Thoughts and Input requested. Should your front speakers match your center?

[Gregory Lupinski]

Ok folks, here's my question. From different articles I've read they say that your front speakers should match your center for "good" speaker matching. Your thoughts?

I've got Infinity P363 towers, Infinity 163 bookshelf rears and Infinity RC252 center.

I love my P363's & the 163's, however, I'm not sold on the rc252. That being said, there's not a lot of choice from Infinity for different centers. Thus my question.

I've debated going deep and getting the klipsch rp440c and replacing the RC252.

Thoughts? Insight?

Thanks guys!

 

[Adam]

Hi, Gregory, and welcome to the forum!

The closer your front speakers match each other tonally, the easier it is to get a nice seamless front sound stage. It's not critical, but it is a good thing to shoot for. Even though I bought the "matching" NHT center channel for my 1.5 bookshelf speakers, I never thought that they matched very well until I got a receiver that could do auto equalization (I happen to get a Pioneer with MCACC, but systems like Audyssey do the same thing), and then they blended together beautifully. Does your receiver have a system like that, and if so, have you used it? Just curious. I think that those systems help smooth out differences in speakers that used to be really hard to get around.

 

[Gregory Lupinski]

Adam, Thanks for your reply. I've got a Denon avr x3200w and it has the Audyssey setup. Used it each time I've changed something. So I'm very familiar with it. Starting to have a closet full of old speakers to sell trying to get things just right.

I noticed the difference when I got my Infinity towers, a fuller sound, didn't see it/hear it with the center though. Other folks say they love the overall sound, I still think it's lacking. Not sure if the Klipsch would be overkill. I'm looking for a little more "fullness" if you get what I mean.
Thanks again.

 

[markw]

The center is mainly for dialogue only. You may get that "fullness" you seek but when watching a movie where voices pan from one side to the other, it will sound unnatural when it's in the center, or goes from the center to the side.

 

[Gregory Lupinski]

That's what I'm kinda afraid of. Unintended results. Audyssey may be able to cover for some of it, however, the waters maybe muddied in other areas. Thanks for the additional input.