Timbre matching GoldenEar?

[the_marked]

I need a center speaker that'll work well with my current gear - I've read a lot about the importance of timbre matching but don't know how to achieve this with different manufacturers. I currently have L/R GoldenEar Aon 2 speakers, but the center speaker is out of my price range. I was looking at the Pioneer SP-EC73 and SP-C22 and Klipsch R-52C but I am wondering how I could find out if the timbre matches with mismatched manufacturers? Thanks

 

[everettT]

I need a center speaker that'll work well with my current gear - I've read a lot about the importance of timbre matching but don't know how to achieve this with different manufacturers. I currently have L/R GoldenEar Aon 2 speakers, but the center speaker is out of my price range. I was looking at the Pioneer SP-EC73 and SP-C22 and Klipsch R-52C but I am wondering how I could find out if the timbre matches with mismatched manufacturers? Thanks

Unless you by another golden ear center or bookshelf, no other speakers will. You can get by with any other speaker of needed, but it won't timbre matched. If you are looking to keep costs down, used might be a good option.
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[lovinthehd]

It may not be a large difference among the various brand choices OTOH if not matching to your L/R. Or save up for the matching center if it's a worry. I have used mismatched centers a coupla times and it hasn't been a noticeable issue particularly....was just in my basement spare room (cause it's cooler than the rest of the house during our heatwave) where I have a mismatched set, and it sounds fine compared to my other "matched" systems. Overall I'd prefer the same speaker across the front, tho.

 

[slipperybidness]

I have no direct experience, but have the GE T2 towers. I used to run my towers with the Supersat 50C, but in the long run determined that it just didn't keep up with the towers, and it was the biggest GE CC at the time of purchase.

I have heard a subjective opinion that the ML CC with the AMT Tweet is a pretty good match, and more output than the SS 50C.

In general, I think there are 2 reasonable approaches, but you won't know unless you try, or find someone that has tried for themselves.

1) Get a speaker with a similar AMT Tweeter (ML, Emotiva, etc)
2) Get a CC that was also designed by Sandy Gross (Def Tech)

 

[mazersteven]

but the center speaker is out of my price range.

Save until you can. Simple

 

[TLS Guy]

I need a center speaker that'll work well with my current gear - I've read a lot about the importance of timbre matching but don't know how to achieve this with different manufacturers. I currently have L/R GoldenEar Aon 2 speakers, but the center speaker is out of my price range. I was looking at the Pioneer SP-EC73 and SP-C22 and Klipsch R-52C but I am wondering how I could find out if the timbre matches with mismatched manufacturers? Thanks

My first question is: - Do you really need a center speaker? I ask this because the vast majority of center speakers are just plain no good with poor speech clarity. So if you can hear speech with what you have be careful about adding a center channel.

Timber matching is in actuality error matching and making sure the center is as lousy as the left and right speakers. That is the truth of the matter. Any three really good speakers will match. However there is a caveat with center speakers, as they reproduce the dialog. In addition most center speakers are just designed wrong from the starting gate. It now appears I have been right all along. The first point is that for good speech clarity time/phase shift does impair speech clarity. So for clear speech you do have to prevent or at least severely minimize these shifts in the speech discrimination band. The dispersion of a speaker and how it interacts with the room is also crucial. So horizontal MTM mucks up speech clarity right away. This has to be considered no longer acceptable.

So that means there really are only three good options for a center speaker.

1). A really good full range driver.

2). A really good coaxial driver with great care to the crossover if it lies in the speech discrimination band.

3). A good three way design with the mid and tweeter in vertical alignment, and the mid driver covering the whole of the speech discrimination band. That means no crossover between 400 Hz and 4 KHz.

In addition it needs to be a really good speaker in all other aspects.

Speech clarity and intelligibility, is the biggest, most frequently encountered problem in AV audio. Getting it right is crucial to really getting a good AV experience.

Very few center channels meet the essential criteria I have outlined above for a center channel to be considered acceptable.

I found that out in the series of experiments I did do design my center channel for my first AV system in 2005/6. Work stated on it a couple of years prior at least.

This my be a bitter pill for many to swallow but it is the truth.

Take a look at this Audioholics YouTube video. It is long but has interesting information.

I don't think this problem will be easily and widely solved until we go to active speakers, with DSP time aligned crossovers, if we are going to continue to use multiple drivers.

Ted Jordan first drew attention to this problem about 50 years ago. He maintained that separating fundamentals from their harmonics was a bad thing. I do believe this to be true. I know Ted and corresponded with him up to the end of his life. He had an enormous influence on me, in my approach to speaker design.

In this age of AV we will continue to get posts and complaints about speech intelligibility, until we truly take this matter to heart.

I would make one last point. In the days of the boxed CRT TV, with their single 4" to 5" drivers we did not have this complaint. This issue really surfaced when we started using Hi-Fi speakers with crossovers for viewing media. This issue is the absolute root cause of this problem.