6 or RX8 cause many feels the Silver centre is superior to Bronze while centre puts out ~70% of soundtrack. The floorstander version is going to sound better especially if you have listeners sitting off-axis. You would be still sticking with same brand speakers from same era and if you run full range correction with your avr it should help too so i doubt the mismatch would become issue. And if it would bother you then you could get another used pair later in future. Most people just want clear detailed and dynamic sound from the centre while mostly your mind is in the screen/story of movie so after the honeymoon phase of getting new gear the over analyzing stops soon.. Hopefully.

Finish is different with real wood veneer vs. vinyl wrap so might not look as nice mixing them if you have the speakers visible. BX6 is also slightly taller than the smaller Silver towers so for some person these things could be deal breaker. It´s bit tricky as we know identical LCR is the text book way to go especially in dedicated spaces, but you also have 13 year old lower cost speakers and having owned BX5 and compared to Silver 6s there is clear difference you can hear. If you want more dynamic sound then you have to go for the larger models though. RX6 is slightly larger than Silver 6 5G and sonically i think the 5G was said to sound smoother over RX. There is thread somewhere about the comparisons.

 
Third BX6 would be quite ideal if you can find cheap pair and you are happy how they sound! Looking back we have had plenty of members mixing Bronze mains and Silver centre with no complaints so there is still that option to use single Silver 6 or 8 / Silver RX6 or RX8 cause many feels the Silver centre is superior to Bronze while centre puts out ~70% of soundtrack. The floorstander version is going to sound better especially if you have listeners sitting off-axis. You would be still sticking with same brand speakers from same era and if you run full range correction with your avr it should help too so i doubt the mismatch would become issue. And if it would bother you then you could get another used pair later in future. Most people just want clear detailed and dynamic sound from the centre while mostly your mind is in the screen/story of movie so after the honeymoon phase of getting new gear the over analyzing stops soon.. Hopefully.

Finish is different with real wood veneer vs. vinyl wrap so might not look as nice mixing them if you have the speakers visible. BX6 is also slightly taller than the smaller Silver towers so for some person these things could be deal breaker. It´s bit tricky as we know identical LCR is the text book way to go especially in dedicated spaces, but you also have 13 year old lower cost speakers and having owned BX5 and compared to Silver 6s there is clear difference you can hear. If you want more dynamic sound then you have to go for the larger models though. RX6 is slightly larger than Silver 6 5G and sonically i think the 5G was said to sound smoother over RX. There is thread somewhere about the comparisons.

Many thanks for the detailed reply it was most helpful. I have looked up your recommendations and the RX8 silver's seem to be what I'm looking for as a center speaker. I have a large room with an angled high ceiling so large loud speakers are perfect.


Would you recommend looking on this forum for a second hand pair or would ebay and other sites be the way to go in the search for a cheap pair?
 
Many thanks for the detailed reply it was most helpful. I have looked up your recommendations and the RX8 silver's seem to be what I'm looking for as a center speaker. I have a large room with an angled high ceiling so large loud speakers are perfect.


Would you recommend looking on this forum for a second hand pair or would ebay and other sites be the way to go in the search for a cheap pair?

Ebay, gumtree and classifieds here (can put wanted add too). Check the pricing carefully as there is lot of overpriced gear. The RS8 pair you see at gumtree are very expensive and very old as you can get Silver 300 pair for nearly same price! Just an example of rip off. See my post #2 in this thread it has Silver 8 5G LCR so you get idea about the size in room. So that is just a newer version from RX8. There is also RX10 / Silver 10 / Silver 500 with 8" drivers if you want something even larger!

From oldest to newest using the model you fancied:

Silver RS8 (3G)
Silver RX8 (4G)
Silver 8 (5G)
Silver 300 (6G)
Silver 300 (7G) current one at shops

Edit. It seems all the older models are bit hard to find so the BX6 might still not be out from your list if cheap pair comes available. Saying that i remembered @David Alexander could be selling pair of BX6s soon? It´s certainly the safest option if there is any doubts.
 
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Ebay, gumtree and classifieds here (can put wanted add too). Check the pricing carefully as there is lot of overpriced gear. The RS8 pair you see at gumtree are very expensive and very old as you can get Silver 300 pair for nearly same price! Just an example of rip off. See my post #2 in this thread it has Silver 8 5G LCR so you get idea about the size in room. So that is just a newer version from RX8. There is also RX10 / Silver 10 / Silver 500 with 8" drivers if you want something even larger!

From oldest to newest using the model you fancied:

Silver RS8 (3G)
Silver RX8 (4G)
Silver 8 (5G)
Silver 300 (6G)
Silver 300 (7G) current one at shops

Edit. It seems all the older models are bit hard to find so the BX6 might still not be out from your list if cheap pair comes available. Saying that i remembered @David Alexander could be selling pair of BX6s soon? It´s certainly the safest option if there is any doubts.
I did some searching and managed to find a pair of well looked silver 8's for sale for £550 or nearest offer. Problem is they are in rosewood and all my current range is the standard black. But if there are a pair of or even just a single BX6 speaker for sale cheaper then it will solve my problem.

I was intrigued though by the silver as you described it being better dynamically.

I will try and contact Mr Alexander to see if he is selling. Thank you again for your assistance on my problem.
This AV forum is more helpful than the hundreds of websites I have searched on.
 
This is much better than a horizontal speaker. I’ve found that a traditional, horizontal centre speaker degrades sound quality. i now go phantom centre As I can’t use a vertical matching speaker in my set up.
 
