Need help with center speaker

[riley3245]

I've been trying to set up a good theater system for my living room. It's new construction and I ordered 5 B&W CWM663. I'm looking to have a 5.1 for now and maybe upgrade to 7.2 later. The problem I'm having is that the CWM663 doesn't look like it's made for a center speaker. I would like a speaker that not only sounds good, but looks good with the cover off and the 663 looks weird as a center speaker when placed horizontal. The guy at best buy said it's good, but he keeps changing things around.

Question:
Should I

1: Get B&W CWM Cinema 7 for front left/right/center and use CWM663 for rear left/right
2: Is there another in-wall center speaker that would work with the CWM663 front and rear left/right.
3: Should I ditch the in wall center and go with B&W HTM61 S2

 

[rojo]

I've been trying to set up a good theater system for my living room. It's new construction and I ordered 5 B&W CWM663. I'm looking to have a 5.1 for now and maybe upgrade to 7.2 later. The problem I'm having is that the CWM663 doesn't look like it's made for a center speaker. I would like a speaker that not only sounds good, but looks good with the cover off and the 663 looks weird as a center speaker when placed horizontal. The guy at best buy said it's good, but he keeps changing things around.

Question:
Should I

1: Get B&W CWM Cinema 7 for front left/right/center and use CWM663 for rear left/right
2: Is there another in-wall center speaker that would work with the CWM663 front and rear left/right.
3: Should I ditch the in wall center and go with B&W HTM61 S2

I can't think of any aural benefit for a horizontal in-wall speaker. The horizontal off-axis response will suffer considerably, also adversely affecting early reflections at the primary listening position. You should either:

* Use a vertical center in-wall. Just leave the lights off till you get used to it, but enjoy better sound in the meantime than you would have otherwise.
* If you absolutely must have a horizontal center, then ditch the in-wall center and go with an enclosed 3-way. You might not want to go with the HTM61 specifically, though. Looks like there's about a 5-6dB dip right smack dab in an important range for voices. See measurements.

I've been eager to find someone to guinea pig one of these Monoprice Monolith Center speakers. Try one of those. Or if you're not a fan of the black vinyl wrap on those Monoprice centers, the RBH R56Ci might also be worth an audition.

 

[riley3245]

I can't think of any aural benefit for a horizontal in-wall speaker. The horizontal off-axis response will suffer considerably, also adversely affecting early reflections at the primary listening position. You should either:

* Use a vertical center in-wall. Just leave the lights off till you get used to it, but enjoy better sound in the meantime than you would have otherwise.
* If you absolutely must have a horizontal center, then ditch the in-wall center and go with an enclosed 3-way. You might not want to go with the HTM61 specifically, though. Looks like there's about a 5dB dip right smack dab in an important range for voices. See measurements.

Thanks Rojo. Unfortunately my OCD will not let me have a vertical in center You seem to know far more than I could learn in the short time I have. I'm sort of stuck with B&W brand.

Can you offer a few choices that would work.

These are my restrictions.

In-wall : No restrictions. Thinking of CWM Cinema 7

Bookself: Going with salamander oslo 236 and the center speaker shelf is:
19.75"W x 19.5"D x 9"H so I'm thinking.

B&W HTM62 S2 not the B&W HTM61 S2 as i said above (probably same problem)
or
cm centre s2

The info you gave me looks like greek.lol. Would the cm centre s2 be best?

 

[rojo]

All those B&W centers are fraught with peril. See the CM Center S2 measurements (green trace).

Whatever is sticking you to B&W, get unstuck. Then get one of these: http://philharmonicaudio.com/PhilMTMCenter.html

 

[riley3245]

I was trying to stick with B&W because I got 5 B&W in-ceilings in 3 zones and wanted to keep the speakers in the same family. Thought that would be best, but like I said I'm new to all this.

When I started this I thought it would be a nice add on while the walls were gutted, but like all projects it turned out to be more complicated than I thought. I was just trying to keep things in budget and uniform. I'm trying to get 5.1 speakers for my living room/theater setup for under 2K. The room is 13x12 so I wanted to go with in-wall to save the much needed floor space. I landed on the B&W because I got all 5 for 1600 with a Marantz SR6011 for another 1100. I thought that would be great for the small room, plus in a few months I was going to pick up a couple of in-ceilings and turn it into a 7.2 atmos.

Will the center rear ported(front ported too big) you recommend work well with the rest of the set up or do I need to redo the whole thing?

 

[rojo]

I was trying to stick with B&W because I got 5 B&W in-ceilings in 3 zones and wanted to keep the speakers in the same family. Thought that would be best, but like I said I'm new to all this.

When I started this I thought it would be a nice add on while the walls were gutted, but like all projects it turned out to be more complicated than I thought. I was just trying to keep things in budget and uniform. I'm trying to get 5.1 speakers for my living room/theater setup for under 2K. The room is 13x12 so I wanted to go with in-wall to save the much needed floor space. I landed on the B&W because I got all 5 for 1600 with a Marantz SR6011 for another 1100. I thought that would be great for the small room, plus in a few months I was going to pick up a couple of in-ceilings and turn it into a 7.2 atmos.

Will the center rear ported(front ported too big) you recommend work well with the rest of the set up or do I need to redo the whole thing?

The biggest benefit to matching speakers in the same brand is that often times speakers in the same series have the same general timbre. B&W seems to be an exception to this, as their centers have weird dips in crucial ranges. Where matching the center speaker by brand and series is impractical, it's best to go with one that is tonally neutral, one which has a flat response. This is especially true with the center channel, where intelligibility is crucial for understanding dialog without having to crank the volume. That Philharmonic center fits that bill nicely, and employs drivers offering excellent detail.

Hard to know how closely the center will match your in-walls. You never see frequency response graphs for in-walls, because they behave differently from room to room. The Phil center probably outclasses them, truth be told, but you'll be pleased with the result I think.

 

[riley3245]

The biggest benefit to matching speakers in the same brand is that often times speakers in the same series have the same general timbre. B&W seems to be an exception to this, as their centers have weird dips in crucial ranges. Where matching the center speaker by brand and series is impractical, it's best to go with one that is tonally neutral, one which has a flat response. This is especially true with the center channel, where intelligibility is crucial for understanding dialog without having to crank the volume. That Philharmonic center fits that bill nicely, and employs drivers offering excellent detail.

Hard to know how closely the center will match your in-walls. You never see frequency response graphs for in-walls, because they behave differently from room to room. The Phil center probably outclasses them, truth be told, but you'll be pleased with the result I think.

Rojo you have answered everything throughly and expertly. Thanks a bunch.