Do you feel it is more important that your center channel be timbre matched, i.e. from the same brand/model line as the mains, or would you rather have a center channel with a wide dispersion pattern so that off axis listeners can hear the center channel better. For example, if the model collection of your mains came with a 2-way design center speaker would you consider getting a different brand in a 3 way design to help with center audio dispersion?
This topic is plaguing my mind after watching Erin's video on center channel speaker dispersion in different speaker types. (link below) In the video it is shown that generally speaking a 3-way designed center speaker will have better off axis performance than a 2-way designed center speaker, which means for speaker collections that include a 2-way designed center a person is faced with the trade offs of timbre vs off axis dispersion when selecting a center channel for a given pair of mains.
On a side note, I understand that a center channel speaker that is not from the same brand/model as the mains could be timbre matched, but since most people aren't going to be able to test out a bunch of center channels to find one that's both a different brand and timbre matched I think for the purposes of this discussion timbre matched should generally mean matching the mains in brand and or model type.
This topic is plaguing my mind after watching Erin's video on center channel speaker dispersion in different speaker types. (link below) In the video it is shown that generally speaking a 3-way designed center speaker will have better off axis performance than a 2-way designed center speaker, which means for speaker collections that include a 2-way designed center a person is faced with the trade offs of timbre vs off axis dispersion when selecting a center channel for a given pair of mains.
On a side note, I understand that a center channel speaker that is not from the same brand/model as the mains could be timbre matched, but since most people aren't going to be able to test out a bunch of center channels to find one that's both a different brand and timbre matched I think for the purposes of this discussion timbre matched should generally mean matching the mains in brand and or model type.