Center speaker question

[Quisler]

Hello all! New here of course I have a question for a center. Here is the layout so far.

Yamaha A3010 Reciever
JBL L150A as mains
Klipsch RF62-II as rears (got just before I found the JBLs....)
Misc other speakers for heights and other rears
Subs are a pair of DIY sealed 15" Polk Momos on a Carvin 1500
Running in 9.2

The problem? The centers are a pair of KEF 200 2 bookshelf. I believe they can't keep up with the rest of the system and were of course not made to do this type of work out. What do you guys recommend for a center? I have been looking at the EMP E56Ci center to be a logical choice, but I just wanted to get some opinions. Thanks!

 

[DD66000]

Look for a JBL L112. They are quite large, but are designed to lay on their sides, do to their driver alignment.

 

[Quisler]

Those do look good, but they are too big. I only have about 12" between the projector screen and the furniture to stuff something in there.

 

[fuzz092888]

You don't believe they can keep up due to performance or because you think a "real" center is better?

Vertical vs Horizontal Center Speaker Designs — Reviews and News from Audioholics

Vertical vs Horizontal Center Channel Speaker Designs

Center Channel Speaker Design Additional Considerations — Reviews and News from Audioholics

I would read these if you haven't. Also each article has multiple pages, some people miss that so I thought I'd mention it. Cheers

 

[DD66000]

Look for a JBL L112. They are quite large, but are designed to lay on their sides, do to their driver alignment.

You could look for a JBL EC35 center.

 

[Quisler]

Well after reading those articles, I think I am going to go in a corner and cry, lol. Really not sure what to do now. What I was getting out of that was putting a pair of bookshelf speakers together horizontally is a no no. Although if you guys think that might be a better route to take let me know.

I do have a wide degree area to cover for people watching the movie, but with that many people we are just watching the movie not getting involved into the movie as much.

What is happening to the KEFs is at higher volumes they are getting distorted, which makes sense for what they actually made to do. They don't like action movies....

So plenty of choices out there, it is looking like a 3-way center of some kind. Should I try and get a JBL even if it is a modern model to work better with the 150s?

 

[fuzz092888]

Which kef 200's? The only kef 200's I can find are center channel speakers not bookshelves.

No don't lay down the bookshelves on their sides, they aren't meant to function that way and won't give you great sound.

The real issue is that with horizontally arranged drivers you run into a lot of issues. Most of the issues are fairly easy to solve on axis, but off axis they get bad much much faster than vertically arranged drivers. Ideally you should have 3 towers across the front to get the widest coverage.

If you're trying to get a lot of people involved in the movie and they are spread across a fairly wide area, a new horizontally arranged center won't necessarily solve your problems, especially an MTM.

I don't have any experience with JBL centers, I've heard quite a few other brands and I found that my own personal preference is a WTMW. Right now I'm using an NHT ThreeC and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. It probably won't mesh well with your JBL's for multi-channel music since it isn't timbre matched, but I think for movies it wouldn't be a bad choice at all.

 

[Quisler]

My bad, they are 102|2 reference series. Not sure how I screwed that one up...

 

[DD66000]

Well after reading those articles, I think I am going to go in a corner and cry, lol. Really not sure what to do now. What I was getting out of that was putting a pair of bookshelf speakers together horizontally is a no no. Although if you guys think that might be a better route to take let me know.

I do have a wide degree area to cover for people watching the movie, but with that many people we are just watching the movie not getting involved into the movie as much.

What is happening to the KEFs is at higher volumes they are getting distorted, which makes sense for what they actually made to do. They don't like action movies....

So plenty of choices out there, it is looking like a 3-way center of some kind. Should I try and get a JBL even if it is a modern model to work better with the 150s?

First off, you do NOT want to align two speakers horizontally for a center.

Horizontal centers are a compromise compared to a vertical array.
But that said, not all horizontal centers are created equal.
The centers that have their HF & MF drivers vertically aligned are far superior to a straight MTM.
That is why I suggested the EC35.
The best of the JBL centers are the LC2 and PC600. As the L150A has an Al tweeter, and the LC2, PC600 have Ti tweeters they should be a fairly close match. Also, you could replace the 044 tweeters in the L150A with the newer 052Ti, the JBL recommended replacement tweeter for many older JBL tweeters.

 

[Quisler]

It just amazes me how sound works like that. It is really neat to learn all this stuff. Just wish it wasn't so blasted expensive to get stuff that really works lol.

Thanks for the info so far. The PC600 is way out of my league as far as price goes. I found the LC2 for about $300 on Amazon so I think I'll try that one out. I wish I could do the vertical array, but at this time it just can't happen.

I appreciate all the help with trying to find a center. We will see when it comes in how it works out!