Advice on Def Tech center

[Shintsu]

I currently need a center channel for my setup to complete it but hadn't had any luck finding one. So as I was searching online I found a Definitive Technology ProCenter 100 Mk II, brand new with free shipping for $33 at Amazon. Seems amazingly cheap for a Def Tech to me but I couldn't find any reviews for it. Is this center channel any good? The only thing I don't like - Amazon only offers it in silver even though it can be ordered with a black finish, but I'm not going to be that picky for a brand new speaker that's a Def Tech for $33. I can't find any pictures of it with the grille off either, but from my best judgement of the small pictures I have seen of it it looks like a center channel out of a satellite system (At least all the other Pro series Def Techs look like satellites to me). One picture I saw of the back looks like it's in a plastic casing! Does anyone own this to speak for it? If it's in a plastic case and that cheap it's starting to make sense to me why it's $33...

 

[bandphan]

A matching center to your mains, would be your best bet

 

[MatthewB.]

Shintsu, I am not a huge fan of the Promonitor series of DefTech and I have a complete DT system. They sound very lackluster in comparison to their BP series. For a small bedroom system they are okay but if this is for your main system, I would look elsewhere. My memory is kinda hazy but didnt you order a DT studio monitor 450, if you did, I would look at getting a matching LCR center and if cost is an issue, try and find a good deal on another 450. The Promonitor will not keep up and the sound won't be up to par with the sudios. And yes the casing is made out of hard plastic (only DT calls it somthing else, but it's plastic.

 

[Shintsu]

Ah, I was getting the impression it wasn't as high quality as Def Tech normally is but that's why it's $33 I guess! You must be remembering someone else, I wish I had the spare cash to be buying nice Def Tech speakers but I don't. Thanks for the save on that speaker, I'm sure it wouldn't have been up to snuff for me!

I've heard about the matching center stuff and etc but my thing is - how am I going to find a matching center when my mains are some Infinity Qe's from the late 70's/early 80's with EMIT tweeters? I mean I suppose I could try to find an Infinity center channel but given the technology is going to be different would it really even matter? I found a local seller who has a Polk CS300 center channel for $60 that seems to be a reasonably good deal. I thought having matching speakers/center/etc was mostly just that it looks nicer and generally won't have competeing technology or something (Like DCM Time Windows with their time aligned drivers).

 

[MatthewB.]

No, matching speakers is important for Timbre matching, you want the sound to match th front three speakers so that when sound pans from one side to the other, you don't have a different sound quality during that pan. Say a motorcycle is going across the screen in one main speaker you get that high rev growl then when it hits the center it sounds like a moped then resumes a high rev growl again. With matching speakers, the sound is a consistent growl across the entire front. That and it looks nice.

 

[Shintsu]

Well okay, so then that begs the question - what would match my Infinity Qe speakers with their EMIT tweeters? I don't think I've ever seen a center channel with an EMIT tweeter and if there is it's probably really expensive. Advice?

EDIT: Okay, so apparently Infinity does make an EMIT tweeter center channel. However the only one I found was called a Kappa Video Series II which looks like this:

The only thing that's bad is...that's the only one on eBay and the foam is starting to tear on one of the drivers. Really pathetic since my Qe's are quite old and their foam is like new - same with my old Polk Monitors and presumably the PSBs (Can't take the grille off on them though).

So this uhh, makes it seem like I should find new mains and just put the Qe's in the bedroom and save it for the music listening. Since finding an EMIT tweeter looks to be hard and then finding tiny bookshelf speakers with EMIT tweeters will also be difficult. This really shoots down my hopes - guess I won't have surround for some time still...*sigh* Guess I better start looking for PSB speakers, they seem reasonably priced, good sounding, and much easier to locate than this other stuff is. The only alternative - albeit seems like stepping into a high price realm - would be to pick up the pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors my friend has for $120 (Paradigm speakers seem rather pricey for someone with as small a budget as me). I haven't even setup my surround system yet and I already like stereo a lot more...two speakers and it's so simple. No matching nothing, just plug them in and bliss.