Center channel help

[JaredMc]

I have always wanted my own home theater but we never had the space. That is until we bought our current house last September, and I finally got my home theater room. I pieced together a hodge podge system to start and have been happy with the setup but not thrilled. My current receiver is an Onkyo tx-sr608 and until last week it was powering a Boston Acoustics 5 speaker set. I don't know the series or anything, but I know they aren't very good (they are about 6"x4" with maybe a 3" woofer). I snagged a pair of JBL L3 floor standing speakers at goodwill for 50 bucks! Now I am running 7.2 with those as my FL and FR. They sound amazing. So amazing that I am realizing how bad my kit center channel is. I know that I should have at a minimum matched front speakers. But my budget is tight and not sure I could find a matched center for the L3's anyway. I have a couple hundred bucks to spend and I was thinking of replacing the center. What do you all think would be a good option to go with the L3's in that budget? I am assuming an unmatched nice center would be way better than what I am running now.

 

[ImcLoud]

run a phantom center, if you unplug your center and reconfigure your avr for phantom center, you wont need a center at all, you may like the sound better than having the mismatched center..

 

[JaredMc]

Thank you ImcLoud, That had not even crossed my mind. I will give that a shot tonight and see how it sounds.

 

[JaredMc]

So I tried it out tonight without the center channel and it sounds pretty good. That is when you are sitting directly in the middle of the left and right front channels. If you are off to one side it becomes annoying. So I will probably keep it set up Iike this for now, but I still want to explore my options with a mis-matched center speaker. Any thoughts?

 

[JerryLove]

How well phantom works seems very setup-dependent. Sometimes very well. Sometimes very poorly. Sometimes, as apparently in your case, well but with a small sweet spot.

Sorry. I have no suggestions for what speaker to use as a center

 

[Pyrrho]

So I tried it out tonight without the center channel and it sounds pretty good. That is when you are sitting directly in the middle of the left and right front channels. If you are off to one side it becomes annoying. So I will probably keep it set up Iike this for now, but I still want to explore my options with a mis-matched center speaker. Any thoughts?

That is normal for phantom centers. It typically will sound okay if one is exactly in the center, but be bad if one is a bit to one side. This is one of the reasons to have a real center. Ideally, the center speaker will be exactly the same as the front right and left speakers, but most people are satisfied with having something very close to the same (such as having the same tweeter and be otherwise similar).

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

I know that I should have at a minimum matched front speakers. But my budget is tight and not sure I could find a matched center for the L3's anyway. I have a couple hundred bucks to spend and I was thinking of replacing the center. What do you all think would be a good option to go with the L3's in that budget?

The L3 was sold as stereo speakers, not part of a home theater set, so you aren’t going to find a center speaker.

However, what you could do is snag a L1. It’s a bookshelf version of the L3, with a matching tweeter and smaller 6.5” version of the L3’s 8” woofer, so it will nicely voice-match your L3s. I did the same thing a good number of years ago when I had the same problem you do – I had older floor-standing stereo speakers and needed a matching center and surrounds - and it worked great.

The only downside is that you’ll probably have to buy a pair of L1’s, as you don’t often see stereo speakers sold individually. Maybe you could use it for a rear center speaker.

Maybe later on as your budget allows you can snag a second pair of L1’s and use them for the rear surrounds. I'd be checking ebay regularly if I were you...

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[zieglj01]

A center that would be decent for the speakers, is the JBL Studio LC1 center speaker
Amazon.com: JBL LC1 3-Way, High Performance Dual 5 -1/4-Inch Center Channel Loudspeaker (Black): Electronics

The L1 bookshelf speakers are here
http://www.ebay.com/itm/JBL-L1-Audiophile-Speakers-Excellent-Working-Condition-Made-USA-/310816846944?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item485e20b460

 

[JerryLove]

That is normal for phantom centers. It typically will sound okay if one is exactly in the center, but be bad if one is a bit to one side. This is one of the reasons to have a real center. Ideally, the center speaker will be exactly the same as the front right and left speakers, but most people are satisfied with having something very close to the same (such as having the same tweeter and be otherwise similar).

Some setups have a pretty large sweet spot for that imaging (my bedroom does).

Conversely: running MTM is a problem for a center, localizing under or over the screen is also a problem, etc.

An ideal setup have 1) a minimum separation (in degrees and distance) between the front 3 speakers, 2) identical speakers, 3) identical height (usually behing an acoustically transparent screen) and 4) (since we are basically asserting that we can't hear sound from a spot no speaker physically exists) an infinite number of speakers.

 

[JaredMc]

You all are amazing! Thanks for the help. I think I will try and snag a set of L1's. And if I happen to run across a set of L3's I might grab them too. My set up along with the height of the L3 allows for one to be placed directly under the screen.