Center channel advice, discussion & measurements

[AnonymousAudio]

Doesn’t need to be full range, just better than 80 Hz.

Meyer Sound Amie Monitor Review

This is a review, listening test and detailed measurements of the Meyer Sound Amie Studio (active) monitor speaker. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $4,080 each (sold in pairs?). The deep, horn like waveguide sets the speaker apart from its competitors. The large throat of the...

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This is what Skywalker Sound uses for their mixing rooms. Goes down to 42 Hz. 6.5” woofer.

That always made sense to me...THX was trying to design something that worked with a large group of consumers. However i think all of us here in this discussion are amongst the top 1% of Home Theater consumers. I personally think i can do much better than 80hz.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Oh come on. A full range center. Mount TV on a 9 ft ceiling and place a Revel F208 as center. Look weird in a living room. Forget the neck pain, unless you are a crane.

Doable with a projector though. Acoustically transparent screen and the speaker can be parked right behind the screen and nearer to the center of the display.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Oh come on. A full range center. Mount TV on a 9 ft ceiling and place a Revel F208 as center. Look weird in a living room. Forget the neck pain, unless you are a crane.

Great read...looks like i was correct in my thinking and will strive for a lower crossover point. The key they said was to keep the LCR Front soundstage all at the same crossover. This is why finding a capable Center would be key in determing how low you can really go.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Doable with a projector though. Acoustically transparent screen and the speaker can be parked right behind the screen and nearer to the center of the display.

I was gonna do a full range tower Center but my wife said no fricken way and that was that lol...at least shes okay with what ill be spending.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

So for those of you not using THX certified speakers with an 80hz roll-off like Perlisten. Your all picking the wrong Crossover. You would be better served matching to what your speakers naturally roll-off at. This is how i've always done it...

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Another article points out how using a 40hz crossover or lower is just fine.

.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

SVS recommends s crossover down to 40hz. So it looks like i was right in my original thinking. Now i can get back to finding a more capable center.

I think you get the point...80hz was mainly adopted for THX speakers which were specifically designed this way. And was kept only to make it simple for the casual Home Theater consumer. However today we have much more capable Speaker options to choose from.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Technodad uses 50hz for Mains and 70hz for Center

 

[just1n]

I literally asked for another center thats in its price range and can compete. Lets say up to $2k. Prove me wrong i dont give a crap, i simply want the best i can possibly afford and right now it's the C100 from everything i've seen so far. Show me what you would choose for that budget...

Post in thread 'Passive Speaker Recommendations for USA (by @sweetchaos)'
https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...tions-for-usa-by-sweetchaos.28296/post-981768

 

[SIY]

For mine, I chose a cheap-ish Klipsch that had the right physical format for my TV to sit on it, then let Trinnov Optimizer fix the frequency response. When the Trinnov goes back (sob!), I'll just use a different device to EQ.

90Hz x-over to the four woofer array.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

I'm just gonna pickup DIRAC ART (Acoustical Room Treatment) once it's released. Rumor is it's coming in 2025. Denon & Marantz look to be getting it first. For those that don't know it basically is like using Bose noise cancelling except in a home theater and for Bass frequencies. This ends the debate about what is the best Crossover to use for your Subs / Mains. It's been Beta tested thru 2024 and some AV Youtubers have said that it works! It looks at your speakers individually and then uses them full range (w/10hz protection buffer) Depending on how many capable speakers you have below 150hz it will use them to help fix Bass nodes in your room. This is a Game Changer!

 

[No. 5]

Also Erins audio corner on youtube has done a great job explaining how this works and which design are the best choices to look out for. One thing however that wasn't mentioned is a newer method to prevent the Lobing effect. Martin Logan for example uses this technology on their C100. The way they accomplish this is to have the mid/bass drivers on either side of their tweeter to be Crossed-over at different frequencies. One at 1300hz and the other at 2500hz. This method makes those wide Centers a viable option to choose from again. And I hope other Brands adopt this anti-lobing method for their existing Centers with issues or uses a better Design altogether as Erin recommends, because right now theirs not a lot of viable options available out there.

Outlaw Audio did a 2.5-way MTM with their LCR Loudspeaker years back, but they used a much lower low-pass filter on the second woofer than Martin Logan is on the C100 (a three octave spread rather than one). To get an idea of how the C100 may perform with regard to lobing, I made simple simulation of it in VituixCAD using the center-to-center spacing measured from their marketing material, and with the assumption they are using a 4th order LR acoustic slope for the filters. Different acoustic slopes will of course produce different results, but some of the characteristics of the radiation pattern are tied to the driver's center-to-center spacing. These plots are normalized.

As expected, it just makes the dispersion asymmetrical more than anything. For comparison, here is the C100 as a 2-way rather than a 2.5-way:

And for another comparison, here is that Outlaw LCR:

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Outlaw Audio did a 2.5-way MTM with their LCR Loudspeaker years back, but they used a much lower low-pass filter on the second woofer than Martin Logan is on the C100 (a three octave spread rather than one). To get an idea of how the C100 may perform with regard to lobing, I made simple simulation of it in VituixCAD using the center-to-center spacing measured from their marketing material, and with the assumption they are using a 4th order LR acoustic slope for the filters. Different acoustic slopes will of course produce different results, but some of the characteristics of the radiation pattern are tied to the driver's center-to-center spacing. These plots are normalized.
View attachment 427067
As expected, it just makes the dispersion asymmetrical more than anything. For comparison, here is the C100 as a 2-way rather than a 2.5-way:
View attachment 427068
And for another comparison, here is that Outlaw LCR:
View attachment 427069

Interesting simulation...thnx for taking the time to explore this further. I wish we had some real measurements to go thru. Ive been trying to get the word out to Erin. I know he's on AVS Forum.

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Reference

 

[AnonymousAudio]

Im thinking seriously about the Arendal 1723 THX Center & matching Towers. Seems like a seemless combo.