I did some searching and managed to find a pair of well looked silver 8's for sale for £550 or nearest offer. Problem is they are in rosewood and all my current range is the standard black. But if there are a pair of or even just a single BX6 speaker for sale cheaper then it will solve my problem.

I was intrigued though by the silver as you described it being better dynamically.

I will try and contact Mr Alexander to see if he is selling. Thank you again for your assistance on my problem.
This AV forum is more helpful than the hundreds of websites I have searched on.

Send him a PM asap as he just bought new speakers so the BX6 pair should be available!
 
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3 identical speakers is ideal for LCR. That's part of the reason why I think floorstanders suck a little for home cinema use; and why the satellite form factor is better. Obviously if you have an acoustically transparent screen; great. But otherwise, the centre will obscure the display.
 
3 identical speakers is ideal for LCR. That's part of the reason why I think floorstanders suck a little for home cinema use; and why the satellite form factor is better. Obviously if you have an acoustically transparent screen; great. But otherwise, the centre will obscure the display.

Still wouldn't work if I had celestion A1 or A1 compact for LCR. The middle speaker will be too low
 
Send him a PM asap as he just bought new speakers so the BX6 pair should be available! I think it´s too risky to buy different colour speaker for front if not behind at-screen. Surely would start to annoy at some point..
I I managed to contact him straight after you notified me about him but he had already sold them unfortunately.
I will keep searching as something may turn up.
 
Send him a PM asap as he just bought new speakers so the BX6 pair should be available! I think it´s too risky to buy different colour speaker for front if not behind at-screen. Surely would start to annoy at some point..
Just an update I've been offered a single silver 10 floor stander for £285.
 
Just an update I've been offered a single silver 10 floor stander for £285.

That´s decent deal!The lcr speakers will look different if not behind screen, but of course you have the option to upgrade your front mains later on if it starts to annoy you visually. You have done it with the Kef floorstander and the Silver 10 tonally closer plus likely more dynamic and overall better sounding if it was some older Kef IQ model. Hope you can have some space behind the S10 as it`s fairly large speaker and ideally you want to run it ports open! If in doubt i hope you could give it a listen before deciding. Definitely noticeable step up from BX6s thats certain!
 
That´s decent deal!The lcr speakers will look different if not behind screen, but of course you have the option to upgrade your front mains later on if it starts to annoy you visually. You have done it with the Kef floorstander and the Silver 10 tonally closer plus likely more dynamic and overall better sounding if it was some older Kef IQ model. Hope you can have some space behind the S10 as it`s fairly large speaker and ideally you want to run it ports open! If in doubt i hope you could give it a listen before deciding. Definitely noticeable step up from BX6s thats certain!
I managed to haggle it down more to £275 and will collect it tomorrow.

I wasn't sure how much different the silver 10 would be compared to my BX6's, is the difference that much noticeable then?
I was just trying to follow the earlier advice on this thread about keeping to the same brand for the LCR, I have found it near impossible to find anymore BX6's so I went for the silver 10 as the current center speaker is a kef coda 9 and wanted to ensure I had plenty of sound from my center.

I was also waiting for a reply on a pair of silver 300s I found for sale at £500. Not sure what they sound like compared to the BX6's or the silver 10.
 
I managed to haggle it down more to £275 and will collect it tomorrow.

I wasn't sure how much different the silver 10 would be compared to my BX6's, is the difference that much noticeable then?
I was just trying to follow the earlier advice on this thread about keeping to the same brand for the LCR, I have found it near impossible to find anymore BX6's so I went for the silver 10 as the current center speaker is a kef coda 9 and wanted to ensure I had plenty of sound from my center.

I was also waiting for a reply on a pair of silver 300s I found for sale at £500. Not sure what they sound like compared to the BX6's or the silver 10.
The S300 is one generation newer and smaller model than the one you bought. Perhaps slightly easier to find another pair, but if you want greater scale, weight, depth, dynamics then S10 is the way to go. I assume you don´t have smallest room either as you have the BX6s.

You can still get a identical LCR later on when pair of Silver 10s pop up and you got the ££ so nothing is lost. As an upgrade you did the right thing going for better speaker as you now have clear upgrade path in front of you if you wish to follow it.

Tonally the S10 will be much closer to your BX6s which indeed are hard to find cause the BX5 was way more popular in UK and as i mentioned many members have mixed Bronze mains and Silver centres just like many has mixed Kef Q and R, SVS Ultra and Primes LCR etc. there is ton of examples i could write here. You aren´t mixing different brands at front so you won`t be sent to hell! The S10 speaker is MUCH better than the dedicated Silver Centre in basically every possible way. 3-way vertical center with dual 8"s that is dream come true!

The Silver 10 5G you bought is built same time as the BX serie, both have similar C-Cam metal dome tweeters (not same!) so i`m sure that the Silver 10 is much closer tonally to your BX6s than the Kef Coda 9! Plus it´s going to sound lot more dynamic which was factor for you. Cabinet volume is much bigger and looking the driver sizes 2x 8" bass & 1x4" mid Vs. single 6" on Coda won´t go unnoticed! Run your avr setup again, check crossovers and let`s see how you get on. You going to get stronger bass response for the speaker closer to wall, but it may sound less open and muddier then so i would play with the positioning. If i remember correct 30-60cm from front wall was the recommendation by MA, but you do what you can there!


S10s in-room. 🤤

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