why do people put so much emphasis on the front l/r?

[yepimonfire]

anyone ever noticed, theyre always the largest, best sounding speakers in most peoples systems? yet.......over 50% of the sound, including effects not just limited to dialogue, come from the center? you would think it would make sense to use a larger speaker similar to the front l/r for the center as well.

 

[highfigh]

anyone ever noticed, theyre always the largest, best sounding speakers in most peoples systems? yet.......over 50% of the sound, including effects not just limited to dialogue, come from the center? you would think it would make sense to use a larger speaker similar to the front l/r for the center as well.

Dialogue doesn't require full range- have you ever heard a human voice that went as low as an explosion or as high as 20KHz? Nope- not possible. Audiologists test up to 8KHz, because that's as high as they need to go for practical testing since extreme high frequencies aren't needed for speech intelligibility.

Center channel speakers can "get away with" not being full range but using at least the front three speakers, reproducing full range sound, will sound more natural.

 

[yepimonfire]

Dialogue doesn't require full range- have you ever heard a human voice that went as low as an explosion or as high as 20KHz? Nope- not possible. Audiologists test up to 8KHz, because that's as high as they need to go for practical testing since extreme high frequencies aren't needed for speech intelligibility.

Center channel speakers can "get away with" not being full range but using at least the front three speakers, reproducing full range sound, will sound more natural.

alot more the dialogue comes from the center though. several movies ive watched have lots of sound in the center thats non-voice.

i just find it ridiculous to see people with huge monstrous l/r speakers and a wimpy little center that's smaller then most bookshelves. i've owned three different centers in my lifetime and two of them were like this, they sounded so lousy compared to the left and rights i ended up phantoming it. the only time i actually used a center was when i had a CS2, but that wasn't a small center, it was larger then most large bookshelves and was full range down to about 40hz in room.

 

[Adam]

anyone ever noticed, theyre always the largest, best sounding speakers in most peoples systems?

Actually, I hadn't noticed that.

It depends on how people use their systems, right? For playing two-channel music without a sub, that makes perfect sense. For surround sound, a lot of people that I know run systems like mine - a subwoofer along with five speakers that can play relatively flat down to the crossover frequency. I don't need a speaker that will play down to 30 Hz if I'm not going to send it any signal below 80 Hz.

Some people buy towers for the front because they like the aesthetics better than bookshelves on stands. Some people do it to handle the bass because they don't yet have the funds for a sub, or maybe they don't have room. Others might do it because they got a good price and figure that someday they might want to run a stereo system without a sub. Other people just don't realize that they aren't utilizing the low end of bigger speakers.

Sometimes it's due to ignorance of what each speaker does, while other times it's due to something else - like someone can't afford the center channel that they want.

 

[markw]

Remember stereo music?

Most music is recorded in two channels.

to those "purists", myself included, who prefer to listen to music, or any source, in the mode in which it was recorded, these are the most important speakers.

 

[3db]

Unless your listening position from center is greather than 30 degrees off center, I think the centre channel is over rated. I ran phantom center using just my twoers and I did not miss the center channel at all. The duialogue remain anchored to the display.

Now I do agree with you that the center channle should match as closely as possible the l/r mains and should be able to handle around te same power as the l/r mains.

I chose my PSB Image series partly because of the size of the center channel.

 

[highfigh]

alot more the dialogue comes from the center though. several movies ive watched have lots of sound in the center thats non-voice.

i just find it ridiculous to see people with huge monstrous l/r speakers and a wimpy little center that's smaller then most bookshelves. i've owned three different centers in my lifetime and two of them were like this, they sounded so lousy compared to the left and rights i ended up phantoming it. the only time i actually used a center was when i had a CS2, but that wasn't a small center, it was larger then most large bookshelves and was full range down to about 40hz in room.

I never said the center channel speaker should be small but it doesn't need to go to 15 Hz, either. The problem I see is that too many speakers are made to fit into furniture. It's just not practical for most people to design a room around the A/V system.

 

[tattoo_Dan]

anyone ever noticed, theyre always the largest, best sounding speakers in most peoples systems? yet.......over 50% of the sound, including effects not just limited to dialogue, come from the center? you would think it would make sense to use a larger speaker similar to the front l/r for the center as well.

like markw said,
I think another reason for getting good front l/r is that I use them for 2 ch stereo for music listening too,not just ht,
sometimes with the sub and sometimes without for music.

 

[DD66000]

Wimpy centers suck, no doubt and I've not bought certain series of speakers b/c the center was so bad.

But when using the same series for both HT and stereo, needing/wanting good mains is a must. But there are some LCRs that do a very good job for stereo playback. They are big enough to really push the mid-bass, only need to have the subs to fill in the bottom.

 

[j_garcia]

If you have to build a system around something, it isn't usually going to be the center. I have heard a few really great centers, but I would still base my speaker selection based on the mains.

 

[TLS Guy]

Center Channels are a big problem.

However, a lot of listening is done in two channel so the mains must cut it.

The center is probably the most difficult speaker of all to engineer. It has to be reasonably compact and yet handle high power. It must be very accurate with low coloration and be a point source.

Accurate conversational speech really helps the realism of movies.

However for Opera the center channel really has to do very heavy lifting.

The vast majority of opera enthusiasts listen in two channel mode, because the vast majority of even very expensive systems, have center speakers unequal to the task. A 5.1 or 7.1 BD opera production is absolutely the most demanding material for a center channel, by a big margin.

The Thiel SCS4 is the only commercial center I have heard that is anyway acceptable.

Of all the speakers I have designed, I think I'm most pleased with the performance of my center channel.

It is a highly damped TL with an F3 of 44 Hz second order roll off. The BCS is active and very precise for natural reproduction. It blends seamlessly with the mains and never draws attention to itself.

With the sources around these days, BD movies and other productions on SACD, it seems all speakers have to be highly capable.

For most CDs they are improved with algorithms such as PLIIx Music. It gives a much more realistic sense of space and correct ambiance and increases the depth and height of the sound stage. It does not work for all discs, but for most it does, especially if a minimal microphone technique was used.

So ideally all speakers should be highly capable. Unfortunately in most homes this is seldom practical.