Is music a poor way to audition a center channel speaker?

[Mancave]

When demoing a center channel, is music a poor way to do this? Aren't center channels made for movies? I've heard several of them and think I might not be getting the real sound of things in movies. BB has various centers but they always have music hooked up to them.

 

[ratm]

Im not sure this is comparing apples to apples, but FWIW, when I listen to music, its always in 2.1 format. I only listen to TV/Movies on my CC.

 

[j_garcia]

Music is a good way to audition ANY speaker.

 

[Ricardojoa]

Depends on what is your primary use of the center speaker. If it is for movie with a lot of speech you might as well test them with your favourite movie, just like you would test your mains with your favourite songs.

 

[j_garcia]

If a speaker does music well, it will do movies well. Music is typically much more demanding than anything you will get in a movie, but Ricardojoa is correct that what you want to focus on would most likely be the vocal range since that is the majority of what you will be hearing from it.

 

[Nestor]

When demoing a center channel, is music a poor way to do this? Aren't center channels made for movies? I've heard several of them and think I might not be getting the real sound of things in movies. BB has various centers but they always have music hooked up to them.

Depends on the material you are using to audition. Music recorded as stereo may or may not sound strange when decoded by dolby.

If you have familiar music recorded in 5.1, this may help.

Ultimately, the center channel must be matched in timbre to the left and right main speakers for seamless integration.

 

[TLS Guy]

I do think you need to audition speech as well. In my view very few center speakers produce really natural conversational speech. Most are either chesty, shouty or both.

 

[Mancave]

Depends on the material you are using to audition. Music recorded as stereo may or may not sound strange when decoded by dolby.

If you have familiar music recorded in 5.1, this may help.

Ultimately, the center channel must be matched in timbre to the left and right main speakers for seamless integration.

Just some music that BB was playing. I'm thinking it was not a good test.

 

[Nestor]

Just some music that BB was playing. I'm thinking it was not a good test.

BB has a return policy. The best test would be to audition it at home with your system.

 

[Rickster71]

The general rule of thumb is to match your three front speakers for a consistent sound stage. (
So that will limit your selection process to the center that's the same brand and model as your front L & R.

 

[gBabu7]

If that is the ironclad rule of thumb to match the models of LCR, then I might have an issue, since I am in the process of upgrading my Revel C52 to Revel Voice 2, where my LR are F52s. I know Voice 2 was meant for Studio 2 or Salon 2s. Will that be a huge issue if I using the sytem primarily for HT/Movies?

 

[Rickster71]

It's not like the speaker police will come to your house.

Using speakers that are meant to be used together or 'voiced' similarly usually provides with a smoother more even sound stage.
Try what you have...if you don't mind...it doesn't matter.