One thing that always bothered me was the limited frequency response range of bookshelf type center speakers. Being a music man, and having SACDs playing on a regular basis, the off-sound in the middle caused by the response difference bothered me a lot. In fact, it was like having a metal splinter stuck into a thumb's tip. - It was awfully nagging and got me into fits of rage at times.
I just fixed that. To replace my R550 center, I just acquired a
4 way Infinity "Beta 40" floor stander in a closing sale. It's a large, 4 way floor stander, which made setting up my TV a bit of an awkward thing, but the sound is worth it.
Diana Krall's voice,
Paul Desmond,
Bobby Militello's and Richard D Parry's Saxophones never sounded so good.
Having a center speaker capable of a wider frequency response range, matching that of the rest of my setup has really made a huge difference. I used to run a 70 hrz~20 khz center, and I'm now much closer to having a uniform response, and the audio result is obvious, even to an untrained ear. Dialogs on TV shows and movies are much more naturale sounding and better defined.
At 40/45 Hrz to 20 Khrz all around, with a Infinity Beta 40 and four JBL Northridge E-60 floor standers, the sound is just awesome for what little money I've invested in this kit. Given the look this confers to my living room and the breadth of the audio setup, I guess the next step is going to be a larger TV, I think a size more in line with what's below it should make it all look good...
Note about Parry: He was a Pink Floyd gig/recording musician, played the Sax. Sorry I can't link to his Wiki page due to dad-gummed auto-censorship scheme used on the forum which forbids his name's diminutive. Said diminutive form of his name is used in the link's URL. The censorship software junks censored words, even in URLs, thus breaking them and making links broken upon posting.
