Center Channel Advice - Strict Size Constraints - Feeling Indecisive

[Varjo]

Hey folks,

I've been lurking for weeks and just can't bring myself to commit to a center channel speaker choice. I've got a large room that's used for mixed HT (3.1) and Music (generally also in 3.1 configuration due to large width between my LR pair) with a wide couch/seating area.

My mains are Dali Oberon 7s and I've been very happy with them so far, but I have been less pleased with the Oberon Vokal. The Vokal suffers a bit with complex dynamic stuff (e.g. Nightwish) and can sound a little hollow with these dynamic pieces. I've unfortunately got some pretty strict space constraints on the center, it has to fit in a 21 inch by 7.5 inch cabinet opening (rear porting is likely a bad idea too).

I've got a KEF 250c and an UCR52 coming as well to try. The KEF seems to measure well, but I have concerns about it holding up during HT usage given that it only has a single midrange driver. The UCR52 looks great on paper, true 3 way design, looks like it's plenty capable, but obviously there are some objective measurement oddities... Amir didn't seem to hate it subjectively at least. I've got an Onkyo RZ-50 so I will be able to use Dirac-Live to hopefully tame some of the strangeness.

Can anyone help nudge me here? I feel like I could keep going in circles for quite a while. Am I crazy for not just sticking with the matched Vokal?

 

[DonH56]

Could you place a center speaker on a stand in front of the cabinet?

 

[Varjo]

Could you place a center speaker on a stand in front of the cabinet?

I wish Fails the spousal acceptance test pretty hard (managed to get agreement on putting a subwoofer in our open concept living space at least). I realize I'm operating under a lot of constraints and am mostly just trying to make lemonade.

 

[DonH56]

Is the center's front baffle pulled to the very front of the cabinet, maybe a little beyond? That might help... Boosting the 100 Hz - 300 Hz band might also help a bit.

 

[Varjo]

Is the center's front baffle pulled to the very front of the cabinet, maybe a little beyond? That might help... Boosting the 100 Hz - 300 Hz band might also help a bit.

Yep, pulled it right out perhaps 5mm past the edge. I'll try your eq suggestion!

 

[Varjo]

Update:

I've spent the last four days with all three speakers in my living room and did a fair amount of listening with center only (mono) audio as well as integrated into my 3.1 system with DIRAC calibration. The Elac was the clear loser subjectively, it was by far the muddiest sounding of the three and, while it did go deeper than the Q250C, lacked both its midrange clarity and the Dali's smooth highs. It really did seem like a somewhat broken speaker. Such a shame because on paper it looks lovely (essentially an r2c with front porting at almost half price). Seems like it needed more time in the oven perhaps.

Oberon Vokal vs Q250c was closer, but in the end the 250c won out due to a more detailed and cohesive upper midrange and better off-axis sound (the Vokal had smoother highs but felt like it was losing a tad of detail, plus the midrange was slightly disconnected with some instruments like electric guitar). I will note that the Vokal definitely performs better lower, the 250c really needed a 100hz or 120hz crossover to clean it up, but I loved the clarity it brought.

If you have enough base output from your system so that you're not asking the q250c for much low-end output, it really does seem like a great option for space constrained folks (albeit perhaps somewhat expensive for what it is).