Okay, well I was hoping since I had no luck obtaining an EMIT tweeter center channel to match my Infinity Qe mains which I love dearly that at least buying an Infinity center channel would make the tones close. Good lord, not even. Being gaming is what I do I popped in PGR4 since it has a lot of continual stress on the center channel (driving in the car position you hear the motor through the center the whole time). First I left the receiver in Direct which is pure stereo mode. Sounds good, sharp, the motor sounds clear and when I change camera positions the sound switches channels and sounds good. I kick the receiver over to Dolby (the game is Dolby Digital enabled) and now everything comes out of the center and mostly road noise comes out of the mains. Very muffled sounding in comparison.
I did a test with the exact same sound (A car revved to the same RPM from an external camera) and then panned left and right which forced the sound into the Left, Center, and Right channels. As soon as the sound went into the Qe's, beautiful sharp detail came back out - what I have become used to. When they come out of the center - sounds muffled and dull, not even sharp. The sound is honestly like making the sound of a car noise with your mouth - then cover your mouth and make the same sound, now you have what my center channel sounds like compared to my mains. I have not watched a movie yet, but since gaming is the primary duty of my setup currently the ability to provide good sound during gaming is my biggest concern.
But again, I bought the center for $30 - I figure it was worth a shot. I still have one thing I plan to do - the mounting position I really dislike at the moment, I think it's messing with accoustics because it's about a foot in front of the TV screen and aimed up at my ears and it's only two feet away where my mains are four feet away and parallel with the TV. I adjusted the levels and settings in the receiver to compensate but it still doesn't sound right. My new mount (B-Tech BT15) will put it right above the TV completely level with the screen. I will give this a try before foregoing the center as a lost cause - but I fear the acoustics would be THAT bad based on it's current position.
Anyway, so I'm back to the drawing board for center channels. The only speaker I consistently find when doing searches is the Infinity Kappa Video II which has an EMIT-R tweeter - not identical looking to my original EMITs but I imagine the tonal quality would be nigh identical. These I have only seen on eBay and haven't seen in awhile but I plan to keep checking. My next consideration - since this Infinity with it's polycell tweeter sounded muffled is to go with something that would tend to have a bright sound. The first brand that comes to mind (No offense to people who own them and don't agree with my opinion) is Klipsch and the horn tweeters. Given I can find Klipsch horn tweeter center channels all day long and they tend to provide very crisp clear highs due to the design of their tweeter would they compliment my EMIT tweeters? I can probably choose from quite the assortment of Klipsch centers if I want to go this route.
As I reconsidered, it definitely strikes me as vastly important to have a good center channel. Much more so than I originally thought. As soon as I switched input modes it became bluntly obvious - the sounds almost all came from the center and only occasionally in the mains. This all said, have I any other alternatives that will match the timbre and tone of my EMIT tweeter based main speakers? Perhaps a newer Infinity center channel like the Beta C250? I'm open to suggestions at this point, I'd hate to do it but my budget will allow for up to $200 on a center - but that's really taking all my spare cash. I'm very comfortable with the $100 and under price range and could go $120 if it was worth it. The Beta C250 I mention is currently $72 on Amazon which is the reason I mention it.
Help me out here folks!
