Blown Center Channel - Good replacement recommendations?

[Mark 471]

Hi everyone,

Regrettably I am in the market for a new center channel.

I recently purchased a new XPA-5 amp by Emotiva. It's awesome! For $769 bucks new with a 5 year warranty, it is absolutely amazing.

The only downside is with 300W RMS at 4 ohms per channel, my center channel was just a little over powered at its 140W rating.

I am willing to go up to $750 and prefer to buy used.

I also tend to play on the louder side, yet prefer a warm sound. System is used about 50/50 for HT and Music.

Currently running PSB Stratus Silver Mains with a Yamaha RXV-1800 reciver, Emotiva XPA-5 amp and HSU VTF 15H and MBM-12.

Really curious about ribbon tweeters.

Any top ribbon recommendations?

As always, thanks for your time and input.

Sincerely,

Mark

 

[walter duque]

Hi everyone,

Regrettably I am in the market for a new center channel.

I recently purchased a new XPA-5 amp by Emotiva. It's awesome! For $769 bucks new with a 5 year warranty, it is absolutely amazing.

The only downside is with 300W RMS at 4 ohms per channel, my center channel was just a little over powered at its 140W rating.

I am willing to go up to $750 and prefer to buy used.

I also tend to play on the louder side, yet prefer a warm sound. System is used about 50/50 for HT and Music.

Currently running PSB Stratus Silver Mains with a Yamaha RXV-1800 reciver, Emotiva XPA-5 amp and HSU VTF 15H and MBM-12.

Really curious about ribbon tweeters.

Any top ribbon recommendations?

As always, thanks for your time and input.

Sincerely,

Mark

What center channel did you use? Even at a rating at 140 watts it should not have blown, unless you went crazy and drove your amp into some major clipping. My center is rated at 220 watts and sometimes I drive it bridged (1000 watts) and never had a problem. I also have been know to turn it up now and then.

 

[avengineer]

I prefer my C to match my L and R. Your 50/50 movie/music usage would dictate that as an important point, since you're probably not using the center for music, and in a movie track 70% of what you hear is in the C.

If you throw caution to the wind and don't care about matching the others, I'd like something the has a nice wide-coverage high end so my friends or family can hear the full spectrum too, or if I'm generous and give up the money seat, so I can hear it when I'm not sitting dead center. Unspecified high-end coverage angles are usually 30 degrees or less.

 

[hizzaah]

I'd probably agree with the above about not having the center be different than the L/R, but to each their own.

Not a ribbon and not used, but Ascend Acoustics Sierra 1 center ($460 for piano black. Price varies depending on finish) with the Neodymium Ring Tweeter upgrade ($150)..

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/SRM1C/srm1c.html
$20 shipping
7 year warranty
30 day money back guarantee..

 

[jostenmeat]

If you want to set it and forget it, not worry about it again, I'd save up some more money to get some (perhaps ugly) "pro audio" type of speakers, JTR, Danley, Seaton, etc. High sensitivity + high power handling, your ears will go first.

Another play here is to get a PSB tower for your center channel. I run three PSB towers for my HT. Even then, I still worry about blowing a tweeter sometimes, well I did recently with a louder than avg, extended movie viewing session with friends. PSB doesn't sell individual speakers like ID companies would, but I found a really beat up pair (due to shipping accident). I did some repair with the help of AHers here, the dealer got me a new xover and driver, and basically I got two speakers for the price of one. (I look at it more like spare drivers for when I do blow something.) BTW, you can wall mount a flat panel TV a bit higher up to allow this. Put your electronics anywhere else but the front; the front is the worst place to put them for both audio as well as video btw, and a RF remote system can be had for as little as $50, a 35 ft HDMI cable might be $40, etc; it doesn't have to be expensive to do. Monoprice sells cheap wall mounts for TVs.

The cheapest route of course would be to just hit up PSB, and order the replacement driver. If it's the tweeter, it could be more affordable than you think. Of course, you might blow it again, but my point was that you might blow many a speaker suggestion given to you; what SPL do you achieve from what distance? (SPL decreases exponentially with distance; that's why the budget seems to go exponentially when you get +20 ft away!) And hence, this is why I blurted out my "ugly set it and forget it" idea.

 

[markw]

I too have to wonder how loud you were playing that mutha to blow it. Generally, these things give audiable warning when they are being overstressed and the prudent hi-fi enthusiast turns it down before damage occurs.

 

[Mark 471]

Thank you very much for your input.

I was playing at approximately plus 5db on my Yamaha receiver in 7 channel stereo mode. My friend turned the receiver's cross over down to 60 Hz and didn't tell me.

We were giving the system (primarily the subs) a pretty good workout with a Pandora station called Skrillex. You may want to give it a try (at your own risk of course) it has some rather cool bass elements.

So another worthy question here may be not, "how loud," but rather "what" were you listening to?